|
Good morning!
Here is today's playlist - to get you in a cool, rockin' laid back mood while reading my journal.
<iframe src="https://embed.spotify.com/?uri=spotify:user:1141241474:playlist:1W3kVLCMf6NivAj9J3uXsh" width="300" height="380" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true"></iframe>
These days, I'm LOVIN' this album. It's so many things in one packet, and it's all good. I hope you like it.
Now, don't expect a new playlist every day - I'll do this as long as I am home and have the time/imagination to do it. Once that's over, you'll have to sing a little song in your head instead. :)
...
Weight is steady today. Absolutely no change.
This is a good thing.
Actually, looking at my numbers today, they are ALL great. Everything that I'd like to see lower is lower, everything I would like to see higher is higher. It's a good day.
Check it out:
Weight:
Day after surgery: 82.4 kg
16.12.13: 83.1 kg
17.12.13: 83.1 kg
Average 7 days: 82.0
Average 28 days: 82.7
Bodyfat:
Day after surgery: 07.5% (6.18 kg)
16.12.13: 09.7% (8.06 kg)
17.12.13: 09.4% (7.81 kg)
Average 7 days: 10.3%
Average 28 days: 10.3%
Muscle weight:
Day after surgery: 72.5 kg
16.12.13: 71.3 kg
17.12.13: 71.6 kg
Average 7 days: 70.0 kg
Average 28 days: 70.6 kg
Fluid Percentage::
Day after surgery: 68.5% (56.44 kg)
16.12.13: 65.5% (54.43 kg)
17.12.13: 65.9 (54.76 kg)
Average 7 days: 65%
Average 28 days: 65.3%
Total Daily Energy Exp.:
Day after surgery: 3379 calories
16.12.13: 3335 calories
17.12.13: 3342 calories
Average 7 days: 3268 calories
Average 28 days: 3299 calories
Abdominal fat:
Day after surgery: 4
16.12.13: 5
17.12.13: 4
Average 7 days: 4.7
Average 28 days: 4.8
I really can't point to anything that I do NOT like.
It makes more and more sense to look at average numbers the more I think about it. We tend to get so hung up on TODAY's numbers, or at least I do.
I like to know what happens from day to day, but it's not really all that useful. It becomes useful when you look at the data over longer time.
There are way too many things that can affect a daily weigh-in. How much water did you drink yesterday? How much salt? Are you retaining water? How much food is processing in your system? When was the last time you went boom-boom? All these factors will change the numbers.
However, if you look at it all over the course of a week, or even better a month, it all evens out. Our bodies don't care about the day-to-day stuff anyways. What really matters are the long term things we do.
...
I feel that I am getting better at letting go of the physical weight number. I'm really not all that interested in it. Of course, it's always an indicator of how things might be, but without the other numbers I find it useless and needless.
If I could choose ONE number in a scale, I would pick body fat percentage. I think it would be a much better number to use as a pointer to general health.
My body fat percentage is actually slightly lower today. Not by much, but just a tad. It pulls the average numbers in the direction of even better results. I can't complain about that.
...
Yesterdays food was great.
I had my FULL PIZZA for lunch. It's a 650 gram pizza you get served here in Denmark. I got the meat lover's pizza, with extra cheese to load up more protein. The total cost was about 1500 calories, from what I remember.
I forgot to ask them to make is from whole wheat. Boo. I didn't realize until it was too late. I had it still. It was good, but I could tell that I really didn't care for the taste as much as I would have if I had ordered it correctly. Oh, well. Live and learn, right?
...
I had to add several shakes and bars to reach my protein intake levels. It was nice to be able to snack on those a little through the day.
All in all it went fine, I enjoyed my meals and I had no real challenges, other than to finish my portions. They were massive.
...
Today is gonna be an equally big challenge.
Lunch is a 5 egg omelette, with 150g of ham and 100g of chicken sausage, cheese, onion and jalapeño.
Afternoon snack is a protein/milk/strawberry smoothie. A HUGE one.
Dinner is Danish Meatballs - this is the 3rd time I'm gonna try to make them this last week. Every time we end up changing plans. Not today. I've been wanting them, and today we're having them. :)
I'm having 300g of those, along with carrots and peas.
Dessert is 100g of dark chocolate.
It's a LOT of food, and I'm still looking for somewhere to dump the last 400 calories to match my TDEE. Phew. I'm not sure quite how to do it.
...
It's not the end of the world if I don't get all my calories in, but I really want to do my best to do it. This is experimental phase big time, and I really want to be as accurate as I can.
I want to see what it does to me over the next weeks, and I need to do right to be able to see what the results are.
I'm considering just having more chocolate, but it seems like such a cheap way out of it. "Just add chocolate". I would rather that it's real food, but I don't think there will be room for much more.
Looking at my numbers, I can actually best afford to have the last calories from carbs, as all the other macro demands are already met. This would mean white bread or candy/sugar. Ain't gonna happen. I don't want to get back into that, and I just don't have the urge.
In that case, chocolate is a better idea, and I'd rather have a higher protein/fat intake anyways.
...
Today, I'm gonna go hang out and spend some time at the gym.
I'm not gonna work out, but I do want to go sit in some of the machines, with extremely low weight (as to not have any lifting at all) to feel how they stretch my body. I want to mentally prepare to start working out when I can, and I keep wondering how the different machines will affect my surgery cuts.
The cuts are basically healed by now. They look all pretty and nice. Most of the bruising is gone, too.
There is no risk of me pulling anything open. And no - it's NOT a workout that I'm gonna do. I simply want to get a feel of the machines to know what questions to ask my surgeon.
...
I'm seeing my surgeon this coming Friday. I'm looking forward to it, mostly to ensure that things are fine, but also to ask about training. I miss training and working out like crazy. I don't feel weaker or anything - and I think it would take longer for that to truly happen - but I am sure that the longer I wait, the harder the first times will be.
I have an idea about getting a little more steps behind me today. I feel really good, and the fluid under my skin is a LOT less than what it has been.
I feel that I can do some walking. Don't worry, I won't go completely overboard, I just need to move a little, or I'll go stir crazy.
I have a few missions today, shopping, etc., and this will fit perfectly with my walking. I get things done, I exercise a little.
...
I'm looking at my averages from all my statistics from the last week.
It's pretty interesting, and it's telling me a lot about the accuracy - and lack of - of my indicators.
As you might now, I let my Über Smart Smartscale dictate my calorie intake for the day. For the sake of my experiments, I go with the number blindly, put all my trust in it. I have gone as close as I can every day, but have faulted a bit here and there. I do register EVERYTHING I consume, so when I go over/under, it reflects on my calorie counting.
Well, the last week - 10th to 16th of December - I have consumed an average of 3354 calories per day. This is 76 calories too high per day. Nothing to worry about.
At the same time, my fit bit indicates that I have burned an average of 2539 calories per day. This means, of course that I supposedly over eat by 815 calories per day. In essence, I should have gained 815 grams of body fat over the course of the week.
However, I have NOT gained fat. Comparing numbers from the 10th and the 16th, I see this:
Weight: 83.4 kg vs. 83.1 kg (slight drop)
Fat: 10.8% vs. 9.7% (slight drop)
Muscle: 71.5 kg vs. 71.3 kg (slight drop)
Fluid: 65.6% vs. 65.5% (slight drop)
TDEE: 3335 calories vs. 3342 calories (slight drop)
Abdominal fat: 5 vs. 5 (no change).
I think this is as steady as weight maintenance gets over the course of a week. Mind you, I have NOT done any kind of hard training at all. I'm seriously amazed that all these numbers are this good. If anything, I'm a little sad to see 200g of muscle gone, but I don't want to read all that much into that. That could just as well be fluctuations (as could all other numbers - as stated before, a week is not a lot of time for statistics. It'll be more interesting to see further down the road.
Of course, this begs the question of the usefullness of the fitbit. I think it's a great indicator of step counts and all, but it seems to fail miserably when it comes to evaluation of calories.
I do enter my weight and body fat percentage for the fitbit daily. It knows my stats. It just seems to calculate it wrong.
I'm thinking that maybe the solution here is simply to consider adding 800 calories to the estimated burn, if I was to go with the fitbit.
And then again, why go with the fitbit if my scale actually gives me some pretty accurate numbers?
...
So what happens when I start working out?
Should I set my activity level to the active level instead of sedentary? I know it will give me an added allowance of about 500 calories. Phew. If I felt like I was already stuffing myself silly, this is gonna be murder. LOL. What a luxury problem.
...
I suppose this is what happens for "that friend" that we all have. You know. The skinny dude, who can just eat and eat and eat and who seems to be super lazy.
I don't consider myself active. I just do my daily walks, move when I need to, and work out (literally) 0.8% of my time. That's it, that's all. I am starting to believe that this, when making the right food choices within my RDI, will allow me to go for the much higher next level of calorie intake.
If that intake is too high, and I see a fat gain coming, then I will just adjust things. I can go to the lower setting, and just add maybe 250 calories instead of the proposed 500. See where that takes me. Find a place inbetween that fits my goals in the long run.
Knowing that I no longer have a weight requirement at any certain time makes me a lot more comfortable doing this.
I had the LAST weight requirement goal for the surgery. That was it. I'm done.
Now, it's all about MY goals. MY goals are not weight related, they're fat related. They're muscle related. If I experiment to find my level of calorie intake to NOT gain fat, but in the process gain a kilo of fat or two, so be it. I learn from it. I know how to shed it again. Seriously, it's no big deal. The whole idea of experimenting is to learn. I learn where my levels are, and how to maintain all of it and reach my goals. :)
...
Okay, enough nerd talk today. Sorry. It's just so damn interesting to analyze all this. I'm sure I've lost many a reader these last few days. LOL.
I learn a lot, though, and it all just amazes me.
It's a cool world to enter, once you're in good shape and maintaining weight. I can ONLY encourage everyone to work hard on getting there. It's worth it every inch of the way. Trust me on this.
...
Today, I'm thankful for:
- Numbers and nerds!
- Morning coffee!
- A great night's sleep, though a little short.
- Maintaining weight!
- A good chat with Wife this morning.
- Hopefully inspiring a good friend to get moving on her weight loss journey. I hope she reads this and know that I'm talking about her. :)
Have an awesome day. Go give an unexpected compliment to someone today. Or to two. Or five. Make their day. We don't do this enough.
Life is good!
|
183.2 lb
Lost so far: 158.5 lb.
Still to go: 0 lb.
Diet followed reasonably well.
|
steady weight
|