kingkeld's Journal, 21 March 2012

I'm finally under 80 again, and WELL under! Today, much to my surprise, my weight is 78.4 kgs - that's 1.6 kgs (3+ lbs!) off since yesterday. This of course just confirms that it's not fat that I'm gaining and losing, but simply fluctuation - water, food processing, etc.

It'd be so nice if we could simply NOT have those fluctuations - they make the micro management of this whole journey so much more complicated, but the key is really to disregard them and look at the bigger picture. Take a look at your general weight history, without looking into every single weigh-in. Are you moving towards your goal? If not, why not? What could be done to get you moving again? I think that we all - deep down - know what we're doing wrong. It's a matter of changing those often smaller things that makes it tip from gaining or maintaining weight to actually losing weight.

I think this has been a revelation for many of us to discover, including myself. For those who have not discovered this - trust me, you will. It's what it's all about. It's what makes us gain and lose weight. That simple balance of things, that other people just naturally do. We can learn to do this too, but it takes more effort sometimes, and it takes that we try to learn and understand. However, I do believe that most of us (by FAR most of us) are not in any way different from other people, and that we can lose our weight. Sure, there are people with medical conditions etc, but I do think it's fairly unusual. Most of us are simply big because we don't eat the way we're supposed to.

I do think that the logic behind weight loss essentially is simple. Eat less than you burn, and you will lose weight. There. Said.

Now, there CAN be a lot more to it.

If you simply eat less than what you burn, you WILL lose weight. However, if you want to lose weight more efficiently, then you can look into how big a calorie deficit you should do in order to optimize your weight loss. You can look into the right amounts of fat, protein, carbs. You can look into exercising.

To me, this is the icing on the cake. You can lose weight by keeping it simple, if you're not in any hurry, or you can make it a science and really go with it.

Personally, I chose making the simple journey my science. I have worked hard on optimizing the simple and efficient approach, and for me it has really worked. For me, it has NOT paid off to eat too little, but paid off much more to eat in the right zone.

Let me tell you about a friend of mine. My friend is a big guy - somewhat bigger than even when I started this journey. He is going for gastric bypass surgery, and has now qualified for it by losing his first kgs. He's done great, but he has struggled getting there because a dietitian has given him a health plan with meals to follow. He's eating 1200 calories per day. And he stopped losing weight, and was frustrated because nothing was happening.

I didn't really want to do much, as this is doctor approved and I didn't want to mess up him qualifying for his surgery. This is important to him, and there is no chance I want to risk taking that away from him, or delaying him to a point where he doesn't meet his deadlines.

Anyways, he stopped losing weight, and I was sure that he's simply starving himself, and came to a halt because of that.

He came to visit Saturday, 11 days ago. We had a good talk about it all, and I introduced him to my Indulgence Diet. We did the numbers.

He had to eat a staggering 5700 calories that first day! The following days up to 2700 calories. Coming from 1200 calories per day, this is like a walk in the park. Actually, he didn't even come close to the 5700, even went to have a large milk shake just to down more calories.

The result? Well, he went to the doctor yesterday, and the last 10 days he lost 7 kgs (15 lbs)!!!

It's amazing how we can kick our bodies into gear like that.

So, again, I see my system working. I'm really happy that I got to help him out, and got him going. He's gonna stick to my plan along with consulting the doctor, and let the dietitian know next time he goes there.

I can't believe they'd let a guy his size try to live off 1200 calories. Clearly, the dietitian is not a member of the FatSecret community. :)

Rockin' with the kids went great. I had a talk with them about the concert. First of all, the concert has been moved another month away. The kids who are arranging it apparently don't have their act together, and are way behind schedule. So we just have to follow suit. Now, that doesn't give us more practice time together, though. We stop when we reach easter. That's the end of the season. However, I did manage to arrange that we can meet on the weekend before the concert and really catch up and arrange everything, so it's fresh in everyone's memory. That should do it, I think. They're still all excited to do this, and after yesterday's playing I think they'll do just fine.

Today is another good day at work, I think. I have catch-up day again, with a meeting thrown in in the afternoon. This is a class/group meeting, and it's gonna be nice to have, I think. I'm looking forward to it.

I started the day early. I woke up at 3 am, all awake. Not the frustrated "Aw, damn it, I can't frickin' sleep" kind of awake, but much more the "I should just get up and get on the bik" kind of awake. So I got up, spent a full hour on the bike before Wife got out of bed, and I have it done and over with. Nice. I am so ready for the day to begin. I will go in one hour early again (3rd time this week) and save up comp time. Also, it will give me another hour to work. :)

Today I am thankful for:
- Waking up early to exercise.
- My friend's AMAZING results, and that I was able to help him. Nice!
- A relaxed day at home after work today. I feel that it will be most welcome.
- Wife for being awesome as always.

Happy hump day, folks! The River is on tonight. Looking forward to seeing what Emmet's up to. :) Life is good!

172.8 lb Lost so far: 168.9 lb.    Still to go: 0 lb.    Diet followed 100%.

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1509 kcal

Fat: 65.44g | Prot: 91.54g | Carb: 149.22g.   Breakfast: Egg, Sliced Ham (Extra Lean), Rye Bread. Lunch: Olive Oil, Butter, Chicken (Skin Not Eaten), Egg Omelet, Lettuce Salad with Assorted Vegetables. Dinner: Mixed Vegetables (Solids and Liquids, Canned), Beef Steak. Snacks/Other: Guldbarre, cookie, Whole Milk, Mixed Fruit, Apples. more...

3440 kcal

Activities & Exercise: Bicycling (moderate) - 13/mph - 1 hour, Standing - 7 hours, Walking (moderate) - 3/mph - 20 minutes, Sleeping - 7 hours, Sitting - 6 hours and 10 minutes, Desk Work - 2 hours and 30 minutes. more...