Just got back from vacation, and a week of eating whatever was available without checking the scale did me no good. With a weigh-in today of 237 pounds and 29 percent body fat I am right back where I started two months ago. Any effort made - wasted.
It is very discouraging, but of course part of the reason for keeping a diary is to stay motivated. I see that I have fallen and the fact that people are watching is some incentive to do better. So I started keeping a food diary again today as well. Boy did I blow my 1,500 calories quickly. The final tally for the day was 2,100, elevated by 2 cans of fruit cocktail and a Starbucks cafe mocha that together added nearly 600 calories that did not provide nearly the satisfaction that could have been had from that many calories.
The other problem with going on vacation is that I came back to none of the good foods for dieters - nothing that is really good for you lasts the week - hence canned fruits (soaked in syrup) rather than the fresh fruits that would have provided more fiber and nutrition for fewer calories. That will be rectified tomorrow, when the good groceries are stocked.
Until then, I am left to mope over my lost progress.
Luckily the rise in poundage I saw recently appears to have been a fluke. Although I am not back down to my recent lows, the body fat percentage and weight have both come down to reasonable levels. I weighed in today at 232.5 and 27 percent body fat.
One of the problems of cooking at home (especially my home) is the need to cater to a wide range of food allergies and general pickiness. But I recently remembered (through my wife’s encouragement) that I can always cook one set of meals for myself and another for everyone else. Which led me back to a meal I used to make all the time ten years ago, and which helped me lose weight then. - Jambalaya. Here’s my recipe:
Brown 1 cup of Andouille sausage or your favorite substitute with olive oil in a large stew pot.
Add enough rice or brown rice to make about 10 servings to the meat and stir for one minute in the oil.
Cover with water and bring to a boil. Turn to a simmer until there is little water left.
I add 2 cans of black beans. You can use kidneys or any similar bean if you prefer.
If desired, add a jar of jalapeno peppers and/or a jar of your favorite tomato sauce. Stir in and allow the mixture to lose any “soupiness.”
That’s it. You may or may not need additional seasoning, depending on whether you use peppers and sauce. It will make several days servings or feed a large family. Enjoy.
Well, after a long drought (during which I used the “too busy” excuse) I finally checked my weight again today. 231.5 pounds and 28 percent body fat, basically unchanged over the three weeks that I was on hiatus.
The good news is it didn’t get any worse.
The bad news is, of course, that you have to pay attention to your weight and your daily calorie count if you want to shed pounds. I didn’t, so I didn’t. Fair is fair.
Now I’m back in the saddle again.
Weight today was 235. Definitely going in the wrong direction again. Seems like I will have to start calorie counting again.
On the positive side, the body fat percentage was still 28, which is still going in the right direction.
Tomorrow looks to be a busy day. Hopefully the kind where I will be too busy to eat.
I have held as faithfully as possible to my 1,500 calorie limit. Yesterday I was way ahead of the goal by evening, which was nice as I was able to help myself to a cheeseburger and beer while watching the College World Series without busting my diet. And to top it off, my weigh-in tonight was 229 and 28 percent body fat. Compared to when I started the blog on June 11, I am down 8 pounds, and 4.5 of those were fat. That is 18 sticks of butter that I am no longer carrying around.
I still recognize that todays reading was probably a little of an anomaly, particularly for the weight itself. I did not lose three pounds in one day, other than a difference in the amount of water I was carrying when I did the weigh-in. It isn’t something that can be controlled, as I try to weigh myself at the same time every day. It is just something you have to deal with it. And if, as is likely, I weigh a pound or two more tomorrow I won’t take it too hard.
Volatility is part of the process.
Weighed in at 238. Today was not a good day diet- or exercise-wise.
But it was a great day in many other ways. Beautiful outside, in-laws took J and me to the pool they belong to, had a lot of fun. J is enjoying herself, which is worth blowing a diet over once in a while. Besides, when it this nice it is almost a sin not to barbecue.
Weighed in at 238 today. Did take about a 1-mile run and walked back. Ate like a pig.
Weighed in at 236 pounds today. Drove five hours with J to get to grandparents house, so exercise was light and eating was heavy. Must do better. Did I drink a glass of water before each meal? No. Did I exercise for five minutes before each meal? No. Did I do either before any meal? No.
Some role model.
There are several tricks I should be using, but so far have not, in my quest for weight loss. One of them is to drink a glass of water before every meal. It helps you fill up and quit eating sooner. Another is to demand exercise - maybe five minutes worth - before each meal or snack.
The exercise could be simple - walking up the office fire stairs for five minutes before lunch, or doing some push-ups and sit-ups. It doesn’t require equipment and needn’t get you sweaty, but if you did five minutes before sitting down for each snack you could get close to 30 minutes a day of added exercise.
The other thing it would do, if practiced religiously, is increase the pain of snacking - the exercise makes that bag of Doritos all the more troubling. Do you really need it? The best case scenario is to do the exercise in anticipation of the snack but to decide you don’t need the snack after all.
Weighed in at 235 pounds and 29 percent body fat. That’s some progress, I suppose, but in a day water weight alone can cause fluctuations of more than a pound. Was modestly better on the eating front: cereal, apple slices with cheese and cashews, a large cookie and… a cheeseburger with fries. At least I made it at home and drank water with it. Also, the babysitter canceled on me so I wasn’t able to go out for exercise. Will have to do so when C gets home.