I had every intention of posting something at day 90 and to be fair, I just got so wrapped up in life and the execution of the plan that I forgot that I was even doing this.
Now that Ive been doing “this” for a bit, it feels like I have a better understanding of “the plan”. Stay in a calorie deficit (calories burned greater than calories eaten) and log everything I eat/drink. Use a fitness tracker that counts calories to keep track of the calories and be honest about the food logging. After a couple of weeks, I pretty much had an idea of how many calories I was burning per day, so I knew where to set my intake goals. These days, I rarely hit the top end of the calories i have set for the day.
With Spring finally “springing”, my desire for being outside has increased, which means activity is increasing. As such, ive been walking a lot less consistently and i havent been to the gym as consistently. I am making it a point to be active every day, usually by handling some sort of outdoor or car project, now that its warm enough to be outside to so such things.
As of this morning, I was 287, down 38 lbs from early January when I started. I do weigh myself every day. But I dont get in my head about it. The number is what it is. What’s more important are the decisions I make through the day to keep myself on plan. If I maintain the caloric deficit, the weight seems to come down. I recently looked at the numbers from the beginning of each month from January to now to see what the progress looked like.
- Jan 7 – 325
- Feb 1 – 315
- Mar 1 – 305
- April 1 – 298
- May 1 – 288
I havent been focusing on building muscle or any sort of conscious macro breakdown. Right now I just need to drop weight. Once I get down around 250 or so, then I’ll start thinking about focusing on macros. I will say that while Im not paying close attention to them, I do try to keep up on protein intake. Carbs I have to watch anyway because of ye ol’ Diabeetus. The only way Im watching fats is in that Im trying to keep the calories down. So in a way, Im watching them only in relation to calories.
The reality of this is that eating cleaner and activity has to become the norm. As I start to get closer to target weights, I’ll probably have to change up the amount of food I eat to maintain body weight. This will end up being more of changing the foods I eat in a way to hit a different caloric target. The way I stay below now is by eating lower fat cheeses and meats, both of which tend to be higher in calories. So in essence, upping the fat intake by a small amount. Im not sure exactly how thats looking yet, since Im not ready to think in those terms. Still have about 35ish pounds to go before that happens.
One thing I noticed in the last few weeks is that Im not as hungry in the mornings as I used to be. I had stopped eating until around noon. But by then I was super hungry. To try to mitigate some of that I started adding a smoothie to my morning routine. Another reason I chose to do this was that I had started drinking a greens powder awhile ago and its just not very palatable by itself. Doable, yes, but it tastes disgusting. The smoothie is literally just unsweetened almond milk, some lower carb fruits (raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and such….in small amounts….frozen), some low carb protein, and the greens powder – blended. Its pretty tasty. Comes out around 500 cal right now, but Im also trying to burn through some protein I have here. I was eating that amount for breakfast anyway, so its ended up being a meal replacement and a crapload of nutrients, which was the point.
When your mental game is on point, stuff like this is a lot easier. I had to make some changes in that area too. Needed to find more positive outlets for my stress, actually deal with my stress, and find ways to support the changes I was making. I’ve been focusing on the execution, not the results. I think you have to evaluate where you’re at from time to time. Make changes based on that evaluation and then get right back to executing them. If you fall off, get back on the horse and keep on going. One area Ive been trying to work on some is figuring out how I can have pizza from time to time. Those would be considered cheat meals. What Ive tried to do is knowing that my routine is relatively solid, give myself one meal where Im not logging. Thats my cheat meal and its usually on a Saturday evening. For me, this is usually when Im most active with projects and at the end, its a reward for a job well done. Might allow myself some alcohol and some food that I wouldnt normally eat. I will try to compromise if I think Im going to have something I shouldnt. So with the pizza, Ive been making it at home with flatbreads. Ive been experimenting with various cheeses. The flatbread keeps the carbs down. Turkey pepperoni keeps the calories down. Last weekend I used sliced mozzarella and that was a win flavor wise. I could have went all out and just ordered pizza. But I am trying to make smarter decisions as I go along. Sometimes I may do that. But this was a more managable decision, while allowing myself a little flexibility. And I nailed the flavor, which is what i was after. Now that Ive had that, back to executing the plan.
Flavor is everything for me. If the food tastes good, then Im more likely to want to eat it. having said that, if you’re in this situation, sauces and spices are your friend. Recently I took a cue from bodybuilder Ronnie Coleman and started using nacho cheese popcorn seasoning (which is really just cheese dust) on some of my food. Its a lot less calories and gives a cheese flavor without the hit. Same way with other spices and sauces. We live in a time when you can get reduced sugar or low/no sugar options of just about every sauce. Look at G Hughes, Walden Farms, or even Rays (same company that makes Sweet Baby Rays – but without all the sugar). I dont go crazy with the sauces and douce my food in them. But I do use them pretty regularly to add flavor to my food so the food isnt bland.
Maybe one of these days Ill write about the specifics of everything Im doing, post some logs of my food, things like that. Now isnt the time for that, because I feel like it would detract from my execution and thats where the focus has to be. Im so happy to be under 300 lbs again and even under 290, where I was a few years ago when I decided “You know, its probably time I go back to the gym because this weight gain is out of control”. Next goal is 275, then 260. Then 250 after that.
Id noticed over the last few weeks as my routine started to change that I was getting more relaxed about my food logging as well as my walking. With the weather changing, its nice to be able to walk outside. Additionally my sleep schedule changed some, so Im not up as early as I used to be. In a way, I dont hate this, but now I dont have the time first thing in the morning to walk. My goal for that is to walk at lunchtime. There’s a grocery store not far from here that I can walk to in order to get items for lunch. I just need to hold myself to that routine and on days where Im not, then Im walking on the treadmill. on the food logging front, I made some minor changes to remind myself – by leaving notes in strategic places in my house to remind me to log my food. I also put the website as part of my homepage setup, so now when I log into my computer in the morning, its right there, ready to go. Evaluate, find a weakness, make a plan to fix said weakness, then execute.
Back to it….