The Final Fifteen Pounds

It is amazing how fast our habits can change.  So I went on a road trip. Did about 2500 miles in five days. Of course my diet changed. I ate fast food. I ate trail mix (the kind with M and Ms). I even ate a little ice cream to help me stay awake. I didn't get much sleep. I anticipated all of this.  What I didn't forecast was how hard it was going to be to go back to my healthy ways of eating. It has felt like it was dang near impossible.  I know better. It's not impossible.  And I knew it was going to be sorta hard. But man.  In those five days, I got so used to sugars and fats: my body and mind didn't want to go back to greens and fruits. For the last week, I've been drinking soda almost every day. Around 1 or 2 o'clock PM, I get this giant urge to fill my belly with Coca Cola.  Getting my mojo back is way hard. But I will. I haven't given up. Just knocked down.  One of the things I note above is sleep. Getting back to getting 7 or ...

Are you mental?  I am. I had a good day at the "eating office" yesterday. I really did--a patting myself on the back kind of good day. Maybe that's where I messed up. I was okay until the sun went down.  It's like I had to stuff stuff in my mouth (it's supposed to say stuff stuff; go read it again). Sunset = my Mr. Hyde comes out. Mr. Mean (my inner friend who reminds me to eat for health and weight loss) needs encouragement. He needs affirmation. Negative thinking puts him off and he hides. I especially need him at night.  Mr. Mean, Mr. Mean where are you. Hey, I'm not even going to tell you what the scale read this morning. It's just information, right.  Okay, I'll tell. 190. It's just information.

I wanna quit. No more diet this and exercise that. Now that I got that off my chest.  Done crying. Here's the thing, when I go off my plan like I did for a week due to travel and vacation, I build up a quiver full of bad habits that take up lodging . ( I know it's a mixed metaphor. Don't care.)  The weight loss mind is not the normal mind. It is tougher. Maybe doesn't always seem reasonable. That why I call hat state of mind in me, Mr. Mean.  Mr. Mean is that guy who tells it like it is. And that's who I need to hear from as I try to break my slide.  Mr. Mean is welcome back.  100%.

My son and I traveled from Texas to Virginia and back again this week. We got to visit family and enjoy the sights and sounds of the road.  I thought it would be easier than it was to stay on my program.  It would have taken better planning to make my goal a reality. It is easy to lose focus whenever something changes in life.  I expect to travel again this summer, so I'll be better prepared. What I did right:  1. Stocked the car with apples and mandarin oranges. 2. Got out at rest stops and exercised. What needed improvement: 1. Put the trail mix where it is inconvenient for the driver. 2. Go all Mr. Mean when ordering food in restaurants. 3. Keep a food log while on the road. What we monitor, we manage. Result: I didn't keep the weight loss from the previous week. Back up to 187. That trail mix and hours of sitting made it a rich environment for putting on extra weight.  After the trip it is very important, since the Mr. Mean attitude...

Have you ever capitalized on a sick stomach to keep the weight off? I'm not recommending it or anything.  I think I ate something that make my stomach miserable a couple of days ago. I thought it was one thing; maybe it was another. But I haven't wanted to eat.  So the scale read 183 this morning. I'll take it. Leaving on a road trip. Trying to consider how to keep the calories down.  Gonna work on a low glycemic thing. Lots of green and colorful food. Steer away from the processed. Daily 7 minute workout too. See how that works out. Goal = come back from trip having maintained 183. Probably not going to write much if at all during that time. 

I weighed in at 185 this morning, so I'm prone to mess it up.  Instead, I am focused on the goal.  I wanna be 173 lbs.  I'm happy about the progress, b ut moving on. Lots of work to do.  Mr. Mean is on the job.

Two weeks in and one pound down. Turning into Mr. Mean today. Here's what I mean by that. I like to be laid back, easy going about everything. In my mind, that's who I want to be. But that isn't going to work to lose another 14 pounds. I've got to go "all business" about this in my head. Mr. Mean. Wanna candy bar? Mr. Mean - No. Not happening. Like Shaquille swatting a promising rock away from the bucket. Feel tired and wanna Coke? Mr. Mean is there again, snatching it away. Again and again. Mr. Mean, my hero. My inner hero. And by the way, the pound lost doesn't count, in my book, until I've seen it for three days in a row. Wanna celebrate that one pound, Mr. Mean says no. That's like celebrating the first basket made in a game. I'm gonna celebrate when I see 170 something on the scale. Mr. Mean will allow that for a minute. Then, it will be time set sights on the home stretch.

188 is my wall. I know that I can lose more. I have been as low as 181 in the last many months. But My body likes 188. I'm having to convince it that it wants to go lower but it doesn't wanna listen.  So here I am at 188. Admittedly, Sundays are a food snag. The food at church is amazing. I plain ole eat too much of it.  Next battle: Eat a normal amount of food on Sunday. Even though I skipped dinner on Sunday after that lunch feast, and exercised for an hour. The scale didn't budge. Not a bit. It will. I just gotta get more mean about it than I am.  Mr. Mean comin' right up.

I don't know where I first heard this: Write down everything you eat for at least five days in a row.  I'm on day five. And boy is it helpful. I use my fitness pal to log it all. It really helps.  It actually keeps me from pounding some things down, just so I don't have to write it down! I got clarity on three things: 1) I was drinking too much coffee, and it was making me hungry; 2) I was double dipping at dinner most of the time (more on that). 3) I wasn't drinking water when I felt hungry. Here's where I stand with that. I reduced my coffee intake. And I immediately enjoyed less hunger for mid morning food.  I'm a dinner double dipper. I eat two servings. It's hard to change that habit. In my mind, I'm willing to change this. I know that in a moment, I can add 600 or 1000 calories to my day. And not even realize I did it. That's why we write everything down. That way those extra servings here and there get accounted for. ...

Today is Friday, and it has been a better week than last. Last week by Friday, I had actually gained weight. Veered well off the plan.  This week, I dropped back down to 188. Even 187 for a day.  I don't "officially" count my weight loss as being real until I see lower numbers for three days in a row. I've noticed that if I get three days that it sticks. And I know that some people don't like the idea of a daily weigh in. But I just look at it as data. Information. Divorce the emotion from the number on the scale. Weigh in at the same time every day. And this is a useful number. It still is hard for me to stick to the plan. My brain doesn't want to do it. I still want to consumer things loaded with sugar and fat.  Open up the hatch and fill up. Uh, that doesn't work. My mind has to get serious about it. Not religious about it, but intent, focused. Some make it a religion. They talk about food choices as being "si...

I've soared 52 times around Sol. And parts of my body feel it. My joints especially. I do body weight workouts because I have found that I don't injure myself. In 2 years of exercise, I have had one minor injury. And I was able to work around it. Before, I would go in the gym and start cranking on the weights and within a few weeks. Bam! Pain.  I listen to my body now. And it talks to me.  So I needed to slow it down yesterday. I've been experimenting with 1 set of whatever exercise I'm doing. I know it's not going to burn a bunch of calories. But it does get my heart rate up. It does help with my muscle tone. And it keeps me from hurting my joints. I was so happy this past summer to be able to do my first pull up/chin up as an adult. That was so exciting! But when I do them, my elbows get real sore for a few days.  Experimenting with gentle warm up sets. Pyramids. 1 pull, rest. 2 pulls, rest. 3 pulls, rest. So maybe instead of 1 set. Do one eas...

I'm looking in the refrigerator having one of those 8 o'clock at night moments--looking for something fun to eat. That part of my brain that remembers all of the hard work I am doing, including the 45 minutes of exercise on the rebounder, and I reach for the very low cal smoothie instead of the jar of peanut butter. I can't remember the last time that happened. Here's the thing, I knew what my plan was. I had already varied from the plan to a degree. I didn't want all of it to go away in a few minutes of snacking.  That's the crazy thing. Your mind can be so focused all day long. Then, you get an urge to eat something that will reverse the hard work and literally in 30 seconds you can undo a day of focus.  Now, I did still eat. Or drink anyway. I chugged down a smoothie. We're looking at 180 calories (it's very low cal). But with the peanut butter and crackers, it would have been 500 +.  This would have been better. Get a big glass of water a...

Had a second good day. Even though I ate fast food. Got stuck out. Kept it under 700 calories. Not bad for dinner. Need to exercise still. Did get my set of push ups in though.  2nd day of coffee less. I'm cool with it. Did have a chocolate craving late in the day though. A few kisses and that was good. Still wanna do better.  Might could have planned my dinner options better.  Gonna work out tonight. I am. No, seriously.

Yesterday, after days of struggle, I got back on the weight loss plan!  You might be saying, "Yesterday? That's not much to go on."  I disagree. It's a lot to go on.  Here's why. Remember, I have already lost 40 pounds. I do know how to do this. I have maintained a 188 pound or less weight for a year.  I haven't experienced a day where I actually followed the food plan for a long, long time.  And what made me realize it, was writing things down. Writing it here.  I expect to stay on this now for the long haul. Instead of having long stretches of wobbles and bobbles, I'm looking at miles and miles of being on my game with occasional side trips. Here's how I got back on the horse: I had a plan. Everyday, I look at my plan and say to myself, "What did I do well?" Everyday, I also say, "What can I do better?" Wrote about it every day. Worked at keeping a food log.  Easy to meet exercise goals. ...

I got this idea from Brian Tracy...  1. What did I do well? Wrote daily. Exercised. 2. How can I improve? Really pay attention to what I'm eating. Turn up the vigilance. When I really blow chunks one day, go overboard the next day to pull it back together. Write down the food daily until I hit five in a row. One reason this is rough is that I'm trying to do a lot all at once. I really get that it is probably best to focus on one thing at a time. The exercise is easy to get right because even if you mess up the food part, it's pretty easy to get in 10 minutes of exercise. In fact, it gets easier and easier to make it happen. So this week, I'm going to pay close attention to my caffeine intake, particularly in the form of coffee. To help with this, I didn't buy any coffee for the house. We are out of it at home. My hypothesis is that coffee is making me feel hungry even when I'm not. Today, I started with black tea instead of coffee. That reduce...