This hasn't been the greatest month so far, but I feel like I'm getting to a new and better spot.
At the beginning of the month, my goal was to expend 12,000 calories exercising and I had it in my mind that I would just turn things back on and get going. Well, it hasn't turned out that way and I'll not get close to that 12,000 mark, but I do feel like I've learned some things about myself and as a result, I'm hopeful that I'll be back on the path to a better way of life.
The bad news is that my weight has bounced back up some. I weighed in at 216.3 this morning, which is about 9 pounds up from my lowest point and that weight has come back in short order -- less than two months. I think back and I wonder how in the heck I could gain nine pounds in just a short period of time. I have come up with the following things.
1. I stopped filling in my spreadsheet. I was keeping track every day what my weight was. Was it obsessive? Well, I don't know about that, I was diligent and determined. But, my last entry into the chart was in February, and I've even stopped weighing every day. I think that even if I'm not trying to lose weight, it is good for me to get on the scale, weigh myself, and write it down. If nothing else, I can monitor the 30 day average weight. The spreadsheet was a good thing and I've stopped it. I'm going to start a new spreadsheet and set up a new weight goal, because I do want to be under 216. I was getting close to the end of the goal that I set, but having neared that weight, I now know that I'd like to get a little lower than that. I don't know exactly where I should be, but I'm still carrying more fat than I would like and I can measure that with my scale. Plus, I still have fat in my stomach area that I'd like to get rid of.
2. I stopped being diligent about my water intake. It is so easy to pour a glass of water and drink it, but it's also easy to blow it off. I have really not been faithful about the water intake and I think that is a key to my ability to keep everything together. It is a small thing that I will correct.
3. I have been eating bad foods. My wife has had all kinds of potato chips and snacks and cookies and brownies around the house, the exact things that are my biggest weakness. I have repeatedly asked her not to buy such things because they are something that I have a difficult time resisting. I can easily pack in 700 calories of brownies without thinking about it, one square inch at a time. Since my wife is not going to be supportive in this area (at least not yet -- I am going to work on this), I have to realize that part of what I need to do is make a very conscious effort to say that even if she has it in the house, I'm not eating it. Period. I was out with a friend back in October and he gave me a beer. He was asking about the diet, because it was evident that I had lost weight and I told him that I had 30 pounds to go. He apologized for giving me the beer. My response to him was, "That's okay. I'm a big boy." In other words, I could have said no, but I made a minor exception to celebrate with my friend. This is a little bit bigger because it's in my face all the time, but I have to remember, I'm a big boy.
4. I stopped working out. The spin classes and strength classes are intense for a 48 year old and sometimes I have felt really worn out, i.e., my legs and arms have been a little dead. I'm not sure how I did the 18 of 19 days over Christmas break -- that was insane. But, if I recall, I felt good and wasn't dealing with the dead limbs feeling. In the last month plus, I've almost completely eliminated the classes. In fact, this morning was the first class that I've been to in almost a month. I've had a few sessions on the recumbent bike, too, so it has been a complete blackout, but the classes are just so good. I went at 5:30 this morning and I'll go again tomorrow morning at 5:15. I didn't want to go at about 4:55 this morning, but I did and I'm glad I did. I burned 791 calories (I was 5 minutes late because of that battle with myself) and if I had had that extra 5 minutes, well, I would have been at a good spot. I think a ride on the recumbent bike once a week is a nice easy workout and I do need to put the strength class back in. Ultimately, I want to get into a lot better shape than I am now. I have seen a lot of progress, but I've backslid a little and my goal is to be the best that I can be. Just that. I guess I know that if I don't really commit myself to this, I will backslide to the point where I'm 270 pounds again. I can't let that happen.
Really, what has happened overall is that I let some complacency set in. Taking care of myself is something that I need to focus on. I know that it is a trigger for me in a lot of other areas in my life. I am more productive at work, I'm happier, I'm less prone to engaging in conflict with those around me. If I eat right and exercise, my life as a whole is much, much better. And hopefully, it will be much, much longer. So, today, I'm feeling good. I will work on getting myself back on the path to ideal weight, improved fitness, and a happier life.
Hopefully, I won't have to write this post again in a month.
The Science of Set Point from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center:
there's more advice and some downloadable, free tools there.
I'm not sharing to suggest you are going to lose this battle, so sorry about that seeming implication. The point is that you have a long ways to go to reset your set point. Stay on the wagon, don't worry about weight loss right now. Focus on maintaining.
I lost more than 25% of my body weight.
I went for months with no problem eating 1800 calories a day. No. Problem. Suddenly, though, I could no longer do it. I absolutely couldn't limit myself. So yeah, I might be having some of that fighting back going on. I think the big deal is to keep exercising and making sure that additional calories are nutritious.
I have completely cut read meat out. I was talking to my wife about what is vegetarianism and I'm not going there, but I'm completely comfortable limiting my flesh intake to poultry and fish. Mainly poultry.
If I weighed, say, 210 in six months, that would be pretty terrific. I know that I've stressed my body by losing the kind of weight that I did, but I weighed 215 on my birthday and I weigh 216 today, over three months later. So, there has been some time elapsing. I did dip down to about 207, so if I stay in this 210-215 range until summer (which is what, six months from now?) I should be able to withstand another say 10-20 pound weightloss.
I like this:
yea, I thought that was great advice.
I was thinking about putting up a similar post today. My backsliding hasn't been quite as sustained, but I'm quickly heading there if I don't stop it soon. 3 weeks ago was crazy stress and awfulness. 2 weeks ago was a week I got back into working out a little. Last week was a week where being a good husband and father necessarily cut into my working out (Philosofette is getting a masters, last week was a busy week for her) and contributed dramatically to my eating out/unhealthily.
Luckily, I've only crept up a pound or two. I'm on the wrong side of 200, but not by much.
Today is another bad day for working out, but I'm aiming to eat well at least (with the help of those cookbooks I got for Easter!). Maybe I can squeeze in some lifting late tonight.
Anyway, you're not alone. My goal is to pull a Gandolf this week. "I shall not pass (a higher weight)!" 3 or more workouts between now and Friday, no more than 3 sodas, water at work (that's huge for me too... you hit the nail on the head there).
http://www.bidmc.org/YourHealth/BIDMCInteractive/BreakThroughYourSetPoint/~/media/Files/YourHealth/Set%20Point%20Course/RKODiary.ashx
I like this little chart, along with the explanation above.
You're not the only one, Stick. I started at 190 and am down to 160, but I've been hovering around there for awhile now (sometimes up higher, then back down), but can never seem to get much below that. It's amazing what your subconscious can do after you've been focused for so long. I've experienced exactly the same thing- no longer being able to stick to my diet and feeling those dead arm/leg periods, and I'm a lot younger than 48.
All is not lost though. Even if I keep failing, I'll keep recommitting myself and getting back to my break point. Eventually I'll push through it. Even if I don't, I know that I'm a lot healthier now than I was a year ago.
I mentioned on my tumblr that the weather is nice enough to go running again, and I did better than I expected. The one thing I'm worried about is my weight. I haven't put on any weight in almost 6 weeks, maybe even 2 months. I've been at 175 for what seems like forever. If I start running 4 miles 3-4 times a week, I'm gonna lose weight again.
I've been around 170 for 6 months or so now, but I haven't been focusing too much on weight lately. I'm doing the Seattle to Portland bike tour this summer (about 200 miles over two days), which necessitates some focus on long distance conditioning. I'm doing one long ride per weekend (last weekend was the third ride, and we were up to about 50 miles with about 2000' elevation gain) but mostly doing strength and interval work during the week. I'm not trying to set any kind of records here, but being out on the bike for that long at a time taxes my recovery quite a bit and I'm just hoping to maintain my weight through July, at which point I'll probably shift back to a strength focus.
The hard part for me is trying not to chase too many goals at the same time and missing all of them as a result.
I've been at about 170 for quite some time, too. In theory I'd like to lose another five or ten pounds, but I realize that's not going to happen unless I get more focused on making it happen. Right now I'm not ready to do that, so as long as I stay at 170 I'll be happy with it.
I also hit a spin class wall. I was going three or four times a week EVERY week from January through March, but I've only been two or three times this month. I did buy a new bike for the MS 150, but this stupid weather is preventing me from getting to enjoy it. I'll be in New Orleans this weekend, so my weight will creep up, but hopefully I can attack it again refreshed in May.
It has been 7 1/2 weeks since my shoulder surgery. I had a follow-up with the surgeon today. Good news: he likes my progress. Bad news: the "full" recovery is six months. I was expecting six weeks, but I am nowhere near recovered yet. My PT managed to wrench my arm up to 148 degrees (from the front) on friday. It was not fun. But I am making slow progress.
The lesson: well, I don't know what the lesson is. Maybe I injured the joint body-surfing in Maui ten years ago. Maybe I just wore it out from years of baseball pitching, shot-putting and throwing the discus, football, weightlifting and softball. Maybe I'm just old. I dunno. But do your rehab.
Being older doesn't help (I'm only looking forward to aging because the alternative is less appealing.) Depending on who you talk to, PTs are notoriously over-cautious about rehab, with really conservative exercise selection and slow recovery timelines. But since you don't have any money riding on your sports performance, it's probably better to be on the conservative side.
To me, the lesson is the doctor should have told you what the recovery time was going to be before you had the surgery. There's no reason you shouldn't have known what it was going to be long before now.
He may or may not have been clear. My understanding was that six months would be the recovery time IFF I had soft tissue repair (rotator cuff reattachment), with six weeks of immobilization. So maybe I was just rosy-picturing things and not listening that carefully to what the best-case scenario recovery time would be.
Depending on who you talk to, PTs are notoriously over-cautious about rehab, with really conservative exercise selection and slow recovery timelines
I've never heard that before, but it jives with my experience. When I had my shoulder surgery, I did everything 3 times through, instead of once, and I was playing basketball in 3 weeks. Then again, I was 20.
I love Josh Brolin's story surrounding the filming of No Country for Old Men, where he broke his collarbone in a motorcycle accident two days after getting the part, but did the film anyway.
I'm looking at a 5k in St. Peter in June. It's one of them fancy "color runs" and the proceeds go to buy a village a goat or something. If anyone is interested.
My brother will likely be running it that 5k. Be prepared to find color in the deepest crevices of your body for the next week or so.
Hopefully by June I'll have lost some more weight and the crevices won't be as deep.
OR
I call this one "Heidegger." He's my deepest crevice.
Since Dr. Fear gave me the green light, I've been able to do four 4 mile runs with no pain - the swelling/bruise in the calf is mostly gone. One more week till the Half Marathon in Cheshire.
Did the See Both Sides of the Connecticut River Ride on Sunday - 34 mi - was cold and really windy.
Have been trying to do the first paragraph of Stick's diet (be consistent) since 3/20 - but it's tough. I've only missed B(reakfast) 4 times, and usually fire on S(nack)1 as I bring or have 130 calorie ziclocs (almonds/dates are my favorites) in my desk. But often miss L(unch) as get into meetings/etc or am not hungry if S1 is too late in the morning. I've only had two perfect days with B-S1-L-S2-D.
Also am trying to drink full water bottle throughout the day (I'll work on 2 once I master 1).
Anybody read 'Born To Run'? Am about a third through it - what a hoot.
2nd meal so far with Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP) as a substitute for ground beef in the lineup. First was tacos a week ago, tonite was nachos.
Went with Bob's Red Mill brand. Both times, NBBW was lik'in it. Oncet you add moisture (I added boiling vegetable broth) it doubles up in size.
Lady at Whole Foods says that this was the craze about 8 years ago, now it's somewhat dated (sounds about right for me).
I had a bag of that, Bob's Red Mill too actually, and just sprinkled it in my cereal for a little extra protein throughout the day. I couldn't really tell it was there. Then again, it was an addition, not a replacement like you are trying.
Totally works as replacement for ground beef in tacos - and no meat to brown, grease to drain, prep time in half, etc. Also way cheaper than the 95% lean beef I've been getting at WF - and better for the ticker.
Soylent Green is people.
Since we are talking about things that can/should be fried in grease, I made falafel on sunday. Mmm, falafel.
The recipe makes a buttload of falafel, and a serving is about three of these things because they are pretty filling. I shallow-fried mine in about an inch of canola oil. flip 'em over with a spoon when the bottom half is nicely browned. They cook fast.
Seriously. If you like falafel, you should try this recipe. Very easy. (I substitute whole wheat bread for the white bread 'cause I don't generally have white bread in the house, and I grind the parsley and cilantro with the chick peas and spices).