Good morning.
So, it’s back to writing journals in Word before copying them into FatSecret. Geez, I just hate when online systems don’t work as they’re supposed to.
Anyways…
There is no change since yesterday, not in weight, not in bodyfat%. It’s EXACTLY the same.
However, as I briefly mentioned yesterday, I did have the LARGEST DROP IN WEIGHT that I have ever had from one day to the next. I was down a whopping 10 lbs – 4½ kilos.
Obviously, it’s just water fluctuations, but it really is wild to see how much this can affect things.
I almost dug into the ice cream yesterday, but I avoided it. The "Don't eat stupid s**t"-rule kicked in, and I settled for a protein smoothie. Protein powder, skim milk and frozen strawberries. It was at least as delish as any ice cream. :)
…
Today started off kinda bad, I feel.
I skipped my breakfast as always, and went for my walk, which went with no trouble. I ended the walk at the gym, and had planned to go work out. However, even at the first machine I realized that this was NOT the time. I simply did not have the strength or energy to do it.
I chose to skip, and save my energy for the day. I will go this afternoon, so I am sure to get a workout today. I have to.
Looking at my calorie intake for the last two days, I see where the issue is. I’ve had a total of 1700 calories over the two days, and I have burned just about 6100. CLEARLY, I’m too low. It goes for fat intake, carb intake and in particular protein intake.
Today, I will change that. I will make sure to eat enough, but not TOO much.
Another way I could tell that things are a little off is that I actually felt hunger this morning. Again, I think my body is telling me to eat more. I fixed this at work with a protein recovery shake. It will cost me a whopping 400 calories, but it’s a good investment, as it also gives me 50g of protein. I need this for my afternoon workout.
In a way, I feel that I not only broke my fast early, but also that I fell into the "Don't eat stupid s**t" trap, as it was a lot of calories. Then again, 50g of protein doesn't come without calories, and I feel that I needed something to fill me up. It's a heck lot better than digging into the breakfast that is served in a few minutes here at work. This I will aviod - it's basically white bread, butter and cheese. Not thanks. :)
I know that lunch will be light just as yesterday – a salad with ham added for protein – so I should have plenty of calories available.
…
I was googling to find out mor einformation about maintaining weight, and I happened upon a forum discussion about this, which I found very interesting. I haven’t read deeply into yet, but it looked like it potentially had some great pointers about it.
From what I can gather from just skimming it, they’re talking a lot about forgetting the damn weight, and focus a lot more on looks and muscle. It makes sense, though I don’t think I am mentally ready to ditch the scale. I like the scale and I feel that it makes me focus.
Then again, why not? I know my numbers and I know that I am somewhat in the right place most of the time. Maybe it IS time to at least weigh in less. I’m not sure I’d be mentally comfortable with this though. Maybe the alternative is to know how to react to the numbers.
One of the things I see from the discussions thread is that many experience that the last few lbs won’t come off even when they eat less and work out harder. You simply can’t force the body to shed weight this far into the game. The alternative is instead to eat sufficiently and do muscle training.
I was happy to read this, as this is generally what I am doing.
They are talking a lot about ditching the cardio training and going for muscle training instead. This makes sense to me. We don’t necessarily NEED to burn any kind of calorie excess as long as our body is already burning a lot of calories, and we don’t over eat.
…
This makes me think about my walks. I wonder if I am doing them right, and if they are at all necessary. I like my walks from the mental point of things. I like having an hour every day where I am in my own head space. I can use it for thinking about things, listening to music, or listening to a book. At the same time I burn some calories, and this I have always thought of as being a good thing.
But on the other hand, I do stress my legs quite a bit when I walk. I walk 5 kilometers per day, 7 days a week. I like doing this, because it makes me reach my Fitbit goals easily.
However, I ”only” burn about 300 calories doing this. Most days, I have more then 300 calories left on my RDI, and it wouldn’t make much difference weight-loss-wise.
I feel how tired especially my thighs are on an (almost) daily basis these days. As I know that muscles need a rest day between the weight lifing days to recover and rebuild, I can’t help thinking that MAYBE daily walks on top of the workouts at the gym might be counter productive. Could it be that I am actually NOT progressing because I burn out from walking before I do weights?
It’s been quite a long time since I have NOT walked before hitting the gym, especially when I go in the mornings. Maybe I should try, lay off the walk for a week, just suck up that I won’t get as great numbers on the fitbit, and see where it takes me.
…
Of course, this is a dangerous time to experiment. I have 9 days until I meet with the surgeons. I sincerely doubt that walking or not walking will make much of a difference, but at the same time I am not very keen on risking anything. The walks HAVE helped me, or so I think. Of course, I have also changed my eating habits radically at the same time, so it could well have been this too.
…
I am really eager to get all this surgery-stuff done and over with. I want to finish this.
I am so ready to be moving on to a more steady phase of maintenance.
What I have read sounds really good:
Basically, I can keep my 8-hour-window way of eating, eat real food and not dumb stuff most of the time, and work out 3-4 times per week, as long as I generally stay active. My RDI will depend on how active I generally am on a daily basis, but I don’t really need to do focused cardio exercise such as my extensive walking, unless I feel like it.
This sounds like the perfect place to be for me, honestly. I can live like that forever.
…
One of the conditions to be doing this will have to make sure my nutrients are okay. I need to make sure to get my proteins, my carbs, my fat. I saw in the beforementioned thread that there were some pretty solid calculations to this. I can’t find them right now, but I have seen them, and I will find them again. One thing I do remember that is suggested thoroughly is about 1g of protein per lb of body weight. For me, that would be about 170g, which is way more than I normally consume. Most days I am less than 100. This could maybe explain why I haven’t seen much development at the gym. I keep working the same level, and have been for about three months. A few machines have gotten heavier, but nowhere near what it used to.
I think it’s time to look at these things.
Besides, as long as I don’t go over RDI still, it should all be good, and I don’t risk a weight gain right now.
…again, this is a scary time to start messing with things. 9 days until the surgeon meeting.
Maybe the smart move would simply be to keep doing what I’m doing, and start off on the new rules after the meeting at the hospital.
This way I would also have time to prepare properly, so I know what I need to be doing.
…
As much as I like that my meals are now easier to hand doing my new way of eating, I find it very annoying if I have to focus more on carbs/protein/fat balances. I know this will be necessary if I want to stay light on my feet AND good looking, but it is SO tedious. I don’t mind the calorie counting, but the other thing feels like such a chore for me. Maybe it’s simply because I don’t know enough about it just yet. Maybe I’m too lazy and it seems to complicated? I don’t know. I just like the looseness of ”only” counting calories. To me it’s easy and obvious.
...
EDIT: I wanted to adress one more thing today. Something I started pondering on yesterday, and something that was somewhat an eye opener for me.
I'm a "luxury" kid. I always was. What I mean is that I always want the "one better" of things. I buy a new bass guitar. I don't buy the cheapie one. I always buy something a little better, nicer, more admirable. I always pay a little more from something that I can see will be better.
I think I have always had this mentality, and what is more is that I have realized that I do that when it comes to foods too. I want the bigger piece. I want the "better" one. And I think in my world, "bigger" became "better" at some point. Probably as a child, when everyone was carefully picking the larger piece of cake. I'd be making sure I got the BIGGEST one, because it was the better one.
I think it's pretty clear that this happens in MANY things I do. I want a faster computer/smart phone. I want to be doing the latest thing. You get the point.
In my past, I would always go for the biggest ice cream. The largest bag of candy. I would get two of things where one would be enough. I would get the largest pizza.
It's strange that I never really gave this much thought or even talked about here. It never really came to me until yesterday.
Fortunately, I now see that I am changing this. I am settling for the small ice cream, when I have one. And I have them less often. I also settle for sharing a pizza. I settle for less of many things. I think this is something that can really help me stay at my goal weight. Settle. Some is good enough. I don't need to have it all.
END OF EDIT.
…
I will spend some of my quiet day reading up on things. …
Today, I’m thankful for: - A nice walk with a new audiobook. - Sunshine, again. - A good talk with the owner of the gym, even if I didn't get to work out. - Wife.
Happy Wednesday! Life is good!
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180.8 lb
Lost so far: 160.9 lb.
Still to go: 0 lb.
Diet followed 100%.
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steady weight
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![](https://m.ftscrt.com/static/images/box/membersicon.gif) Comments
Hi Keld :). I used to work out every day( well Monday to friday) & used the weekends for recovery but still being very active on these 2 days. I was aching the whole week just starting to feel better on the monday...to start the cycle again. Now I do 2 intense workouts on Mondays (1 with my PT, 1 kettlebell session), rest on tuesday, wednesday 1/2 hour HIIT, 1 hour kettlebell, thursday rest day, friday 1/2 HIIT & 1 set of wave training. I do feel so much better now.(& have more time for other things) Only when I stopped exercising every day, I realised that I did overtrain & only wore my body out. I still would like to loose a couple more kgs, but I think my body has settled now as its weight hasn't changed in month. I haven't counted calories either in a long time now. Listen to your body. Its your temple :) Hope your appointment goes well!!!!
31 Jul 13 by member: schmetterling34
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Personally, I think cardio is good, because you are raising your heart rate. This leads to a healthier heart - it's not all about 'maintaining' weight - but about having a healthy fit body. By only focusing on weighs, surely you won't get 'overall' fitness. So I wouldn't ditch the walking - plus it seems to be good mentally for you... And a healthy mind is also important :-). But Schmetterling may have a point about 'over' training. Perhaps you don't need to do it every day, or so far - maybe ...if you like walking, and feel its beneficial to do it daily, for the reasons I mentioned. You could alternate a short walk with a longer walk - making sure the short walk is when you do strength training.
31 Jul 13 by member: Sk1nnyfuture
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Pam - I'm thinking about this quite a lot. I think that maybe it would make sense to make the non-gym days walking days. This would give me 3-4 days with walks, and 3-4 days of gym. Originally, the walks were strictly for burning calories, but I'm not really sure I'd be able to tell the difference. If I miss out on 1000 calories burned per week by changing into this, I'd miss 133 calories per day. I don't think it'll make ANY difference this late in the game.
31 Jul 13 by member: kingkeld
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keld! you sound like a complete powerhouse. :) i've never been much for exercise. actually, i hate it. It just seems so boring, I'm more of a mental person and like to exercise my brain, but if i was smart, i would exercise. I'm just lazy. I've become so accustomed to resting after having a long mentally taxing day at the workplace. i know how beneficial exercise can be for me, so when i read your posts, i am trying to picture my life through you. Walking the bridge and at some point going to a gym ( which we have a membership wasting away...).
i am however determined to get there or somewhere on the train. its as if ive been left behind and im sitting at the station. i waiting for that day when i have that spark of energy in my brain to let all these foggy thoughts of worry about the economy, my kids future, a transitioning job and elderly mom issues, just fly away. maybe i need to pray more. i'm not really sure whats going to push me. maybe its the thought of looking good. my mentality throughout all of my weightloss journeys has been to lose it first then build muscle and tone as i have had two back surgeries and a knee surgery. all of these are hard on the body and im a bit scared od exercising while im out of shape and on the heavy side. i know many who have literally hurt themselves for being out of shape. we even had a personal trainer push someone so hard that they had a heart attack and died. uggg. so much pressure and i think, way too much!
You keep up the good work and if you want my two cents, stick with how you feel and not worry so much about the scale, but do keep a check on yourself. i plan to one day never let the scale mentality escape me as that is how it got out of control for me in the first place.
Take care.
31 Jul 13 by member: sailorgrl
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Monica - about the workout and the "powerhouse". I really appreciate the acknowledgement. :) There was a time where I absolutely HATED working out. In the beginning I simply didn't do it. Then I started swimming because I wanted to burn more calories. It worked, and it was boring. I hated it before long. Then I started at a local gym. I was only doing cardio, and spent HOURS on the treadmill. I was bored out of my mind. In the end, I simply stopped, and started doing workouts at home, along with tormenting my cheap stationary bike. It wasn't REALLY efficient, but better than nothing. Then LOOP - the gym I am training and working at - opened. It's the best thing out there. For me, it NEVER gets boring. The system is super efficient, it only takes half an hour to do, and it WORKS! I can't recommend it enough. I think it's all a matter of finding the thing that works for YOU. The system that is great for me is not necessarily great for you (but it might be). For me, I like the short intervals (45 seconds) on each machine, the fast pace and the fact that I never spend enough time on a single exercise that I get bored. It's hard work while I do it, SUPRISINGLY HARD, but oh how I like doing it. Trust me, if you are looking to find the energy to work out, then you NEED TO WORK OUT. This is where you will find the energy to NOT just be tired when you come home from work. This is where you find the energy to do everything else in your life. I can not stress this enough. I always tell people that if they don't have time to go to the gym, then they don't have time to NOT go to the gym. That boost of energy changes everything. Forget about the massive cardio sessions. Go for the muscle building sessions instead. Find a gym that has machines for each and every muscle group. Warm up on a bike or elliptical for a few minutes, then hit the machines one at a time, shift between upper and lower body exercises and you won't go tired fast. Go 45 seconds on each machine, as heavy as you possibly can with 8-10 lifts, and move straight to the next one, no breaks. It'll take you about 30 minutes to do this for two rounds. After that, you will feel tired. Ten minutes later you will have to much energy you won't know what hit you. Go! :)
31 Jul 13 by member: kingkeld
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T h a n k Y o u ! Your energy bleeds through your journal posts! S M I L E ! I'll keep you posted on kicking the lazy habit.
31 Jul 13 by member: sailorgrl
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Morning Keld. My 2 cents - it's not the time to change anything, wait until after the doctor's visit, then depending on what's next, perhaps after surgery if surgery isn't too far off. And definitely building more muscle is likely your next step. Muscle burns more calories, that's a given, I am sure I read that somewhere so if you have more muscle you will maintain weight easier. But of course building the muscle and maintaining the muscle means attention to what you eat ie protein, fat and carbs. Likely not easy in the beginning but once you become accustomed to it I am sure it will be 'easy' for you. Re the walking - yes, perhaps you are stressing your legs/body too much with doing it daily and working out. You don't sound like the type who likes to sit sit - or I would say use one or two of those daily 'walk' times to meditate. I liked your 'aha moment' when you figured out you like the biggest and best - self realizations are always good. As always I know you will figure this out, it will ruminate in your brain and the answer will pop out when its ready, and of course we will be ready to receive the info :).
31 Jul 13 by member: sarahsmum
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Today, I've been thinking a LOT about the goal weight. I am going to google this more and see what different places think of this, and I will possibly throw something at the community forum here too. What I'm really pondering a lot is whether the goal of 76 kilos, with the muscle that I currently have - and hope to build a little more - is really realistic. If I conclude that 76 simply isn't possible to reach on any sustainable level (as in only reachable if I am dehydrated etc.), then there is simply no point in reaching it. Then I think it's much smarter to simply shoot for, say 80 kilos, and maintain THAT properly. Right? THere is no reason to fight hard and agressively for something that can't be done. It's like being upset that I can't walk to the moon. Of course, on the other hand, if it is doable and sustainable, then I'd like to do it. :)
31 Jul 13 by member: kingkeld
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...and of course, the question is also, whether - in the long run, after surgery - weighing a few lbs really will make me any happier than I am now? I think I know the answer to that one.
31 Jul 13 by member: kingkeld
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Love your journals - as always. Your flowchart way of sorting things out mentally makes me feel better (because I do the same thing). I know you'll work it all out on your own but I do think everything in moderation applies to exercise as well. Definitely liked the reflection on how bigger & newer is 'better' and connecting it with food. I've always been 'I'll take the smallest piece of this' but then going back later to compensate; I have to find my balance too when I treat myself cheap but then feel underappreciated all at my own devices. Thank you for sharing.
31 Jul 13 by member: FullaBella
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Your journal is sticking in my mind so I had to come back and add another thought. My DH has always been more like you - the newest thing, the best, biggest, most expensive etc. Now, is that a 'male' vs 'female' trait or is it self esteem or both? He's always had a great self esteem; I of course, do not. Maybe you should run a poll or post a thread for some non scientific yet interesting discussions? Let me know if you do so I won't miss the thread.
31 Jul 13 by member: FullaBella
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