A loosy-goosy, non-scientific Experiment: Can I restaurant-indulge and still lose weight?
The good news is that I lost another 0.6 this morning, and am now pretty close to 150s (only 1.3 pounds away to get to 159.9). I really want this to happen THIS week by the weigh-in.
However, I did have a big, high-point dinner scheduled for tonight, and wanted to make sure I don't go into a gain tomorrow. So, all my exercise and meals were planned around that. As a result, I worked out more, and ate as low as I could earlier in the day, without compromising on the vitals (i.e., proteins, greens, no starvation). At the restaurant I tried to make sensible choices and portion-control. And upon coming home and weighing myself (I know, I know!), I saw a gain of 3 lbs--hope that goes away by tomorrow morning!!I am going to drink over 1.5 liter water tonight and hope that'll flush it all out...This extra stress is coz the weigh-in is only 2 days away, and I want to see a good loss every week, if possible to the extent I can do.
Here's the breakdown of the meals and workouts:
Exercise: 30 mins on Treadmill (between 3.8 to 4.5 MPH speed--5 mins of running intervals), and then did "total body weights", i.e., 4 different types of moves @ 5-8 pounds and 3 sets of each. Tomorrow--I'll do lower body weights, as yesterday was upper body.
I spent a total of 1 hr and 40 mins in the gym--I guess I can be more time-efficient, as I don't know where I am losing time during the weight-training (it shouldn't take an hour to do about 150 reps, right?! I need to chat less with my gym-buddy and focus more on the form, count, and pace of my weight-training.. Evening: A brisk 45-mins. walk (Makes total of 2h15 mins of workout today)--my body was actually feeling a little tired after the workout, and I sweated a bit too--so, I'm sure this was the right pace. Meanwhile, before both workouts, I felt much more lighter and energetic today, so I wonder if I'm getting "fitter"? Tomorrow will tell, if I can still feel this energized.
Oh! I spent time looking up several videos on Youtube to show the right form for weight-training. I'm thinking I'll bring my laptop down to the gym and watch these videos as I do the weights (and also keep a mirror there--they don't have one!)..a little non-orthodox method, but heck, who cares, right?!
Water: about 3 liters so far (1.5 more before sleep).
Food: Breakfast: Kashi cereal and soy milk (4), coffee with soy milk (1), protein mix with soy milk (3)
Lunch: Big salad with arugula (delish!), and other veggies and fat free ranch (1), and croutons (1), and 1 veggie patty (2)
Dinner at the restaurant:
Bread:2 (1x1 size) small pieces of a very delicious herb bread & some kind of toasted flat bread, and sampling of three different varities of creamy dips.
Skipped alcohol and dessert.
Salad: An awesome beligium endive salad with gorgonzola crumbles and toasted walnuts (they seemed a little caramalized). So between the walnuts and the cheese and some kind of creamy dressing, I'm sure the salad was points-heavy.
Entree: A saffron risotto with some exotic mushroom mix--ate half of it and got the other half doggie-bagged (I'm the only person among 5 of us who did this!!).
I did feel PRETTY full at the end--my tight pants had gotten tighter--a deliberate ruse to "guage" my food-intake for tonight.
Ok, so all in all, many preventative measures, and I feel like I was able to enjoy my meal and not give up on stuff, and also be in control,...I didn't eat like a dieter, but nor did I eat like an out-of-control person. Despite this sensible middle ground & good choices, I'm pretty sure I was quite high on points today. So now I hope the scale won't be too brutal the rest of the week. Interesting experiment to see if I can get away with this kind of preventative strategy. And if not, next time I'll have to be actually strict and actually make cutbacks with restaurant meals. So tomorrow morning will tell...stay tuned.
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