Saturday, December 31, 2016

December 31

Calories: 2300
Steps: 9000

Comment: Calories are better, but starting tomorrow I'll have them down in the 1900 range as I find that is most effective. Good to have a good step day finally; the hardest part about being home from work is my usual schedule is upended (which affects my exercise the most).

HAPPY NEW YEAR

December 30

Calories: 2400

Steps: 7000

Comments:

Not bad, not great; but not as bad as last weekend, which is good!

December 29th

Calories: 2500
Steps: 6500

Measurements: same as last week.
Weight: +1.8 (TOTALLY fine, see comments)


Comment:

"Oh no Rob you screwed up!" No, actually, I'm fine. I've been at this diet game for too long to get bummed over a small regain following a week where I had a big loss.

While two weeks ago, there was no way I amassed an actual calorie deficit large enough for a 4 pound loss. This week, I racked up enough of a calorie deficit to have a bit more than a pound lost, yet I'm up; this is water, this is normal, and not a big deal at all.

THAT said, I'm going to be "unofficially" weighing in on Monday to check where I am. I am SUPER EXCITED about next week and making MORE progress.

Thursday, December 29, 2016

December 27th and 28th

Call this the "fast wrap up post."

So Monday's fast was successful, as  I made it into the next day as planned.

I also didn't do the classic fasting mistake of "making up for" the debited calories on the previous day.

Tuesday saw me eat 2400 calories: a little higher than I'd like, but not enough to ruin Monday's 0.
Wednesday I ate 2200 calories.

Each day saw me get about 6500 steps. A little light on that, hoping to do better today!

I weigh in/measure tomorrow, and I'm optimistic that I'll at least avoid rebound week (this usually happens to me after I lose a big chunk of weight the week before). I should be on pace to lose at least a pound, but of course water retention and all that may not show that on the scale.

One thing I learned this week was: "bad weekends make it hard on you." I pretty much *had* to turn in a 0 calorie day to get myself back on track. So as I approach next weekend, I'm going to focus on it being great!

Monday, December 26, 2016

December 26: Liveblogging a fast

So yesterday was terrible and I need to make up for it, because I can't have bad days anymore. At my age, a bad day pretty much ruins a whole week, so today I am fasting for the whole day, and live blogging it here.

I'm going to a full day, and into tomorrow: I'll end this fast at 5pm tomorrow, in which I'll resume my "one meal a day" intermittent fast. A secondary (but less important) "stretch goal" is to hit 12k steps today.

10:00 am: Feeling pretty gross from yesterday still.
11:00 am: feeling hungry for the first time. Easy to resist though.

11:50: Roblox is the ugliest game I've seen in my life. Going to get some steppin' on inside my home.

1:37: Wave of hunger crashed through the system, but fine now. Only at 1200 steps though, so going to grab more steps.

4:14: Had an irrational desire to take an unopened bag of Reese's peanut butter bells and melt them in a pan. This passed. Still only at 2500 steps, although when Monday Night Football starts, I'll be nervously pacing (and catching up).

Also enjoying some coffee brewed by boiling grounds in a pan. :p

5:10: Kicking the kid off of Roblox to watch FOOTBAWL. Still fasting, still gotta get WAY more steps in today....

6:24 Made dinner for the kids, this surprisingly did not trigger a lot of hunger. Closing in on 5000 steps.

8:42 Well the Lions disappointed. Still hanging in there, but sorta wanting to taste something savory, will make some chicken broth when I can boil some water. At 7100 steps now. 

10:04 Feeling... not really hungry at all, which is odd since this is longest fast I've done in quite some time. (I don't think I've gone longer than 48 hours). I've decided to stop going after steps, I'll land somewhere in the 7-8k range which is enough to supplement the inevitable drop in metabolism that fasting causes. 

December 25

A black hole of dietary death.

Sunday, December 25, 2016

December 24

Calories: 2700
Steps: 3500

Comment:

So Eggnog is a terrible thing. I ate one meal as per the plan, and typically when I do this, I feel SUPER FULL AND STUFFED TO THE GILS at around 1800 calories or so.

But eggnog was drink, and those extra calories pushed me beyond a "reasonable for a holiday" 2300 cals and into a "at least it isn't a calorie surplus I hope" 2700.

And obviously my steps sucked, so on Christmas Day (Merry Christmas!) I need to make sure to spend a little time in the gym, and make sure to be a whole lot more careful with calorie dense beverage choices.

Saturday, December 24, 2016

December 23

Calories: 2900
Steps: 5000

Comment:

So yesterday was a "combo breaker," the first day in 11 days that I'm above the 2300 calorie  threshold, but it wasn't a disaster.

As I figured, having my routine broken up by holiday stuff makes things harder. But I plan to be completely and totally back on track for Christmas Eve, so fire up those mockery engines if I fail!

Strangely enough, when I have a higher calorie day *after* a long run of clean eating, I almost always feel my clothes fit looser. Must be some leptin resistance/metabolic reset mumbo jumbo.

However, where I fail after this is I never just let one "mediocre" day be one day. It turns out to be a mediocre weekend, and then I'm in the hole for the entire week. So I AM NOT GOING TO LET THAT HAPPEN.

Friday, December 23, 2016

December 22

Calories: 1950
Steps: 9000

\Days in a row under 2000 calories: 3
Days in a row ~2000 calories: 11 (go go go!)

MEASUREMENTS:

Weight
Down -3.4 lbs this week! 

Total loss of -1.6 from start.

Chest:
Same, down -2" overall.
Waist: down -.5" this week, -3" overall. 

Comment:
GREAT SUCCESS! Down a pretty satisfying -3.4 lbs this week, due to my change in tactics to a one meal a day plan.

HOWEVER, CHALLENGES AHEAD:
Not only is this Christmas weekend, but I'm already off work and will be until the new year. This means no easy work routine (which really helps keep me on track). Today is a great example. My one meal is most likely going to be in the afternoon, which means a longer period of time in which to feel hungry. Overall though I feel optimistic that I've found a groove that is going to allow me to really make true, lasting progress.
 

Thursday, December 22, 2016

December 21

Calories: 1950
Steps: 7000

Days in a row under 2000 calories: 2
Days in a row ~2000 calories: 10 (go go go!)

Comment:
The new "one meal a day" thing is working great so far! What I'm most pleased about is the loss of about 200-300 cals per day versus simply having a decent day otherwise. 

At work they had a function that took place during lunch, when I normally hit the treadmill at the work gym. I instead used the apartment workout center at night, but I wasn't quite able to get to 9000 steps there.

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

December 20

Calories: 1950
Steps: 9000

Days in a row under 2000 calories: 1
Days in a row ~2000 calories: 9

Days in a row ~9000 steps: 2

Comment:

Took some measurements this morning and it was pleasing to see some progress. Scale's battery was dead, which is fine, Friday is the official measuring day anyway.

My change to a one meal a day intermittent fasting routine is definitely helping so far. The amount of calories is dropping and so far I'm managing this pretty well!

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

December 19

Calories: 2100
Steps: 9k

Days in a row ~2000 calories: 8(!)

Comment:

Yesterday started something new: one meal a day. Basically a form of intermittent fasting where I only eat one (large) meal in the evening and that is it. It's worked OK in the past, and it is kinda sorta been what I've been leading up to.

Yesterday wasn't quite the best experiment as I already ate in the morning before, so I hope this leads to lower calorie totals consistently.

Monday, December 19, 2016

December 18

Cals: 2200
Steps: 7500

Days in a row ~2000 calories: 7*

Comment: A much, much better weekend. Even refused to eat much at the amusement park (no funnel cakes!) to stay within my limits.

Still, I need to be hitting some lower benchmarks in order to lose some weight faster, to stave off the "you need to fast for 40 days" comments from my interlocutors (deserved comments, I might add).

*Obviously I count "close" in this streak- I would say a max of 2300.
**My goal this week is start a new streak: "days under 2000."

Sunday, December 18, 2016

December 17

Calories: ~2200
Steps: 5000

Days in a row ~2000 calories: 6

Comment: Getting by!

December 16

Steps: 9k
Cals: ~2000

Days in a row @ ~2000 cals: 5

Comment:

Last week a mediocre weekend tanked my progress, so hoping to have a solid one. As I've said before, when it comes to dieting I am such a creature of routine, and the weekend is always a randomized series of events for the most part, so it's easy to let things spin out of control.

Friday, December 16, 2016

December 15

Cals: 2100
Steps: 7500

days in a row @ ~2000 cals: 4

Comment:
"Rob you were fasting what happened." Well first when I decided to fast I had already consumed half the day's calories. I hadn't fasted in a long time (beyond fasting through the workday) so at about midnight I finally said "no mas" (making it a 12 hour fast, meh, not that impressive).

Still useful though. The bloat was gone.

Measurements:

No changes from last week- that temp. gain in inches was gone, so still:
chest -2"
Waist -2.5"

Weight: up some from last week. Probably water weight; I lost ~4 lbs last week which almost always means some rebound no matter what. +1.8 lbs this week, putting me at, well,
+1.8 from my starting weight in August.

Gotta work hard hard hard to not have a bad weekend!!!

Thursday, December 15, 2016

December 14 - Day of Bloat

Calories: 2100
Steps: 10k

Comment:

So this morning my clothes felt tighter- so much so that I felt that I had to measure myself even though my official day of measuring is tomorrow.

So I was a full inch fatter across the chest and waist. Which makes no sense- my weekend wasn't the best (but it wasn't so awful that it would cause more than a delay in fat loss), so I thought about water retention vis a vie what I've been eating lately.

Then I remember a small amount of popcorn, just covered in ginormous amounts of salt. Salty salt salt. Surely this has to be the reason.

In any case, I'm fasting today (in the evening) to both jettison the water weight before weigh in tomorrow and for psychological reasons: water weight or no, I can't stand having moved backwards.

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

December 13

Calories: 2200
Steps: 10k

Days in a row ~2000 cals: 2
Days in a row 9000 steps or more: 4

Comments:
Had a great day at the gym at my office; increased the speed on the treadmill and get to 9k much faster yesterday!

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

December 12

Calories: 2100
Steps: 9000

Comment:

Back on track after a crap Sunday and a sort of mediocre weekend.

Days in a row ~2000 cals: 1
Days in a row 9000 steps or more: 3

December 11

Calories: ~3200
Steps: 9000

Comment:

Well that was a crappy day. But a fresh start on Monday.

Monday, December 12, 2016

December 10

Calories: 2700
Steps: 9k

Comment:
Weekends are hard as I mentioned, and today (and the next day which I haven't reported) weren't so great on calories, but I made sure to get my steps in to balance that.

Saturday, December 10, 2016

December 9th

Calories: 2200
Steps: 5k

Comment:

Took a bit easier on a Friday. Need to step it up to continue the progress.

Friday, December 9, 2016

December 8th (weigh/measure day)

Ok, so a day or reckoning after a horrible weigh in/measure in last week.

It was a much better week.

Dropped -3.8 lbs of probably mostly water weight, which while awesome puts me back at the exact start point. So total weight lost since I started this blog: 0. Better than +3.8!

Measurements were good. Chest was the same at -2" from the starting measure, but waist was down again, to -2.5" from start.

I hope this means I have some more Thanksgiving bloat to jettison since my measurements are far beyond what my weight actually was.

Steps: 6000
Calories: 2400


Thursday, December 8, 2016

December 7th

Cals: 2400
Steps: 9400

Days in a Row: 8

Comment:

Calories were a little high, but so were my steps, so I'm well within the goals set up by the bevy of apps Garmin uses (I do try to stay below those though since I know these are all inaccurate guesstimates).

Still, today was a win in my book because I had the worst hunger (this usually happens when I'm doing really well and my body says HEY ASSHOLE FEED ME).

December 6th

Nopity nope nope, not going to do another combo update again, going to actually do these day by day even if I miss...

Cals: 2100
Steps: 8100

Days in row: 7

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Monday, December 5, 2016

Dec 4

Calories: 2100
Steps: 9000

Days in a row: 5

Comments: weekends are harder for me, so glad to be back in the work week!

Sunday, December 4, 2016

December 3

Calories: 2200
Steps: 8500

Days in a row: 4

Comment:

Today was a hard one, which is fine because that's going to have to be something I deal with.
Had to basically fast (or eat very lightly) through dinner to keep calories down. I'm a creature of habit and weekends are always harder (the day to day at work is easier for dieting, for me).

December 2

Calories: 2000
Steps: 9000

Days in a row 3




Friday, December 2, 2016

December 1st, day of PAIN

Calories: ~2000
Steps: 9500

Days in a row following plan: 2

Weight: +2.8 from start (Darth Vader noooooooooooooooooooooo)
Measurements: Waist -2 from start
Chest -2 from start

Comments:

Shit.

Shit.

SHIT.

So that big gap when I wasn't reporting because of moving and all that? I paid for that big time. Myh weight is +2.8 from my starting weight... from August.

HOWEVER.

I know that at least some of this is bullshit, as my measurements are still -2 from the start. So there is some post Thanksgiving water weight at work that should come off, but nevertheless, I need to be on a FREAKING DEAD ASS ROLL from here on out.

Thursday, December 1, 2016

November 30

Cals: ~2000 (yay)
Steps: 7800 Better, read more in comments-

Days in a row (of hitting my step cal goals, counting today even though I'm not quite at 9k):
1

Comment:
Instead of 10k, I'm shooting for 9k each day from here on out. The Garmin Vivofit is definitely much less sensitive than the fitbit products I've used, so I know I'm missing out on steps I would normally be getting.