fat

Some cheating was involved. Let me explain.

I had four ripe bananas, and the only thing you can do with those is give them to monkeys or make banana bread. And there were no monkeys around.

Now, once the bread had cooled for a few minutes on the counter, I was obligated to have a small slice, to make sure it turned out okay.

It turned out okay.

But no more for me! Other than that, I have been snack-free once again. I know that sounds a bit like, “Apart from the iceberg, Titanic had a great maiden voyage” but let’s just go with it.

I am prepared for the scale to give me bad news tomorrow.

Speaking of bad news, yesterday’s 1.5 pound weight loss was more than half eradicated, as I had predicted. I gained back 0.8 pounds, which puts me up a little for the month. All I want is to be lower at the end of the month than I was at the start. I have five more days. Can I do it?

Maybe!

Plus, it’s now just seven months till Christmas. Start your shopping early to beat the rush!

I have gone through another day without any snacking, save again for a little bit of cheese in the afternoon, which I have officially declared Not a Snack™ when consumed in modest quantities.

I was also down an impressive 1.5 pounds this morning, but of late, all that’s meant is my weight is guaranteed to go up the next day. Will this happen again when I step on the scale tomorrow morning? We’ll find out soon! In the meantime, I shall dream of cookies, but there they shall remain, in the calorie-free realm of my subconscious.

I was snack-free again!

Sort of.

I made a tactical error by having lunch a little too early, which left a vast gulf between lunch and dinner. I had some cheese to tide me over, which as a cheat food is not as bad as a big bag of chocolate or deep-fried bacon rolled in candy bits. So I still consider myself to be on-track.

I will properly pace my meals tomorrow.

Oh, and I was down 0.2 pounds this morning. Admittedly, it’s a large rounding error, but it’s still in the right direction.

Today is the first day I vowed to go 100% absolutely, positively, no-questions-asked, no excuses made, snack-free.

How did I do?

I did it!

As of 9:22 p.m. as I type this, I have not had any snacks today. I have not eaten any of the following since getting up this morning:

• Cookies
• Crackers
• Chocolate
• Donuts
• Potato chips
• Tortilla chips
• Poker chips

I also did an 8.4 km walk, but did eat some bacon. If I’m up tomorrow in weight, I’ll blame the bacon. I assume it is like lead and adds way more to your body that you would judge from its appearance.

One day down, eight to go! I mean, if I do all eight, I’l keep going, but baby steps and all that.

Because if I put it out as a public promise, I will totes stick to it. This has nothing to do with me gaining 0.8 pounds overnight. NOTHING.

Also, I am making an exception for Tic Tacs, as they have no calories, they are tiny, and I don’t exactly eat them by the bucketful. And they have adorably cute names, like BIG BERRY ADVENTURE:

* Starting tomorrow, May 23, since I already cheated today as I wrote this

Once again, my weight loss plan has worked in reverse. Oops.

The first three weeks were bad, a snack-laden mess. On the 9th I did actually lose weight, technically, shedding 0.1 pounds. After that, it was balloon time, with my weight peaking at 167.5 pounds on the 26th. I impressively lost 2.2 pounds over the next four days when the snacks were put aside instead of put into my tummy.

But it still left me two pounds up for the month.

The negatives:

• Up two months in a row
• I’m now up on the year to date as well

The positives:

• This is less than last month’s gain of 2.2 pounds
• The snacking purge means actual weight loss may occur
• While I’m now up 1.2 pounds on the year, that should at least be pretty easy to erase in the next few weeks
• My body fat percentage remained unchanged at 24%, which means I may have actually gained a little muscle weight?
• My knees are feeling better. This matters because I didn’t run as much in April because the knees were feeling stiff, so I should be able to run more often in May.

Stats:

Weight:

January 1, 2023: 164.2 pounds 
Current: 165.3 pounds
Year to date: Up 1.2 pounds

April 1: 163.3 pounds
April 30: 165.3 pounds (up 2 pounds)

Body fat:

April 1: 24%
April 30: 24 (unchanged) 

Historical: January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds

Good news: I am still down for the year!

Bad news: I gained 2.2 pounds instead of losing the 1.5 pounds I wanted to.

Mediocre news: This means I didn’t fully undo the weight loss of February, just…most of it.

March has been a tough month and I dealt with it mostly through comfort food, which is wrong and bad, but perhaps understandable.

My goal for April is to keep running regularly, and to get below 160 pounds, the same goal I had for March. The difference is I now have to lose 3.7 pounds to achieve it, nearly a pound per week. It is possible, but it’s going to take a lot of discipline.

I may take up meditation.

Let’s see where I’m at in 30 days!

Stats:

Weight:

January 1, 2023: 164.2 pounds 
Current: 163.7 pounds
Year to date: Down 0.5 pounds

March 1: 161.5 pounds
March 31: 163.7 pounds (up 2.2 pounds)

Body fat:

March 1: 23.5%
March 31: 24.1% (up 0.6%) 

Historical: January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds

Good news: I lost three pounds!

Not-as-good news: It could have been more.

Still, I’m not going to complain too much. February is a short month, so a few less days to sweat off the weight. I did some snacking, but mostly offset it with exercise. There’s snow on the ground as I type this, but I’ve been using the treadmill.

March will see the return of Daylight Saving Time, the start of spring and hopefully milder weather (you know, no snow, which would be nice). My goal for the month is extremely modest:

Get below 160 pounds and stay there.

As of today, I have 1.6 pounds to go. If I lose weight at this month’s pace, I should hit my goal in the next few weeks.

We will see.

Stats:

Weight:

January 1, 2023: 164.2 pounds
Current: 161.6 pounds
Year to date: Down 2.6 pounds

February 1: 164.6 pounds
February 28: 161.6 pounds (down 3 pounds)

Body fat:

February 1: 23.3%
February 28: 23.4% (up 0.1%)

Historical:

January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds

I’m now measuring things using the Garmin Index S2 scale. I don’t have a way to convert body fat percentage to actual pounds of fat, but maybe that’s a good thing.

For the month, the news is good and bad.

Good: My weight was down!

Bad: It was down only 1.1 pounds, which is an amount I can easily swing back and forth from in 24 hours. So pretty close to just treading water (or retaining it).

Still, down is better than up. Now that I’ve done the maintenance part for a month, I need to get back to the losing part. I’m not making any predictions to start the year, except that I should be down again at the end of February. We’ll find out in just 28 days!

Stats:

Weight:

January 1, 2023: 164.2 pounds
Current: 163.1 pounds
Year to date: Down 1.1 pounds

January 1: 164.2 pounds
January 31: 163.1 pounds (down 1.1 pounds)

Body fat:

January 1: 23.1%
January 31: 23.3% (up 0.2%)

Historical:

January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds

No miracle weight loss at the end of the month. Or year. Or at all!

Yes, December was a bad month. I snacked and snacked and even as I type this around 8 a.m. I can hear the people upstairs banging and thumping around, and I have definitely turned to snacks to help manage the stress their constant noise is causing. But I know I can do better and be more disciplined, so I remain committed to my 150 pound weight loss goal.

The good news is that I am still down a respectable amount for the year, as I started at 182.8 pounds, meaning despite the weight gain this month, I am still down 17.3 pounds for the year, which ain’t nothing.

But at one point I was at 157.3 pounds and was so close to hitting my goal. Sad trombone.

Here’s to (early) 2023 being when I actually hit that goal! Or else. Or else I won’t.

But I will!

Weight:

January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds
Current: 165.5 pounds

Year to date: Down 17.3 pounds

December 1: 160.9 pounds
December 31: 165.5 pounds (up 4.6 pounds)

Body fat:

NOTE: The Garmin scale is calculating my body fat differently, or something, because it has it much higher than the Fitbit scale ever did. Oddly, this means for the year to date, my overall body fat is...exactly the same. Garmin also doesn't convert your body fat percentage into weight, so I had to do this myself. As a result and assuming I did the math right (always questionable), I only shed about four pounds of body fat for the entire year, despite dropping 17.3 pounds overall. Did I lose 14 pounds of muscle? Of course not. We'll see how this stat plays out in 2023 with just the Garmin scale being used for weight measurement.

January 1: 23% (42.1 pounds of fat)
November 30: 23% (38 pounds of fat--down 4.2 pounds)

A bag of nacho tortilla chips. And I ate the whole bag!

I weighed in at 163.8 pounds this morning. That’s almost seven pounds above my low this year and taking me further away from reaching my goal of 150 pounds, which I should have trivially reached by the end of the year. With two weeks to go, I will probably not even break 160.

But I’m going to try, so I am publicly stating this to the entire interweb to hold myself accountable (I already yelled at myself in my diary):

I vow to not purchase or consume any snacks for the rest of 2022, all 16 days of it!

Let’s see what that big mean scale says on December 31st.

Now, I’m off for some cake. KIDDING.

(I don’t have any cake. Not that I would eat it if I did. I’m pretty sure. No, I mean, I am absolutely 100% sure. Yes. RARR NO CAKE. See?)

Look at how thin and svelte this cat is:

Yeah, this month was bad, there is no other way to put it.

But it could have been worse.

I started the month at 158.7 pounds, a mere 8.7 pounds away from my goal of 150. It was within reach! However, my weight inched back up over 160 and in the final week it persistently stayed just over 160 and I ended the month at 161.3 pounds.

I now need to lose 11.3 pounds to hit my goal. If I intend to do it before the end of 2022 I would need to lose an average of 0.376 pounds per day. When I put it that way, it sounds pretty easy. It also translates to 2.82 pounds per week, which makes it sound a lot harder.

So 0.376 pounds per day it is!

The good news is that I have been running regularly, and it’s quite possible that some of the weight gain may be actual muscle mass. Maybe I’ll get a fancy™ scale that can measure that sort of thing, so I have yet another stat to track¹UPDATE: The Garmin scale coincidentally went on scale, so I have ordered it. I like stats. And lists.

Actually, looking over the Fitbit stats, there is also some good news on body fat. It was down slightly from October, from 17.5% to 17.1% and my total body fat over the year declined as a result.

Here’s to a Christmas miracle and actual weight loss resuming in the month of December. Ho ho ho!

Stats:

Weight:

January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds
Current: 161.3 pounds

Year to date: Down 21.5 pounds

November 1: 158.7 pounds
November 30: 161.3 pounds (up 2.6 pounds)

Body fat:

January 1: 23% (42.1 pounds of fat)
November 30: 17.1% (27.6 pounds of fat--down 14.5 pounds)