fat

I was so excited about not snacking that I forgot yesterday’s update!

The only thing reminiscent of a snack I had was a slice of toast with some no-sugar-added strawberry jam on it, which I ate after my run, because I was hungry. The toast doesn’t count, so it was a totally snack-free day, woo.

I was up another half-pound, which means I have to lose 0.9 pounds over the next two days in order to come in below where I started the month. Technically possible, but given my yo-yoing and the trend toward still going slightly up in weight, it seems less likely than it might first appear.

But I will remain hopeful and snack-free for those two days. Or else!

I’m writing this a little early because there has been cheating. Yes, cheating!

Behold:

• Several Reese’s mini peanut butter cups
• A small handful of Fritos BBQ Hoops

I estimate that this cheating is probably about 225 calories (the Reese’s are about 18 calories each for reference). Which is not too bad, really, but it represents a clear break from previous days when I only ate a wee bit of cheese as a snack. I have been bad. I will atone by doing my stretching exercises tonight, which will burn off at least 25 of those calories, and also make my legs feel like wet noodles.

If I was flexible enough, I could whip myself with my wet noodle-like legs. Maybe that can be one of my goals for the year, along with getting down to 150 pounds in weight.

Now that I’ve cheated, I enter Phase 2 of Snack-Free, where I find out if I can gracefully rebound, or if I just bury my face in a giant chocolate cake and eat my way out.

OK, I cheated again. But I can explain. Again!

Today I went for a run at Burnaby Lake:

• I ran 5 km
• The total distance walking to and from the lake was close to 14 km
• Checking my Garmin Forerunner right now, it reports 27,019 steps
• By my estimate, I burned about 10 million calories
• I ate a slice of banana bread again, which I believe was no more than 5 million calories
• Therefore, science says I have actually eaten negative banana bread
• I’ll still be up in weight tomorrow, because I’ve drank something like 50 litres of water post-run

I also dropped in weight this morning, so I’m officially down for the month, if only by the barest margin possible, 0.1 pounds. Still!

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