weight loss

There was a tiny smattering of Goldfish crackers left, so I ate them and another temptation is no longer within easy reach. The only other snack I had today was a small banana. That’s pretty good, I’d say.

To my surprise, I was down this morning, all the way to 172.7 pounds–my lowest since February and less than a pound off where I was on January 1st (171.8). This is encouraging.

I will not celebrate by stuffing my face with candy.

Yes, I cheated in a minor way with some Goldfish crackers again. This time I stopped and let the guilt wash over me in real time. I behaved for the rest of the day.

I was up to 174 pounds even, I think that may have pushed me to the crackers. But I did work them off later in the afternoon with another run/walk.

Still, I vow to do better for the rest of this 14 day experiment. I’ve been pretty good so far, but I can be better than pretty good.

At least donuts aren’t easy and convenient.

For the second day in a row my weight was up (sob), but my body fat was very slightly lower (yay).

I stuck to meals only today with two exceptions:

• I scarfed down some sugar snap peas in the early afternoon and they were yummy (and perfectly fine as a snack)
• I had a serving of Goldfish crackers mid-afternoon. These were somewhat yummy, but very much not on my approved snack list. But I did hold off on scarfing them and they totaled about 90 calories in total, which I more than burned off on my post-work walk/run. so not great that I broke my rules, but I think I’ll be okay, and the heavy guilt of eating those baked fish-shaped things will weight heavy on me for perhaps hours to come.

And with that I am halfway through my two week experiment. So far the signs have been encouraging and I’ve stayed pretty much on track. We’ll see how things go in Week 2.

This is the second day in a row in which I’ve had zero snacks–not even healthy ones!

Plus I did a 10 km walk/run that burned over 700 calories, so in all, a pretty decent day.

I did gain 0.4 pounds when I stepped on the scale this morning. I chalk it up less to the pizza I had last night and more to the fact that the pizza made me so thirsty I drank enough water to fill a pumper truck.

(The beef was beef and broccoli stir-fry, one of my rare sojourns into red meat.)

Today I had breakfast, lunch and dinner and no snacks at all, not even healthy ones.

I did have pizza for dinner, which is both delicious and a caloriepocalypse, but I also did my 70 minute workout and walked around Deer Lake and Burnaby Park–over 21 km in total. So I should be good there.

Weight was unchanged today, we’ll see what the pizza does for tomorrow morning.

Good news: I was down in weight again, another 0.9 pounds, down to 173.4, my lowest weight since the start of the year. Woo.

Bad news: Mid-afternoon and the day felt like it was dragging on interminably. I gave in and had one serving of crackers, which I ate over a period of time instead of just shaking the box directly into my mouth.

I was very good otherwise, though, and was actually too low on my calorie goal for the day, so ate just enough to tip me past.

I felt guilty eating the crackers–as intended–and as I type this I am noshing on carrot sticks. I could learn to like these.

We’ll see if the crackers instantly convert to fat when I weight myself tomorrow morning.

I once again managed to skip snacking today. I would clap myself on the back but it hurts when I try.

The closest I came to Unauthorized Snacking was when I added a 50 gram serving of Havarti cheese to my dinner. I later found out this has 189 calories, which is a lot more than I’d expected. Oops. Fortunately I still came in under my calorie goal and cheese is a better snack than, say, a bag of chocolate frosted Skittles.

Also, my weight was different this morning–down 1.5 pounds. Now I am really expecting to be up tomorrow. We will see.

I have allowed myself to indulge in healthy snacks of the fruit and veggie variety. Today I had the following:

• A small banana
• Some sugar snap peas
• A few baby carrots

Other than that, it was another day of meals-only. I am noticing that I am feeling hungry at certain points through the day now, but this is good–it means my body is noticing the loss of food and over time will adapt to less snacks and more normal eating.

Curiously, my weight has remained unchanged for the last three days. I would not be surprised if it went up tomorrow.

Onward to Day 3.

An interesting thing happened while I spent today being snack-free. Actually, it happened many times throughout the day.

I thought about snacks. Specifically, I would be sitting (or standing) and suddenly think, “A snack would be nice.” This would happen regardless of whether or not I felt hungry or if I had just eaten. The first time it happened today I had just finished breakfast. I sat down after cleaning the dishes and instantly thought about getting a snack.

My amateur psych analysis of this is simple: snacking has become a substitute for something I need or crave. I don’t snack because I’m hungry, I snack because it provides comfort, it makes me feel better (unless I plow through half a box of crackers and feel gross and somewhat regretful after). The phrase “comfort food” looms large, like a giant box of chocolate glazed donuts. Mmm, donuts…

Anyway, I ended up not having to engage in any of the cheap tricks I listed yesterday to keep myself from snacking, because I also felt headachy and kind of listless for most of the day, so getting up and gathering snacks never registered as more than a distant thought. On top of the headaches today, allergies the past few weeks have been beating me up like never before. I can see myself becoming a nasal spray addict before the end of the year and having to join Nasal Sprayers Anonymous or something.

However, to bring things back to a positive note, I made it through the day and did not snack. Go me! If I’m up in weight tomorrow, I’ll just chuckle at how day-to-day fluctuations don’t matter, it’s the long term trends that show the real results. (I’ll still be mildly peeved, just because.)

It is time I faced a certain reality: I like shoving things into my face–specifically, snack-type things which go into my mouth, then to my stomach, then to the fat reserves around the mid-section of my body, which are now sufficient to sustain me through several winters.

Although my weight has been starting to trend back in the right direction recently, it is moving downward at a pace I would describe as extremely gradual. Given my current weight loss goal, my on-a-napkin calculation is I will reach that goal when I am 576 years old.

While I hope to live a long and fruitful life, I suspect I will not live top be 500+. But science has worked miracles before.

Barring scientific miracles, I need a new plan, and here it is:

Going cold turkey on all snacks. This starts tomorrow, as I’m considering the last two weeks of August to be a trial period of sorts. Here are the rules I have invented:

• No snacks at all. This includes:
  • crackers
  • cookies
  • muffins
  • strudel things
  • potato chips
  • chocolate bars
  • Turkish Delight
  • brownies
  • donuts
  • even things that are technically not donuts, but are really donuts, like chocolate eclairs
  • anything else that is high calorie, comes in a bag and is not exactly “natural”
• One exception: the chocolate I share with my partner each night as a ritual sort of thing (he started it, I am not as big on ritual sort of things, but when they include chocolate, I am more willing). These are 46 calories each, which is not too bad.
• Cheat days? No! No cheat days! Cheating is not just wrong, it weakens my resolve, because a little cheating leads to a little more cheating and suddenly the pantry is devoid of all snacks.
• If not full cheat days, how about an occasional cheat, but only if I exercise enough that same day to cover three times the calorie cost? So a 100 calorie snack would require me to burn off an extra 300 calories to make up for it. This seems like a reasonable approach and I may hold it in reserve, but for now, I am still in the NO camp, because it’s too easy to snack, promise to workout, then whoops, I forgot to workout and it’s too late now oh well.

I figure for this to work I need to have two things ready to go:

• Snack substitutes. I figure peas and carrots will do, along with the occasional banana or other piece of fruit. Small cubes of cheese might be okay, but that can lead to a calvalanche, because cheese is yummy.
• An immediate counter-action to take when the urge to snack hits. I have a few things I can try:
  • Drink water
  • Meditate
  • Listen to a favorite song to distract myself
  • Write 300-500 words about anything, as long as it isn’t a lovingly detailed description of blueberry cheesecake
  • Go for a walk of suitable length
  • The above could also include hitting the treadmill
  • Play a game
  • Take a shower. Not a cold shower, just a shower

We’ll see how long this bold new plan works. Today I stepped on the scale and was 175.8 pounds, 25.8 pounds away from my target of 150. We’ll see what the scale says in two weeks.

July was like June in reverse. Instead of being up 2.6 pounds, I was down 2.6 pounds. My body fat also dropped by half a percent and actual fat itself by half a pound. I am up three pounds on the year, but that’s down from a peak of nearly six pounds.

I am still fat.

But all signs are trending in a positive direction now and I’ve made real progress on curbing ye olde snacking, so I am reasonably confident the weight loss will continue.

I’m not going to aim for anything crazy like dropping below 170 by the end of August, but at least such a goal is no longer implausible.

Stats:

July 1: 177.4 pounds
July 31: 174.8 pounds (down 2.6 pounds)

Year to date: From 171.8 to 174.8 pounds (up 3 pounds)

And the body fat:

July 1: 23.4% (41.5 pounds of fat)
July 31: 23.1% (40.5 pounds of fat) down 0.5 pounds)

As you can see from the title, I am up a not-insignificant 2.6 pounds for the month of June. But there is an asterisk on this weight gain, you just can’t see it.

On June 1, I had a sudden and unexplained weight drop, going from 177 pounds on May 31 to 175.1 on June 1, a drop of 1.9 pounds. I was only 175 pounds one other day in June and that was June 2. If you exclude these anomalous days…well, I still gained weight, but a less drastic 0.7 pounds.

Still not good.

I am making more changes for July. I swear! This time I have added pressure after my virtual doctor visit.

With that said, I remained donut-free for the month once again. Here are the stats:

June 1: 175.1 pounds
June 30: 177.7 pounds (up 2.6 pounds)

Year to date: From 171.8 to 177.7 pounds (up 5.9 pounds)

And the body fat:

June 1: 23.7% (41.5 pounds of fat)
June 30: 23.4% (41.5 pounds of fat) (no change)