Absolutely no cheating today. I was, in fact, a bit peckish by the time dinner came around. We had take-out (bad) but it was chicken and a salad (good). I didn’t do my post-work exercise because I actually went into the office today and had the subsequent Very Long Commute™, but I did clock almost a 3 km walk around the Langara Golf Course trail, as lumpy and root-filled as ever.
My weight stayed the same, a bit surprising perhaps, given I weighed myself much earlier in the morning than usual, coming in once again at 171 pounds even.
A few plain tortilla chips (maybe six?) and some salsa, and a small piece of toast and some jam. Other than that, stuck to the meals and came in under my calorie goal. I’m actually a tiny bit hungry now.
Weight was unchanged, staying at 171. It was a weird and sort of awful day and I feel light-headed from, I think, the nasal spray I use when my allergies get so bad I can’t breathe through my nose anymore.
But at least the entire world isn’t literally on fire.
Stranger still, I not only was not up in weight this morning, I was down 1.7 pounds, putting me even lower than before yesterday’s 1.6 point gain. This may be the biggest 24 hour gain/drop ever. It’s weird, but I’ll take it. I weighed exactly 171 pounds, so I’m now just over one pound away from dipping below 170 (not counting flu-related weight loss) for the first time in 2020.
Given that it is 2020, it’s also possible I may gain five pounds overnight.
I had breakfast, dinner and two leftover slices of pizza for lunch.
I also did a 5K run at Burnaby Lake, my total distance for the day as I write this is 22.75 km.
The one down note was my weight, which was not down but up. Up 1.6 pounds, to be exact, to 172.7 pounds. Boo. This is not unexpected, though, as I ate a truckload of pizza and drank a ton of fizzy (but calorie-free) beverages after because pizza makes me very, very thirsty.
I may actually be up tomorrow for the same reason, as I have drank my approximate body weight again today due to the leftover pizza, and the long workout. But you never know, because bodies are weird and mysterious things.
I only had a slice of toast for lunch and some pizza (mmm, pizza) for dinner, so technically no cheating.
Bad news: I also didn’t exercise today because Nic and I went to a bird sanctuary in Delta to check out…birds. Then we watched Hamilton (not at the sanctuary).
But I did complete all of the activity rings on my watch, so that’s good.
In better news, my weight was down to 171.1 pounds this morning. So for today at least I was gloriously less in weight than I was on January 1st of this year, when I came in at 171.5 pounds. I am cautiously optimistic that I can finally get down below 170 before the end of the month.
Actually, let’s not. The reality is I cheated a bit today. It was Friday, I was stressed out and had some snacks I shouldn’t have. I felt bad. I was bad. But I also had another good workout, so that absolves me a little.
I expect the weekend, oddly enough, to be better.
My weight was down 0.6 pounds, so I almost erased yesterday’s gain. Given my water consumption today, I won’t be surprised to see it go back up tomorrow, but bodies are weird, so you never know.
I did come under my calorie goal unless I ate an entire pie and blanked it from my mind after, so that also helps overcome the cheating.
Yes, today my snacking consisted of a single chocolate-covered almond. The no-snacking thing must be working because I didn’t immediately want to scarf down the entire bag (I did not procure said almonds).
I did another good walk/run, as well, so my daily exercise is also continuing to roll along.
In neutral news, my weight remained unchanged at 171.8 pounds. I’m kind of excited to see it drop some more, because dipping below 170 will be a nice psychological boost.
Too bad work sucks corn dogs, it’s the one real blotch in my life right now. Oh well. At least I’ll be physically fit.
I cheated again a bit today, basically the same as yesterday, with a few crackers and a Clif Bar.
But I also went on my first 5K run in awhile, so I burned a few calories there. I’m calling it even because I can.
Somewhat to my surprise, my weight was down 0.3 pounds this morning. I am close once again to where I was at the start of the year, so here’s hoping tomorrow continues the downward trend.
You may have noticed that the last two days of cheating have also been the start of the work week. This is not a coincidence, as I am not particularly enjoying my work these days. I am trying to be positive and research other careers and look into other job opportunities instead of just being perpetually frustrated and enduring where I am now. Having the self-awareness that I am doing that snacking-as-comfort-food thing will hopefully make it easier to slap my hand away from the box of crackers that calls to me with its sweet and crunchy voice.
Today, I just didn’t care, so I cheated…a bit. I had some crackers. I had a Clif Bar. But I did a half hour workout on the treadmill, so it wasn’t all just indulgence. I paid for my sins in sweat.
I was down this morning by 0.3 pounds. This meant I did not end the month at a total weight loss for the year to date, but I am closer than I’ve been in a long time.
A few stats from my two-week snack-free experiment:
I lost exactly two pounds if you go from Day 1 to Day 14, from 174.1 to 172.1 pounds.
If you track from my highest to lowest weights during the same period I lost 3.7 pounds.
If you do the same for the month, I lost 5.2 pounds.
The bottom line is the last two weeks have kept me on a steady downward track with my weight and I’m lower in weight now than I have been in many months. It would be foolish to not continue, so starting tomorrow, I’ll begin tracking September’s 30 days and see how it goes.
This may mean I have to skip a birthday cake on my birthday. Maybe I’ll have a brownie instead and work it off on a run.
If you look at my high and low weight in August, there is a spread of 5.2 pounds, from a high of 176.5 to a low of 171.3. I ended the month this morning at 172.1, exactly two pounds lighter than when I started. This is a smaller drop than the previous month (2.6 pounds) but it does reflect a two week period in the second half of the month when I started going snack-free.
If you look at the snack-free period, my weight went from 175.8 to 172.1, a more impressive difference of 3.7 pounds.
For one day this month–August 29 when I hit that low of 171.3 pounds–Fitbit declared my weight as normal instead of overweight. Today, sitting at exactly 25 for BMI, I am once again officially in the tubby category. Alas. But if I behave, I could have my next normal day as soon as tomorrow, which would be a spiffy way to start the month. (I am aware there is controversy over using BMI as an indicator for weight/body fat.)
If I had ended the month on that 171.3 pound weight I would have seen my first loss for the year. Instead I am still up, though it is now a more modest increase of 0.3 pounds (as of last month it was 3 pounds).
Body fat has gone down for the month, which suggests I am actually starting to lose the tire.
The no snacking policy will continue!
Stats:
August 1: 174.1 pounds August 31: 172.1 pounds (down 2 pounds)
Year to date: From 171.8 to 172.1 pounds (up 0.3 pounds)
And the body fat:
August 1: 23.1% (40.3 pounds of fat) August 31: 22.6% (38.9 pounds of fat) down 0.4 pounds)
It was bound to happen and today my weight went up instead of down, by 1.1 pounds to 172.4 pounds. Alas. I blame water and etc.
Snacking was absent today except for a few small pieces of cheese (not the seemingly massive calorie-rich slab I had last week) and while I didn’t do one of my exercise walk/runs, I still got out for a nearly 4 km walk to burn a few.
Tomorrow morning I assess how well I’ve done with two weeks of snacking, evaluate and then make a plan for September.
