So, this week brought a renewed vigor in my efforts and man did it pay off. Last week I weighed in on Saturday at 218.4. This morning I’m at 214.6. I’m always a little pumped when I drop below another 5 pound mark. 210, here I come. Here are the numbers-
Measurements
One other thing that I’ve been doing, but am just now sharing are some measurements. I’m just keeping a text file on my iPhone that I update everytime I bust out the measuring tape. I’m using an app called Byword I also use it on my iPad, and on my Mac. What is fantastic is that it syncs between all three devices using one of two different methods. Dropbox and iCloud. I use Dropbox so my files are available from any computer. As a side note, I write most every post in Byword as well.
Here are the measurements-
5/14 Waist 47 Chest 46 Hips 45 Neck 17.5 R Bicep 13.75 L bicep 13.5 R Thigh. 27 L Thigh 27
5/27 Waist 47 Chest 45.75 Hips 44.5 Neck 17.25 R Bicep 13.125 L bicep. 13.125 R Thigh. 26.75 L thigh 27
6/2 Waist 47 Chest 45.5 Hips 44.5 Neck 17 R Bicep 13 L bicep. 13 R Thigh. 26.5 L thigh 26.75
The main reason this is important is that progress isn’t always just a weight thing. It’s also good to measure areas that aren’t of primary concern to me. For example, I never thought my arms were fat, but it turns out that is one of the areas where I’m losing fat first. In the past I only really measured my waist and would then get really frustrated because I couldn’t get it to move much. It was also pretty useful last week when I wasn’t seeing much movement on the scale, but could see that my body was still burning fat.
Free Days aka- eating stuff I shouldn’t
I also have another thought. This one concerns free days. In the past, I have tried different weight loss plans, many of which tell you to take a free day once a week and eat whatever you want. There are many reasons given. Some say that it helps you to not feel like you can never eat treats and indulgent foods. Others say that it helps your body to not go into starvation mode. There are other reasons too, but I’ll tell you what is working for me so far.
I’m not taking a free day. Instead, I’m choosing when to splurge by meal. As an example, on Monday, we grilled up some fantastic steak. I chose to eat a steak that is roughly twice the size than makes sense for that meal because I love steak, and I’m willing to trade off a bit to include it. Yesterday, I had a big peanut butter, chocolate chip cookie. It was 350 calories. It was totally worth it. I didn’t throw the entire day away just because I indulged in 1 treat. In the past, one treat would totally derail me.
I’m trying to take a holsitic look at each day and decide what is important to me. There are some foods that I’ve just dropped, because the value and/or enjoyment just isn’t high enough to justify the space in my day and body. I’ve also started eating a lot more vegetables. My favorites are Baby Spinach leaves and Red Bell Peppers.
Diet
If I can summarize, I’m learning that living by a “diet” or a strict system, doesn’t have basis in true life and for me, feels like legalism. I believe that choosing when and what to eat is a matter of self-control. People keep asking what diet I’m using and my answer so far has been “common-sense”. Figure out how much your body needs (accounting for exercise) and then eat that much. If you want to lose weight, eat less. This isn’t rocket science.
Anecdote for the week
On Tuesday, I had a terrible day at work. A couple of client requests derailed my whole day and I was feeling really unproductive. I found myself sitting in my office at about 3pm thinking “I’m hungry, I need to go get something to eat” Almost as fast as that thought entered my head, another thought came to me. This one came pretty heavy, like a slap to the back of the head. “You aren’t really hungry, you’re just stressed, tired and frustrated!”
I promptly filled my water bottle, pounded the whole thing, plowed through the next two hours and then the ride home totally eliminated the stress.
I love moments of clarity.