Gained 6 pounds but not worried

  I went to see Dorothy Mason the nurse practioner, and I got weighed in the process.   Now I haven't weighed myself since I stopped trying so hard to diet.   I came in at 205 pounds.

   So I have gained some weight back, but I knew that was coming.   So far I'm sticking to the plan of eating more frequently and a lot more, but keeping exercise up to a reasonable but not crazy level.

  Instead of 20,000 or 30,000 I'm doing more like 12,000.      The plan is to get my metabolism out of starvation mode so my quality of life can rise a bit.     I would like my rest metabolism to get back to a wasteful state and hopefully I won't be gaining all that fat back, but getting some back is inevitable.

  To help increase the burning I'm trying the Steve technique of munching on stuff here and there all day.    The body responds to eating with a 'thermic' effect, which raises the metabolism in order to run the digestion process.    

  The greatest thermic effect is gained by eating protein.   I would love to munch on turkey or chicken because the calories are so low.  The problem is that lunch meat is expensive.    A package that would last me two days costs $2 to $3.   I'm not going to spend $3 on a snack for every day and then plunk down $6 for my wegmans salad on top of that.

  The one thing I don't want to do is eat fat, because the energy content is so high that I'm sure I would be shooting myself in the foot.   The body finds it extremely easy to make body fat out of fat intake.    So protein would be my first choice,  carbs would be my second...

  I'm wondering if I can find a soy snack that is low cal high protein for me to snack on that isn't so expensive?

Switching Modes

   Having weighed myself on Friday, 10 Apr 2009,  and come in at 199.5 lbs, I have decided to change to a hopefully less arduous plan.

  I think that by limiting my intake I had slowed my metabolism quite a bit, which was ok because I was burning so many with lots of exercise.

  But I think what I will do now is to up the calories to something closer to my calculated daily rest energy, which is about 2000 calories.  But at the same time, I want to walk 5 to 10 miles per day to keep the weight loss going.

Home Stretch

Now I'm in the home stretch.   Having gotten down to 204.4 last weigh in, and thus becoming normal weight, I did not want to get on the scale the next day and hear that sad music tone before it tells you that you're overweight.

  So I took a few days off the weigh-ins and worked super hard at walking.   So I did running on Wednesday morning and also did 100 min of treadmill every night, and tried to keep very vigilant on the number of calories I was consuming.

  The result:    4.4 pounds lighter than last time.   I am exactly 200 pounds!

  Molly has been a great help there.   She's stopped putting a big plate of meat next to me at dinner, and is always making a salad for me to fill up on.   I think her efforts to help me plus the 100 min of treadmill is what really did it.

  So my new goal is 195 pounds.     I will officially end my diet there.   That would be 25 pounds lighter than when I started this blog.     Unfortunately I will still have a lot of body fat, and I won't have my 6 pack at 195 pounds, but I'm tired of having my whole life focused around weightloss.

   I will go on for a while trying to keep under 200 as I get back to a more normal life.    Maybe this summer I will try for lower, like 180.  It would be easier then because of all the opportunities for running and biking in the outdoors.

  So...   5 pounds.   I'll bet I could do it in two weeks if I keep with the extreme effort.   Salads and walking to Wegmans and 100 min treadmill every night.   2 weeks then I'm done.   That seems doable.