Bring it on back – Day 202

 

I’m a bit delicate today. Not a hangover, I’m ill. After having to take a day off work last week to look after the kids (cos the wife was ill) I’m now sitting at work having contracted the lurg myself! How does that work!? Oh well, soldier on and all that. Anyway, I refuse to moan. Any new readers to my blog must think I’m a right moany git if they base their opinion on my last couple of posts. It’s time to bring it back!

 

Good news this week is that I’m back on the treadmill in my old routine now. I have scaled it back a bit (now burning 400 calories a time instead of 5/600) in order to not over do it again. The knee feels ok at the mojo so I’m hoping I’ve found a balance. One thing I do need to work on is my posture. I walk, stand and sit terrible. I am flat footed which I’m sure doesn’t help but now I’m not carrying the weight, the wife says my hunching is really noticeable. I wonder if it’s years of trying to hide my body shape that has got me into this predicament. Anyway, I read somewhere that you should walk as if someone is pulling you up from a string attached to your head or something. I’ve been trying to walk straighter but I feel like a bit of an idiot. Hmmmm, maybe there’s something I can put in my shoes…… God, I’m like Forrest Gump!

 

I’m also glad to see that the weather is turning. The darkness and the cold are not good conditions to lose/maintain weight. Whilst I still think it’s the most difficult time to lose, I wanted to shift my extra poundage during the winter in preparation for the summer. I still think I need to be super careful during the next 6 months though. I have my holiday coming in May and it’s all too easy to get into the routine of lunch time beers when you work in the city. I’m working on restricting the lunches to once a week at the mo and it seems to be working for me. I think I’m in a pretty good routine all round when it comes to eating now. I have it nailed during the week with my selections of evening meals, fruit during the day and a calorie limited lunch (currently a 300 calorie sandwich of some description). Weekends are a little bit more free reign. I quite like that approach to be honest though. I don’t like that have to get into the nitty gritty of label inspection etc at the weekend. My wife thinks I’m obsessive enough about it as it is! I do still go for the healthy option but I don’t worry about it if that makes sense.

 

On the weight front I’m clocking in at 13 stone 1lb this morning which is BMI 24.8 (Healthy) and still 8 and a half stone less than just 6 months ago. I guess a part of me is still waiting for the bubble to burst and, whilst I officially have another 3 weeks to go on the lighterlife route to management phase, the reality is that I’ve been managing my own diet with all food groups for about six weeks now. Dare I say that it’s almost becoming easy to maintain my weight? Well, maybe not. I don’t want to get too complacent about it. With that said though I am comfortable that a significant gain isn’t going to come unless it’s my own doing. Some say you finish management at the same weight you started it. Some others say you will finish management having put on what you lost in the first week of Lighterlife (glycogen stores etc). Well, neither is the case for me so far. I do have spikes after heavy weekends (sometimes as high as 13 stone 5lbs) but I’m still consistently around 12lbs below the weight I was when I started eating again. Now as long time readers will know, my long term goal has always been 14 and a half stone. I’ve always said that if I can be sitting here this time next year (i.e. after the festive period) at anything less than 14 and a half, I’d be happy. Now I’m not so sure. I’m actually quite liking where I am now and I’m not sure having this ‘I can afford to put a stone on’ mentality is going to be a help to me going forward. As a result I’m trying not to look at it that way. I’ve revised the long term target to be anything under 14 stone but I’m not using it as an excuse to over indulge. If I can stay where I am, I will. Now with all that said, I’m about to embark on a challenge that really doesn’t appeal the obsessive compulsive disorder side of my character. I’m starting to retire the spreadsheet. I’ve already stopped recording my water intake and, after next week, will see how I can cope without calorie counting. I reserve the right to back track on that though. I’m still in two minds. I think I will always be a counter, I can’t help it, but I’d like to be able to take a more approximate view of things rather than being so exact. I’m pretty sure I can do it as I’ve found a routine now. I think that’s one of the key behavioural needs of mine. Once I’m in to the routine of something, I find it quite easy to stick to it. I like my routine of porridge in the morning, fruit at regular intervals, light lunch and decent dinner with free reign at the weekends. It’s the way it should be at the end of the day. I always said that my weight problems stemmed more from behavioural issues and bad habits. Well my new regime stems from good behaviour and good habits. Having the habits aren’t bad, it’s what the habits are. Pretty obvious really when you think about it.

 

Adrian posted a comment on my last post featuring a quote from Albert Einstein which is actually one of my favourite quotes. ‘Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results’. This is indeed the crux of the whole dieting culture. You lose it, you put it back on, you lose it, and you put it back on. Whilst the method of losing it changes, the way you put it back on never does. It’s so obvious when you really sit down and think about it. It’s the lifestyle change that’s key. The method of losing weight is actually pretty irrelevant. While I’m sure some diets do alter your metabolism temporarily etc, unless you address why you were over weight in the first place, you’re never going to keep it off. Lighterlife has helped me address those issues in a way no other diet has, and you get quick losses too!

 

Hmmm, it occurs to me that I haven’t done a ‘what I’m eating today’ for a while….

 

7 – Porridge with sultanas

10 – nectarine

11:30 – pear

12:30 – Slim a soup (minestrone)

13:30 – Ham mustard & Salad sandwich (Sainsbury’s be good to yourself range 308kcal 2.4g sat fat)

14:00 – Plum

15:00 – LL cranberry bar

16:30 – Apple

18:00 – 2 finger mint kit kat (have this while reading my book on the train. Only 107 calories.

19:30 – Cod fillets in Parsley sauce with wholegrain basmati rice and peas

20:00 – Sugar free jelly with Fat free fromage frais

 

Total Calories in – 1643

Calories burned (treadmill) – 400

Net calories – 1243

Total fat – 29 – of which saturates – 17

Total carbs – 211

 

Now I know the calories still sound low but I have higher days. Today is actually my lowest day this week. As I like to enjoy my weekend, I work the numbers out averaging over a week. So, here they are for this week (my LL week starts on a Thursday)….

 

RTM week 9 stats

Calories in  – 14,176

Calories burned  - 800 (only 2 treadmill sessions this week due to dodgy knee)

Net calories – 13,376

Fat – 301g – of which saturates – 133g

Carbs – 1570

 

So (stay with me), the above averages out to…..

 

1911 calories a day

43g fat a day (19g saturated)

215g carbs a day

 

To finish is all off I’m currently weighing about a pound lighter than this time last week. That’s ok though. I don’t mind having higher weeks and lower weeks. I’ve got a couple of things on in week 10 for example so the scales will probably go up again a bit. At least it won’t be a surprise!

 

G

 

P.S. Sorry if I’ve bored you with numbers but they really help me keep track and stick to targets.

 

P.P.S. I’ve also added my Xbox Live gamertag to the blog (that’s it up there to the right). Yep, I’m a big time gamer geek and it drives the wife nuts. So, if you know what it is, feel free to send me a friend request and make sure you mention the blog as I keep getting random request from people I don’t know. I’ve also added a link to my twitter feed should you be so inclined to follow it. If none of this makes any sense to you whatsoever, just ignore it lol.