Slow and steady wins the race

Calories burned: 2241

Calories consumed: 1523

Calorie deficit: 718

These numbers above are my averages for the past week. According to this, if you do the math, I should have lost 1.4 pounds, and guess what? When I got on the scale this morning, I was down 1.4 pounds from last week. That's good news, as it means that I've been accurately tracking my calories consumed, even in the wake of a lunch at Fat Head's, a dinner at Hofbrau Haus, and a lunch at my mother-in-laws where I had to guess at quantities and ingredients. And the good news on top of all of that is that I still got to enjoy a nice piece of homemade cheesecake on Sunday night, as well as a few Rice Krispy Treats over the weekend. It is amazing how, when you set your mind to it, you can accomplish anything. I didn't think I'd ever see the day when I'd be able to drop some pounds, but it's working, and I'm halfway to my goal of losing ten pounds. And it hasn't been that hard.

Now, of course, every weekend poses threats to this plan, and this upcoming long holiday weekend is no different. Friday evening, my brother and his family are coming to stay with us, and prior to arrival, they're stopping at my favorite pizza joint in Bridgeville. It will be hard to contain myself to just eating one slice, but for the sake of my diet, I need to try. I'm also going to bake them a peach custard pie, which I will have a hard time resisting a nice slice of. Sure, I'll eat a small sliver, but it will take restraint to not let that sliver turn into a big piece, which is what I'd really rather have. Then on Saturday, it's our annual day of fun in West Virginia, and for that I always make a batch of chocolate chip cookies. In addition, we're out in the middle of nowhere, with only a campfire and a cooler, so I'm very limited as to what I can actually eat, and it's hard for it all to be good for me and low in calories. Sunday and Monday are unplanned at this point, but the more days I have away from the routine of the office, the more likely I am to mess it all up.

Friday morning, I'll still be able to work out, but I suspect I might not be able to fit it in on Saturday. I'm planning to walk on Sunday morning with a friend, where I can get out early before our guests even wake up, so that I'm back in time to make everyone pancakes for breakfast. I've really been determined to make every workout burn at least 300 calories, and often that means working out for a longer period of time. But that's hard to manage when you have a house full of guests. We'll see. Hopefully I can fit it all in, because with all of the poor eating I expect to be happening this weekend, I can't afford to have poor workout habits, too. If that happens, I guarantee it ends up being a week with no weight loss, and I'm on a roll. I don't want to stifle that.

And one last note: today is treat day at the office and someone brought in donuts. Damn those donuts! I'm not giving in, I swear! But I LOVE me some donuts!!!

The math kind of worked

Today was another weigh-in day. I was up 0.4 pounds from last week, weighing in at a solid 132 today. But this was shocking to me. I've been diligently tracking my food, even on days when I thought it would be hard to account for my meals (e.g., Monday we had a catered breakfast at work where I ate some baked French toast, a piece of a frittata, a slice of bacon, and some fruit). I feel like I've estimated pretty well, or at least fairly close to what I actually ate. And my calorie burns have been fantastic.

So let's look at the numbers. Over the past 7 days, I averaged 2375 calories burned per day; 1454 calories consumed per day; which results in an average 921 calorie deficit per day. So, if you take that 921 calories per day times the 7 days, that equals 6447 calories, and if you divide that by 3500 (the number of calories in one pound of fat), you get 1.8, which is how many pounds I should have lost this past week. Yet I had a 0.4 gain.

Now, on the plus side, even though I had a 0.4 pound gain, I did lose a few tenths of a % of fat.

But remember last week, I was shocked that I lost four pounds, because the math just didn't add up. I was worried that that four pound loss wasn't real. Well, now that I weighed in this week, I can conclude that that loss wasn't real. I've stopped weighing myself every day, so I don't know what day it creeped back up a bit. But if you take into account the last 14 days statistics, the result matches where I am at this point.

For those of you interested in the mathematical details, here's what I mean. Over the last 14 days, I have had an average deficit of 776 calories. So take that 776 and multiply it by the 14 days, and you get 10,864 calories. Divide that by the 3500, and you get 3.1 pounds. So, over the last 14 days, I should have lost 3.1 pounds. And guess what I've lost, according to the number I weighed in with today? 3.6 pounds. So I'm only off by a 1/2 pound, and in the positive direction, thank goodness.

So while I normally might have been upset about not having dropped any weight this week, I knew that last week's loss was too good to be true. And I'm satisfied with a 3.6 pound loss over the course of just two weeks. I'm working out harder than usual and more often than usual; I'm trying not to miss a day or slack off at all. And I'm really sticking to maintaining an intake below 1500 calories per day. This is going well.

Talk to me again next Wednesday, after having done this for another week, and see how I'm doing. If there isn't a loss next week, and I keep up with my eating and workouts this week, I will be totally confused and frustrated. Let's hope it doesn't get to that point.

So far, so good

It's been a week now since I hopped back on this wagon. Today was the first day I stepped on the scale since last Wednesday. I was nervous, excited, and scared all at the same time. What if I hadn't dropped any pounds? What if I went up in weight? I didn't think those things could possibly happen, so I was fearful of my state of mind if they did actually happen.

Fortunately, I had nothing to worry about, as I ended up losing four pounds in the past week! Yay, me! This is an enormous motivator to continue down this path. At the start of any weight loss plan, I always feel that, without a noticeable improvement early on, I tend to get defeated. I swore I wasn't going to let that happen this time, so even if I had only lost one pound, I think I would have still continued, but having lost four pounds just motivates me to keep at it more than anything else could motivate me. This loss is a symbol of what I can accomplish if I just set my mind to it. And the great thing is, it wasn't very hard. Sure, I have been hungry now and again throughout the day, but I think that for me, that's almost a requirement in order to lose weight. How can I lose weight if I never feel hungry, because I'm eating too much at each meal? That's what happened back in the spring, I think. I was eating more than I needed to, just because I could, without going over my calorie burn for the day. But as a result, it prevented me from losing much weight. Remember how much I struggled to just drop one pound? And now I've dropped four in one week!

This time around, I've decided to stick to my 1500 calorie intake goal, rather than let it fluctuate based on how much I worked out. This seems to be working. Also, back in the spring when I was more focused on just maintaing a deficit, when I had calories that I could still consume for the day, I didn't pay close attention to the make-up of those calories—I was eating more junk. But this time around, I'm paying attention. If I have calories to spare, I'm craving things like nuts, or dried fruit. I'm not craving a cookie.

But I still find it hard to resist a good cookie. So I've taken care to input my homemade cookie recipes into my bodybugg program so that I know exactly how many calories each one is. And I've discovered that most of my cookies are about 100 calories per cookie. When you're trying to stay below 1500 a day, every calorie counts, so now I'm just eating one, instead of the typical three or four I might have eaten before. Sure, I wish that I could eat more, but I'm ok with this. I still get to eat the cookie. I'm happy that I can even eat one. I'm trying to savor that goodness.

So here are some interesting statistics. My daily average calorie burn for the past week was 2270 calories. Based on my food log, my average intake was 1412 calories, which leaves me with an average deficit of 858 calories. Now, remember from posts back in the winter, one pound of fat equals 3500 calories. So, if I had a deficit of 858 for 7 days, that would equal a total deficit of 6006 calories for the last week, which equals 1.7 pounds. But I lost four pounds. So my bodybugg program does this calculation and says, ok, I know that you burned 2270 calories a day for the past week. And I know that you lost four pounds, which equals 14,000 calories. So the program says that for this statement to be true (burned 2270 calories a day, and lost four pounds, which is what my scale said this morning), my daily calorie intake could only have been 770 calories. But I know that's not true. Granted, I've really been cautious about what I've eaten. Breakfast is less than 200 calories, my lunch salad is about 150 calories, a daily apple is maybe 100 calories, yogurt is about 100 calories... these are things I eat practically every day, so breakfast, lunch, and two snacks is about 550 calories, and I'm certain that my dinners and other incidentals throughout the day are totaling more than 220 calories (the difference between 770 and 550).

I'm not sure what to make of this discrepancy. I weighed myself twice this morning. So I'm pretty certain my scale is correct. But mathematically, there's no way I could have lost four pounds. I guess I'm just going to have to chalk this one up as a mystery and not worry about it. I'm so grateful that I have a good starting point to go from today. I have a day off tomorrow, which could be dangerous, and then the weekend, which is guaranteed to tempt me in ways I can't even predict right now. And then next week, we have a catered breakfast at work one day, which will be very hard for me, as breakfast foods are my favorite foods to eat. And we're also meeting a friend for lunch at Fat Head's one day next week. For those of you not from Pittsburgh, the name alone should provide a clue that it will be very difficult for me to eat a low-calorie meal there. It will be a struggle. But I'm not going to disappoint myself by giving in, but I'm not going to deprive myself, either. I'm going to practice moderation, and I will succeed. I have to.

Day 1 really started on Wednesday

In my post on Monday, I said that "tomorrow is Day 1." Well, I'm not sure if I really meant that when I said it. Turns out that by the end of the day Tuesday, I was determined to make the next day be Day 1 of starting over on this quest to lose 10 pounds.

Wednesday morning, I woke up with new resolve. I decided that since I still have some free time left on my bodybugg online subscription, I might as well suck it up and try to count calories again. I dread counting calories, though. However, I've realized over the last few weeks that if I don't hold myself accountable to something, I don't feel the pressure to stick within the boundaries that I've set for myself. In other words, just saying, "don't eat sweets," doesn't seem to do it for me as far as getting me on a weight loss plan. It might work for maintaining my weight, but not for trying to lose. But somehow, saying I can only eat 1500 calories in a day, and then tracking it... well, that seems more concrete to me and is a goal I can meet. So as much as I hate to count, I'm trying it again.

Both on Wednesday and Thursday, I was able to stay below 1500 calories consumed. And both days, I was above my goal of burning 2000 calories (which would provide me with at least a 500 calorie deficit), so my average deficit over the two days so far as been higher. In fact, yesterday I burned 1000 more calories than I took in. Go me!

Back in the spring when I was tracking my calories using the bodybugg program, I was very lenient with what I was eating. My goal back then was to maintain a 500 calorie deficit, and not worry about how many calories I took in, as long as I burned 500 more than that. But that plan didn't really work. I barely lost the weight I was supposed to have lost (what was supposed to be one pound a week turned into maybe three pounds lost over the course of several months). So this time around, my goal is to stick to the 1500 calories a day, regardless of my burn. Then hopefully on those days when my burn is high, it will make up for the day or two that I don't work out, or that I end up eating a little more than the 1500.

According to my program at bodybugg.com, if I plan to lose one pound a week, I will have lost these 10 pounds by July 13. That's 10 weeks, or 70 days. I'm taking this one day at a time, so I'm happy to report that I've successfully made it through 2 out of 70 days. Only 68 days left. I can do this. The other good thing this time around is that I've changed my weigh-in day. I used to weigh in on Mondays, which any dieter will tell you is a hard day to weigh in. We tend to splurge a bit more on the weekends, and when you weigh in on Mondays, you don't give yourself any time to make up for the indulgences of the weekend. So hopefully this will help me to be more successful this time as well.

Lastly, I do worry about the weekends. Things at home are not structured or routine, and we tend to socialize around meals often. In fact, tonight we're going to dinner with friends, and tomorrow we're going to lunch with my in-laws. I've already planned what I'm going to order, but sometimes the situation turns me into an idiot and I make the wrong choices. I hope I don't do that this time around. I really want to lose this weight, gosh darn it.

So for anyone interested, here are my stats from the last two days:

Wednesday

Calories burned: 2373

Calories consumed: 1539

Calorie deficit: 834

Thursday

Calories burned: 2493

Calories consumed: 1447

Calorie deficit: 1046

I think I ate too much

I've been saying this a lot lately, and I'm getting kind of tired of it. But I honestly can't figure out why it keeps happening.

We went away this past weekend to visit my brother and his family in Michigan. We had a nice time, and although the trip wasn't focused on our meals, I still think I ate too much. On the way there, we stopped at Panera for lunch, and I had the chicken noodle soup and a half of a sandwich. I was so full, I don't think I needed to eat it all, but I did anyway. We had pancakes for breakfast on Saturday, and I ate two too many. For dinner, we went to a Japanese steakhouse, and although I tried not to overeat, I still did. It's hard not to when they serve you so many courses, one after the other. I didn't finish my meal, but I still ate more than was necessary. For breakfast on Sunday, we went to Bob Evans, and I ordered two pancakes and two slices of bacon. Sure, not a ton of food, but I didn't need to eat it all. Yet I still did. And coming home, it was another stop at Panera for a cup of soup and a half of a sandwich. On top of all of this, I snacked a bunch all weekend long, and I wasn't working out, so my calorie burn was low (for me) over the last three days.

Oh, and then to top it off, after we got home, Jack and I were both hungry so we indulged in a few bowls (yes, I said few) of Honey Bunches of Oats.

So back to my problem... why do I do these things? Before I eat a meal, I swear that I'm not going to overeat. Then I get in the middle of the meal, and I just keep eating. Whatever it is, I just keep going. There's usually something delicious in the meal that is so satisfying, I don't want to stop. Somehow my plan to not overeat doesn't even cross my mind, or if it does, I decide that I don't care. Then after the meal is over, I regret eating so much. So what is my problem, and how do I fix it? I realize, yet again, that if I can just get back to my original resolution for 2010, it would solve this problem. Remember my three rules? Smaller portions, no nibbling, and no sweets. It's the perfect plan. Why can't I stick to it?

Well, tomorrow is always Day 1. And I swear after tomorrow, I'm not going to be saying, "I think I ate too much."