It hasn't been a wildly successful week, but I haven't started a backslide. Things are ok in that regard. This week has been a bit stressful since the microwave incident. We've cleaned 3 rooms, moved about 300 sq ft of stuff (I mean it literally, that's how much floor space that stuff took up) out of the house, and cleaned the vents. Leaving work to work...it's not the best environment for sticking with the mostly protein diet.
You can guess that I've had more carbs than I should have, even caving a little Saturday morning and have a cheery cheese danish. More Peanut Butter sandwiches, the danish, a treat here and there. Enough to keep me stable, but not enough to cause gain, thankfully.
Now that the cleaning is, at the least, mostly done, it'll be MUCH easier to continue on the protein path that lies ahead. I, and probably everyone, have a stress limit, and that was about all I could put up with last week. This week, with less stress on the table, I can handle the stress of not eating what I want to.
Last week's weight was 188, the same as this week's. I'm looking to lose another 1-2 pounds by next Sunday.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Monday, December 19, 2011
Overcoming the Sugar Cravings
I've made some real progress this last week.
Conquest 1:
Work this weekend wasn't nearly as bad as it used to be. I shuffled (pretty literally) at 3am to work, and having already drank some water and eaten a PB sandwich (what else do you have time to make at 2:48am?), I didn't have that overwhelming mouth watering sensation that I used to get on approaching the bakery. I was able to avoid eating anything this weekend that took the form of chocolate, sugar, cookies, donuts, or otherwise. There were some close calls, where I actually stared at the chocolate for a few seconds, but I overcame. Go me!
Conquest 2:
Eating at home has worked out also. I've stuck with an almost nearly protein diet except for yesterday, where I actually needed some carbs because of work that I was doing to fix some smoke damage. Basically, I used an unfamiliar microwave on a chicken patty, and the thing was nuked. The microwave smells bad and smoke got everywhere, into a bunch of clothes that were out there, as well as the carpet and curtains...it was bad. I've spent about ten hours wiping everything down, throwing stuff out, moving stuff around. The smoke smell is just about gone now. Problem with this whole mess is that I've been banned from cooking...so...I don't know, I suppose I'll be eating a lot of canned tuna since I can't be trusted with a toaster after this.
Conquest 3:
I've also defeated soda, and graduated from flavored water to tap water. Now losing weight is even cheaper, and soda won't be holding back my efforts!
Results:
I've gone from 192 to 188.
Conclusion:
My 36's sag something horribly, but the 34's are still tight. Core workouts would fix the 34's tightness, but that's not the goal. The goal is and always was to get into 32's comfortably, and that occurs at about 170-165 pounds for me. I've considered working out, but my workouts typically add muscle mass. Having things fit better is nice, but I respond better to seeing actual numbers. For the time being, I don't plan on working out while I continue to work on keeping with good nutrition.
Conquest 1:
Work this weekend wasn't nearly as bad as it used to be. I shuffled (pretty literally) at 3am to work, and having already drank some water and eaten a PB sandwich (what else do you have time to make at 2:48am?), I didn't have that overwhelming mouth watering sensation that I used to get on approaching the bakery. I was able to avoid eating anything this weekend that took the form of chocolate, sugar, cookies, donuts, or otherwise. There were some close calls, where I actually stared at the chocolate for a few seconds, but I overcame. Go me!
Conquest 2:
Eating at home has worked out also. I've stuck with an almost nearly protein diet except for yesterday, where I actually needed some carbs because of work that I was doing to fix some smoke damage. Basically, I used an unfamiliar microwave on a chicken patty, and the thing was nuked. The microwave smells bad and smoke got everywhere, into a bunch of clothes that were out there, as well as the carpet and curtains...it was bad. I've spent about ten hours wiping everything down, throwing stuff out, moving stuff around. The smoke smell is just about gone now. Problem with this whole mess is that I've been banned from cooking...so...I don't know, I suppose I'll be eating a lot of canned tuna since I can't be trusted with a toaster after this.
Conquest 3:
I've also defeated soda, and graduated from flavored water to tap water. Now losing weight is even cheaper, and soda won't be holding back my efforts!
Results:
I've gone from 192 to 188.
Conclusion:
My 36's sag something horribly, but the 34's are still tight. Core workouts would fix the 34's tightness, but that's not the goal. The goal is and always was to get into 32's comfortably, and that occurs at about 170-165 pounds for me. I've considered working out, but my workouts typically add muscle mass. Having things fit better is nice, but I respond better to seeing actual numbers. For the time being, I don't plan on working out while I continue to work on keeping with good nutrition.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Hitting the Reset Button
I'm starting over with the weight loss thing. Not deleting the blog, just trying again. For the last week I've been pretty good about my eating. Weekends feel impossible since I work at a sugar factory known as a bakery, but during the week, my meals have been simple and sugar free.
Protein. Sometimes a salad. ZERO soda.
Most of my meals have been a Chicken Pattie in a salad, Chicken Pattie with eggs, Beef, salad, etc. Snacks have mostly been fruit with the occasional PB sandwich. Drinking wise, I'm completely off the diet pepsi, which I drank like water, and am now drinking flavored water. I'm not completely carb free, but I'm hitting about 10-20 grams of carbs a day.
Still, I'm eating a lot. I've got to get past these hunger cravings to start, no doubt brought on by sugar withdrawals. I think another week without sugar should do the trick, hopefully, and then it'll be easier to eat less and start losing weight. If it isn't, I'm just going to keep plugging away at it. Right now, it's like I need to eat every 2-3 hours, so I stuff myself with a salad between main meals.
Shopping has become a much bigger pain. I went to the gas station for ice a few days ago, and they have these delicious 500 calories ice cream sandwiches for sale. I stared at it for a good 30 seconds before managing to pull away and not buy it.
I can't believe 300g of carbs is the recommended diet for anyone. They must be intentionally trying to fatten people up. That is literally the only thing I can think.
Just yesterday I went to a grocery store to buy milk and salad and the flavored water, and I happened by the pop-tart aisle...and I all but drooled over them for 2 minutes before tearing myself away. I had to pass the candy aisles, the chip aisle, and the ice cream aisle twice to get my chicken patties before checking out.
I haven't really lost any weight yet. I haven't even established my normal yet, as I'm still waiting for all the soda's sodium to leave the party. Also, eating all the time doesn't help with that, but at least I'm not scarfing sugary items down. Plus my weight machine doesn't quite work. It makes hand-wavy guess about my weight, so I have to check 3 times and come out with an average. My guess is that I've lost about a pound since changing my diet.
So, anyways, just wanted to write this little update. I don't plan on writing daily...maybe weekly will work best.
Protein. Sometimes a salad. ZERO soda.
Most of my meals have been a Chicken Pattie in a salad, Chicken Pattie with eggs, Beef, salad, etc. Snacks have mostly been fruit with the occasional PB sandwich. Drinking wise, I'm completely off the diet pepsi, which I drank like water, and am now drinking flavored water. I'm not completely carb free, but I'm hitting about 10-20 grams of carbs a day.
Still, I'm eating a lot. I've got to get past these hunger cravings to start, no doubt brought on by sugar withdrawals. I think another week without sugar should do the trick, hopefully, and then it'll be easier to eat less and start losing weight. If it isn't, I'm just going to keep plugging away at it. Right now, it's like I need to eat every 2-3 hours, so I stuff myself with a salad between main meals.
Shopping has become a much bigger pain. I went to the gas station for ice a few days ago, and they have these delicious 500 calories ice cream sandwiches for sale. I stared at it for a good 30 seconds before managing to pull away and not buy it.
Serving Size 1 sandwich (142g)
Servings Per Container 1
Servings Per Container 1
Amount Per Serving
| Calories 460 | Calories from Fat 200 |
% Daily Values**
| Total Fat 23g | 35% |
| Saturated Fat 11g | 55% |
| Trans Fat 0g |
| Cholesterol 55mg | 18% |
| Sodium 290mg | 12% |
| Potassium 150mg | 4% |
| Total Carbohydrate 60g | 20% |
| Dietary Fiber 1g | 4% |
| Sugars 40g |
| Protein 6g | 12% |
| Vitamin A | 0% |
| • Vitamin C | 0% |
| Calcium | 0% |
| • Iron | 0% |
*Contains less than 2% of these values
**Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs:
**Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs:
Calories: | 2,000 | 2,500 | |
Total Fat | Less than | 65g | 80g |
Saturated Fat | Less than | 20g | 25g |
Cholesterol | Less than | 300mg | 300mg |
Sodium | Less than | 2,400mg | 2,400mg |
Potassium | 3,500mg | 3,500mg | |
Total Carbohydrate | 300g | 375g | |
Dietary Fiber | 25g | 30g | |
Protein | 50g | 65g |
I can't believe 300g of carbs is the recommended diet for anyone. They must be intentionally trying to fatten people up. That is literally the only thing I can think.
Just yesterday I went to a grocery store to buy milk and salad and the flavored water, and I happened by the pop-tart aisle...and I all but drooled over them for 2 minutes before tearing myself away. I had to pass the candy aisles, the chip aisle, and the ice cream aisle twice to get my chicken patties before checking out.
I haven't really lost any weight yet. I haven't even established my normal yet, as I'm still waiting for all the soda's sodium to leave the party. Also, eating all the time doesn't help with that, but at least I'm not scarfing sugary items down. Plus my weight machine doesn't quite work. It makes hand-wavy guess about my weight, so I have to check 3 times and come out with an average. My guess is that I've lost about a pound since changing my diet.
So, anyways, just wanted to write this little update. I don't plan on writing daily...maybe weekly will work best.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Re-Evaluation
Since my time away from working out, I've had that little extra time to think, and I've come to a perhaps obvious conclusion to those with the time to read.
My diet sucks, and that's why I haven't lost any weight. The workouts are great, no issues there, but those don't cause fat loss unless you're swimming 2 hours 6 days a week totaling 1.7 miles in the water per day. Back then, I was scarfing down 5 dollar bags of cheetos and losing weight. I don't work out anything close to that though.
Since I seem to be glucose intolerant in my old age, I'm going to try something I've never done before, and that's Atkin's diet. I expect it will be grueling, especially considering the weekend job at the bakery. Once I get sorted out on that for a few weeks, I'll resume working out. I expect to lose weight rather quickly, as my dad has lost alot of weight quickly anytime he did Atkin's diet and stuck with it for two weeks.
So, let's see how it works out. Posts will be short and pretty much related only to diet since I won't be exercising much (not alot of time for it lately anyways).
Wish me luck!
My diet sucks, and that's why I haven't lost any weight. The workouts are great, no issues there, but those don't cause fat loss unless you're swimming 2 hours 6 days a week totaling 1.7 miles in the water per day. Back then, I was scarfing down 5 dollar bags of cheetos and losing weight. I don't work out anything close to that though.
Since I seem to be glucose intolerant in my old age, I'm going to try something I've never done before, and that's Atkin's diet. I expect it will be grueling, especially considering the weekend job at the bakery. Once I get sorted out on that for a few weeks, I'll resume working out. I expect to lose weight rather quickly, as my dad has lost alot of weight quickly anytime he did Atkin's diet and stuck with it for two weeks.
So, let's see how it works out. Posts will be short and pretty much related only to diet since I won't be exercising much (not alot of time for it lately anyways).
Wish me luck!
Sunday, September 25, 2011
The Thing I hate about Sleep Deprivation
This week has not been awesome for the diet, but it hasn't been horrible until today. Essentially, every day this week at school I would buy and eat one large Scone. They're pretty much straight carbs, but I was on break and everything, and kept not bringing enough food. I felt it would be better than Panda Express for sure. Overall, it wasn't too bad though given that I ate them when I'd be eating something else, just it was double the calories and way more carbs.
Then this weekend I went to work on 4 hours of sleep Saturday. Ate 2 donuts. Pretty sure that's 1000 unnecessary calories. Sunday I went in on 5 hours sleep, and ate 3 cookies (500 calories), followed by lunch at noon of an entire thing of Chicken Alfredo. Pretty sure that the day was 2000 unnecessary calories.
Problem though was sleep deprivation. When I'm like this, and it really CANNOT be avoided for me that I get sleep deprived, the chemicals that govern hunger go out of whack. Even after eating the cookies and alfredo, I was still hungry. I should have been stuffed or full at least.
Usually I have better self control and manage to only eat a cookie if anything. This weekend was pretty stressful though, and self control only works if your emotions are under control. Mine weren't. I was stressed, upset, and tired.
I'll be better Monday after some sleep, but I screwed up the diet this week, and I'm pretty sure any benefits of my dieting will not show until the end of the week at best. Way to go Mark.
Thankfully there is a saving grace. When you eat too much, it doesn't all go to fat. Most of it goes to waste. So this mess up won't cripple me, won't hamper me ALOT, but it's still progress lost, even if only a little.
Then this weekend I went to work on 4 hours of sleep Saturday. Ate 2 donuts. Pretty sure that's 1000 unnecessary calories. Sunday I went in on 5 hours sleep, and ate 3 cookies (500 calories), followed by lunch at noon of an entire thing of Chicken Alfredo. Pretty sure that the day was 2000 unnecessary calories.
Problem though was sleep deprivation. When I'm like this, and it really CANNOT be avoided for me that I get sleep deprived, the chemicals that govern hunger go out of whack. Even after eating the cookies and alfredo, I was still hungry. I should have been stuffed or full at least.
Usually I have better self control and manage to only eat a cookie if anything. This weekend was pretty stressful though, and self control only works if your emotions are under control. Mine weren't. I was stressed, upset, and tired.
I'll be better Monday after some sleep, but I screwed up the diet this week, and I'm pretty sure any benefits of my dieting will not show until the end of the week at best. Way to go Mark.
Thankfully there is a saving grace. When you eat too much, it doesn't all go to fat. Most of it goes to waste. So this mess up won't cripple me, won't hamper me ALOT, but it's still progress lost, even if only a little.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
34 Break
Just a quickie post explaining the title.
I had a few extra minutes today, so I tried on some old size 34's I had instead of 36's that I typically wear. They came up and on easily. I didn't have to fight, hell, didn't have to apply pressure, to button and zip up the pants.
So, my weight isn't down, but my girth most definitely is. My 36's were feeling a little tight when I started 5 weeks ago, now the 34's fit just right. That's down 3 inches. Huzzah!
As for the "Break", this week has left me very little time for anything aside from classes and classwork. Because of that, I'm going to take a workout break until Saturday, repeat the bodyweight 350 (which incidentally made me ache all over for 3 days), and then start week 6 next week. Aside from the test next wednesday, there's nothing real major that will suck out my time.
That's unlike this week. I had to crank out a 2 week project in 2 days, then another 2 week project in 3 days, study for a test (which was absurdly brutal), and complete a homework for the class I have a test in Wednesday, and write 1/4 of a paper for a project for Engineering Capstone, ie a project that is slated to run across 9 months. If you mess this class up, you don't graduate.
So, summary: down 3 inches, weight is approximately the same, and I'm on exercise break until Saturday. Probably no posts until then.
I had a few extra minutes today, so I tried on some old size 34's I had instead of 36's that I typically wear. They came up and on easily. I didn't have to fight, hell, didn't have to apply pressure, to button and zip up the pants.
So, my weight isn't down, but my girth most definitely is. My 36's were feeling a little tight when I started 5 weeks ago, now the 34's fit just right. That's down 3 inches. Huzzah!
As for the "Break", this week has left me very little time for anything aside from classes and classwork. Because of that, I'm going to take a workout break until Saturday, repeat the bodyweight 350 (which incidentally made me ache all over for 3 days), and then start week 6 next week. Aside from the test next wednesday, there's nothing real major that will suck out my time.
That's unlike this week. I had to crank out a 2 week project in 2 days, then another 2 week project in 3 days, study for a test (which was absurdly brutal), and complete a homework for the class I have a test in Wednesday, and write 1/4 of a paper for a project for Engineering Capstone, ie a project that is slated to run across 9 months. If you mess this class up, you don't graduate.
So, summary: down 3 inches, weight is approximately the same, and I'm on exercise break until Saturday. Probably no posts until then.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
End of Week 5, Week 6 Workout 1
Things have been a bit busy for me lately. I'll admit that exercise isn't the highest priority on my list, but if I have time for it, I'll do when I'm supposed to. That said, I didn't find the time Sunday to do the end of week workout.
I ended up replacing workout 1 of week 6 with the end of week workout for week 5: the bodyweight 350.
The workout was pretty intense for me at my current fitness level. Here's what I can recall of the workout: 40 squats, 40 pushups, 80 step ups, 80 lunges, 40 close grip pushups, another 40 squats, 10 chinups replaced by wall-pushoffs, 20 jumps, 15 chinup replaced by more wall-push-offs.
I was pretty beat at the end of it. Heck, I was beat halfway through. I had to take short breaks between exercises as I getting so tired that I literally the break. I managed to finish the whole workout in 33 minutes, and I think that the workout would have taken me 27 minutes had I not needed any breaks.
My current diet hasn't allowed to me lose weight, as previously stated. 6 weeks in, still no weight loss. After getting some extremely appreciated advice, I'm pretty much changing my diet. Peas and corn are out, beans and green beans are in. Bread is pretty much done altogether. Given the amount of salt I sweated out yesterday, I'm going to need bananas...but otherwise it's Atkins for me as much as I can manage.
That means all protein. Since the diet isn't actually Atkins it goes by some other name, but essentially it's carb starvation, right?
With 3 weeks left of the plan, we'll see what kind of progress we make at this point.
I ended up replacing workout 1 of week 6 with the end of week workout for week 5: the bodyweight 350.
The workout was pretty intense for me at my current fitness level. Here's what I can recall of the workout: 40 squats, 40 pushups, 80 step ups, 80 lunges, 40 close grip pushups, another 40 squats, 10 chinups replaced by wall-pushoffs, 20 jumps, 15 chinup replaced by more wall-push-offs.
I was pretty beat at the end of it. Heck, I was beat halfway through. I had to take short breaks between exercises as I getting so tired that I literally the break. I managed to finish the whole workout in 33 minutes, and I think that the workout would have taken me 27 minutes had I not needed any breaks.
My current diet hasn't allowed to me lose weight, as previously stated. 6 weeks in, still no weight loss. After getting some extremely appreciated advice, I'm pretty much changing my diet. Peas and corn are out, beans and green beans are in. Bread is pretty much done altogether. Given the amount of salt I sweated out yesterday, I'm going to need bananas...but otherwise it's Atkins for me as much as I can manage.
That means all protein. Since the diet isn't actually Atkins it goes by some other name, but essentially it's carb starvation, right?
With 3 weeks left of the plan, we'll see what kind of progress we make at this point.
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