OK, this is pretty big.
My goal was 160 lbs and I weighed in at 159 pounds this morning.
*Blog post may need updating.
This is only the third time in my life that I’ve weighed this little. When I was here last it was the summer of 2012, right after my second son Carter was born. I continued to eat healthy for a while. I stopped tracking my calories. Lost track of the healthy eating habits and slowly but surely gained all of the weight back.
THAT CAN NOT HAPPEN THIS TIME.
I need a new goal or a new plan. And honestly I need a new diet. This tracking calories things was really meant to be a short-term kickstart to weigh loss. Now I need a longer-term healthy eating, healthy living diet.
To begin with, the app has told me that now I can eat 2400 cal per day. That’s up from the initial 1487 that I started with when I wanted to lose roughly 2 pounds per week.
OK, so this is good. It’s put me into a normal range of healthy eating calories for my body height and new weight.
Like I said before, I’m done being a glutton. I can’t eat whatever I want whenever I want and think there are not going to be any consequences.
So now that I have 2400 cal to work with, what am I going to eat?
I’ll start with the changes that I’d like to do for the rest of my life.
1. I’d like to continue eating a healthy, balanced, fiber rich breakfast.
2. I’d like to continue eating a huge salad every single day. This is one of those things that’s become so easy in our modern society – I can get fresh salad any day of the year.
3. Continue tracking calories. Dinner has then my weak spot for this entire journey anyway… I think I need to continue to track calories just so I have a bigger picture of what I’m putting into my body on a regular basis.
4. Weigh myself pretty every day. Not to continue the obsession, but really to know what’s happening.
5. Continue leaving out most sugar. Sugary drinks soda juice and creamer from my diet.
6. Only have bread once per day.
7. Eat meat sparingly.
8. Continue to leave cheese mostly out of my diet. Consider replacing that with good cheeses that taste good. (I’ve discovered Fresh Mozzarella!)
9. Continue not eating after 7:00pm most days
10. Sweet treats…continue sparingly.
11. Drink more water
12. Fast food sparingly subway always. Subway is the closest to homemade sandwich you can get on the road.
13. Drink black coffee. Benefits? Increases metabolism. Helps wake you up in the morning and focus. Appetite suppressant. 0 cal drink other than water so you feel like you’re getting something different sometimes. Or…unsweetened iced tea.
Really, it’s time to switch from losing weight (and going a little crazy) to eating healthy for the long-haul and finding the best way to eat for my body. This also means that if I start working out or add more exercise or become more sedentary on the flipside that I need to adjust either my calorie intake or the types of foods that I meeting to compensate for those activities (or lack of).
Other diets I’m interested in:
1. Nutritarian – Dr. Joel Furman
2. The Paleo diet
3. The slow carb diet (4-hour body)
I’m curious to know what Weight watchers has you do once you reach your goal?
Don’t trust the app! Find my ideal calorie intake to maintain. Don’t forget that a calorie is not just a calorie every type of calorie is spent, burnt or stored differently.
I need to find a really good multivitamin solution. Possible options are Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s supplements. Texas superfood.
Important: do not go back to the old “normal” of eating. I’m gonna take a look at what I used to do before losing weight.
Flashback
Several cups of coffee every morning with creamer
Large untracked breakfast with lots of cheese.
Hungry around 1030. Ate some kind of a snack untracked large. Maybe some fruit.
I always seemed to feel hungry
Someone would bring donuts into the office at least once a week… I would eat several (2-4). Also at least once a week we ordered pizza or topper sticks from Toppers pizza. Again, I would eat uncontrolled.
When I was working downtown I would eat lunch out a lot.
I did start eating a large salad and 2015 but it wasn’t every single day end it was on top of everything else so it was healthy but it wasn’t necessarily helping me feel better or lose weight.
I craved a bag of gummy worms every single day. Or I would buy boxes of Little Debbie’s and eat them whenever I wanted.
I had a large untracked dinner.
I was eating after 7 o’clock at night (ice cream from the box anyone?).
When we would go and visit my parents or go on vacation I would eat so much I would feel stuffed like Thanksgiving day. I seem to have no control whatsoever.
(do you see the general lack of self-control here?) I praise God for the strength he’s given to me to get here. It’s not easy losing weight and I understand that. I got an a groove and put the pedal to the metal cause I didn’t want it to take forever to lose 26 pounds. I know some of you have more to lose but for those people that need to lose between 10 and 45 pounds, you can do it by tracking calories!
Exercise matters. Eating healthy matters. Eating less matters. Diet (what you eat) matters!
DISCLAIMER I am not an expert. All I have are my own experiences. Everybody’s body is different. These are my thoughts and opinions. Please consult your doctor before going on any diet or exercise regimen, alright? Can I get an amen?!