What’s up with Weight?

My weight. Hopefully it’s not UP but still DOWN. This is an update to my previous blog\diary of my weight loss this year (same blog, different sites):

ONCE THERE WAS A WEIGHT
ONCE THERE WAS A WEIGHT
ONCE THERE WAS A WEIGHT

How am I doing, and what works?

Short answer:

After 6 months of dieting I’m maintaining a weight loss of 32-33 pounds. What has worked is eating a LOT MORE fruits and vegetables, salads, and the like, and eating a LOT LESS fat. I’m also maintaining a regular exercise program, which I did before dieting but was proof positive that exercise alone didn’t work.

Long answer:

May 13 I reported: “My greatest loss… …has been 32 pounds, which I’ve hit twice this month. I’ve hit a 31 pound loss 4 times this month and been at a 30 pound loss the other days.”

In the last 30 days my greatest loss (since dieting started 1 January) has been 35 pounds, which I’ve hit 5 times. I’ve hit a 34 pound loss at least 6 times, 33 pounds at least 6 times, and 31 or 32 the other days. I haven’t dropped below a 30 pound loss since May 1.

Thirty is good! I’d like to stay “around” a 30 pound loss indefinitely. That so-called “cushion”. I feel if I drop below a 25 pound loss I’m in danger of serious weight gain. After all, just how do those pounds creep back anyway? One at a time, I suspect. Over and over and over.

A 30 to 35 pound loss is even better. I haven’t tried to get to the 35 pound loss, and I don’t really want to lose more than that, but perhaps the healthy eating and exercise is taking its (good) toll. I’ve spent hundreds of dollars on clothes alterations, mostly pants. I almost could have bought new for the price, but I’m nervous about gaining. Is this new me too good to be true? Can it last? That will be the real test of weight loss, keeping it off.

I’m trying to get into a “groove” on eating. Eat healthy, eat regular, eat enough to satisfy and maintain the weight level, don’t binge or eat so much that weight-creep starts again. This could take awhile.

Does it seem like I think about it a lot? That’s what it has taken. Fo-cus. (Something I don’t feel is necessarily my strrrrong suit.)

What are my current cravings and binges? Splenda. Lots and lots of Splenda. In coffee. On bread and margarine. On bowls and bowls of fruit (bluebs, strawbs, clementines and yellow peaches when available), and yogurt, often with high fiber cereal mixed in. Best guilty pleasure which I don’t O.D. on: high fiber 8” wheat tortilla thinly spread with peanut butter and Splenda Brown Sugar, rolled and nuked for 17 seconds.

Binged on bread\margarine\Splenda last night (25 June). TLW has introduced me to sugar free gum, which helps to stave appetite if I remember to pop one in in a timely manner. Still, I’ve been eating a lot of cereal in the evenings all this week. Must… eat… “rationally”. (No one said it would be easy.)

Weight loss milestones from the dietetically obsessed (I’d be lost without digital bathroom scales reading in tenths):

01/01/2009 – Weighed 174.6
01/22/2009 – Weighed 164.6 Lost 10 lbs
02/01/2009 – Weighed 159.6 Lost 15 lbs
02/13/2009 – Weighed 154.4 Lost 20 lbs
03/07/2009 – Weighed 149.4 Lost 25 lbs
04/21/2009 – Weighed 144.6 Lost 30 lbs (That 5 lbs took awhile.)
06/02/2009 – Weighed 139.8 Lost 35 lbs (Highest loss to date, hit 6 times in June so far. Wasn’t trying for that and not planning on greater losses, but a “cushion” is nice.)

04/30/2009 – Last time at 29 lb loss
05/11/2009 – Last time at 30lb loss

“Hovering” in the 32-34 lb loss range this month (June).

What has worked? Less food, more exercise. REALLY! Healthier food. (Fruit, vegetables, fiber.) LOTS of salads, usually with meat or fish atop, but lots of Romaine, mushrooms, carrots, onions, tomatoes, dressings (usually lite dressings) often mixed with light olive oil. Egg beater omelets, with fresh cooked spinach, artificial crab meat, shrooms, 2% cheese, onions. Bowls of aforementioned fruit, yogurt, cereal. Snacking on those high fiber tortillas, dry whole almonds roasted on a cookie sheet for 18 minutes for a little extra flavor, chewing gum. Exercise. Home exer-cycle mornings. To the gym for abs and weights. Evening exer-cycle if eating too much during the day. I can do a lot of computing, reading, TV, or crosswords on that exer-cycle. (I just rigged a holder for my laptops, both the light one AND the heavy one (but not both at the same time). Lookout, I may bicycle all day!)

What doesn't work? Craved (crazed?) or binge eating. I do (did) love to eat and it's tough, even though I'm immensely liking the healthy food much more, to not let those cravings take over. I don't binge often, or too much when I do, but that partial loss of control when I want "more" doesn't work.

Will eating healthy ever become second nature? One can only hope. In the meantime… fo-cus… fo-cus.

See photo for my weight loss comparison over recent years. The plunging red line is THIS year.