My last official weight on June 11 was 216. Waist - 44 inches.
Next official will be done on July 9.

On fasting

So, for various reasons, I thought it would be a good idea to spend Thursday fasting. I did, and it was alright, but, I noticed these things:

• Not eating isn't hard. Being sharp while in meetings a little difficult. To combat this, I drank non-caloried coffee. It helped BUT
• Not eating all day and having coffee at 3:00 pm (which I usually do with no problem) kept me unable to sleep until almost 2:00am. Not good for a working day. AND
• Friday, the day after, still feeling dingy. AND
• On my Saturday fast last weekend, I actually worked out for a couple of hours early in the day and worked out hard the day after. These seem to have worked well with the fast. Being at work, I was not able to do that. 

So, next fast will be next SATURDAY. I think I'll keep that a weekend thing. 

One week in to my new new eating and exercise plan

Drum roll please  . . . . . .

Last week on Monday my weight was 220. This morning it's a definite and official 216!!
(I'm also starting to track my waist measurement - one inch below my belly button - today it's 44".)

Four pounds!! I have a lot to lose so I know that although I can pull off 4 pounds a week for awhile, I won't be able to do that as I get closer to my goal weight. I am very happy to make what is significant progress down a very long road.

So, in addition to everything I outlined below, I threw in a 24 hour fast over the weekend. Had only coffee on Saturday morning and didn't eat until Sunday morning.

My calories all week averaged about 1250. Exercise was:

M - Walked 1 hour
T - Walked 1 hour
W - Walked 1 hour
Th - nothing :(
F - Walked 1 hour
S - Biked 1 hour
S - Biked 1 hour alone, then 3 hours with family

So, very happy with the results. I'm also learning more and more how to avoid wasteful calories and not give in to temptation. At this point, I don't want to risk my progress by giving myself a reward. Not yet.

One thing you learn from counting calories . . .

. . . is that you have NO idea how many calories you consume normally. Today I had a box lunch catered in at work and without counting calories, I would have just had the whole thing. It was a vegetarian caprese sandwich on a ciabatta roll with a bag of low-fat chips, a pickle spear, and a cookie. Seems harmless. Total calories = 1200!! I only ate half the sandwich and the pickle spear and gave away the chips and cookie, so I made it only 370 calories.

I used to think I didn't eat badly, and I don't really. But since I'm trying to lose weight, figuring out how to NOT eat 1200 calorie meals will help me quite a bit.

Good old fashioned exercise and eating right to lose weight

I gave up on the intermittent fasting (see two previous posts) because I wanted needed to see something come off the scale in the first few days and I did not. So, I'm going back to a method I've used before successfully - regular exercise and counting calories with an eye on keeping my Fat/Carb/Protein percentages pretty balanced.

I'm using this great free app called MyPlate that helps you easily count your calories, your water intake, and your exercise. It provides a summary that shows the percentage breakdown of Fat/Carb/Protein calories. Looking at different recommendations, I'm shooting for a 20/45/35 split.

What I found is that when I count the macro-breakdown (as it seems to be called in today's jargon), I naturally eat waaaayyyy too many carbs and not enough protein.

A few other things I'm trying to do:
- Obviously eat as natural as possible. Good fat (avocados, olive oil) not bad fat (fried food).
- If I eat bread, it's only for the breakfast meal
- Vegetables as much as possible
- Lean protein (fish, white meat chicken, turkey)

Also, workout everyday. After three days of watching MyPlate, and riding my bike / walking for at least an hour a day, the scale budged! After watching it fluctuate all last week between 222 and 225, this morning it hit 220!!

I'll be diligent this week and report in next week.