Week Seven – 191.4 lbs., Down 6 lbs. Is Momentum Building?

After the gain in week six, I wasn’t sure what to expect in week seven.  I’ve dropped 0.2 pounds below my previous low from week five.  Some of this loss may be because my weigh-in weight from last week was an anomaly.  Not sure.  Sometime the specific day matters.

This past week, I traveled again.  This time I went to a 2 1/2 day conference in Orlando, leaving Monday night and returning Thursday afternoon.  I also went through the Yom Kippur holiday, which includes a large dinner Friday and then a fast until a large dinner Saturday night.

Conferences and business trip in general are interesting for diets.  It seems that I have less control over what I eat, but that may be an excuse.  I can’t control what the conference sponsor puts out on the breakfast buffet and serves for lunch, nor can I really control where we go for dinner each night.  I can, however, control what I order and whether I exercise.  In addition, there is rarely an opening on trips to snack during the day or later at night.  It’s hard to tell how that balances out.  This week it balanced out pretty good.

The important thing for me is not to be lulled into a sense of over confidence.  I’m sure the Yom Kippur fast helped the weight loss.  Time to focus.

Week Five – 191.6 Pounds. 5.8 Pounds Down in Five Weeks.

Despite my eight-day business trip to Beijing, I lost nearly two pounds this week.  I’m at 191.6 pounds, a 5.8 pound lost after five weeks and 0.8 pounds ahead of pace.  So much for those challenges I wrote about last week.

When I’m on a diet, I find it a bit scary to be away from my home scale for an extended period.  I don’t necessarily weigh myself everyday, but it is important to check in every few days.  Without the same scale, I really can’t gauge how I’m doing.  I have to admit I was surprised when I got on the scale yesterday.

Business trips are also scary, because my eating patterns are way off.  I diet by eating similar things everyday at similar times everyday.  This trip, I forgot to pack Zone Bars for my mid-morning snack.  I could not really control the healthiness of meals.  The times that I ate were different from when at home.  I also had the challenge of not being able to read the nutritional labels in Chinese.

I suspect the weight loss was due to a few reasons:

1. I didn’t really snack.  The food just wasn’t available, except for some small candies, chewing gum, and some apples I bought at a supermarket.
2. I kept up my exercise.  Four times to the gym in six days in China.  Biggest challenge?  Figuring out my weight in kilograms and estimating my kilometers per hour pace for the treadmill.
3. I ate mostly at restaurants, which meant that my food was limited to what I ordered.  This could easily have been a negative, but I made it a positive.
4. I was able to stop eating when I was full.  This was important, as some of the Chinese meals were family style.

I’ve got another few trips coming up in September and hope to carry this optimism and success going forward.  Now, let’s see how I do this week at home.

Observations After Losing 2.6 Pounds in Week One

I stuck to my guns this week and came through at 194.8 pounds this morning, down 2.6 pounds from a week ago.  Say what you want about losing water weight or about men losing weight faster than women.  I’ll take the loss.

I definitely viewed this week as a ramp up to future weeks.  As I got going on a diet that could last five months, I was reminded of a few things.

Logging what you eat does make a difference. I logged my food in Lose It only four days, choosing to skip the weekend and a vacation day.  I need to improve that.  I need to make the effort. When I did log, I was able to add a snack or two at the end of the day, knowing I had calories to spare.  Remember, Lose It calculates how much you need to lose based on your weight and weight loss goals.  In general, I leave about 50% of my calories for the evening.  Nutritionists will likely have a problem with that, but it works for me.

Repetition is important. Variety isn’t important to me.  Calories are.  As a result, I tend to eat the same things repeatedly from breakfast through lunch and an afternoon snack.  I’ve already calculated the calories in Lose It, which makes tracking easier.  I also really don’t mind eating the same thing, when I know calories are under control.

Taking exercise slow helps to create the habit. In my past, I have run four marathons, and a bunch of 1/2 marathons, 10K’s and 5K’s.  I know how to run.  As I start the diet, however, I want to make the exercise enjoyable.  Therefore, I’ve taken a step back, decreased speeds on the treadmill, and created a plan to increase speed over the course of the diet.  This has worked for me in the past.  This week, I exercised five of seven days, which isn’t terrible.  I want to get on a roll, where it’s seven of seven.  To do that, I’ll need to focus a bit more on Saturday and Sunday.  In reality, I’m more likely to get to six out of seven, giving myself one day off as a reward.

Losing one pound week is the only way to go. I generally made good decisions this week, but not always.  I have the luxury, if you will, of planning to lose only one pound a week.  That’s not that much, and it provides and opportunity for what some might call cheating.  Despite my knowledge of its unhealthy make-up, I ate popcorn at the movies.  I also had some Chinese food right after the popcorn.  The net for the week was good, but it could have been better.  I’m just not into so much self-denial.  One pound a week is plenty.

My theory of the diet hinging on a few decisions a day is correct. On a few occasions I made good choices that filled me up.  Today, in particular, I avoided the Caesar salad at lunch for a more healthy salad with oil & vinegar.  For dinner, despite being very hungry post-workout, I stuck to a six-inch sub at Subway, although I did treat myself to cheese with my turkey. Last night, I was able not to grab some Cool Ranch Doritos that were sitting on our kitchen counter, and I headed up to bed.  However, when Mrs. Spidey called me back to tell me something, I couldn’t resist.  Shame on me.

Your Choice: Eat This or Eat 11 Slices of Bacon - Same Fat Content.

One other thing I’ll mention.  On Saturday, I purchased one of those “Eat This, Not That” books.  I bought the Supermarket Survival Guide.  If you know how to read nutritional labels, you probably aren’t making some of the mistakes that the authors of the book point out.  The comparisons they make, however, show that many times there are better options.  In addition, when the compare foods that seem healthy to foods that you know aren’t, they really drive the point home.

I have eaten cereal 9 out of every 10 mornings since I was about 4.  Fortunately, I found that my cereal eating is generally good.  Honey Nut Cheerios is on the “Eat This” side.  On the “Not This” list are Life and Raisin Bran and, somewhat surprisingly, Multi-Bran Chex, which has as much sugar as a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  For that matter, a serving of Quaker Low Fat Granola with Raisins has more sugar than a pack of peanut M&M’s.  If you need sugar, eat Froot Loops or Apple Jacks before Cap’n Crunch or Lucky Charms.

I was also disappointed to learn that staples in our house like Reduced Fat Wheat Thins, Grey Poupon, David’s Sunflower Seeds, and Special K bars on the “Not This” side in their few groups.

I’ll leave you this week with some quick highlight comparisons from the book that will make you think twice:

• 1 package of Twix has as much saturated fat as 11 strips of bacon!
• 1/2 cups of Haagen-Dazs Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice cream has as much fat as a McDonald’s Double Cheeseburger!
• 1 cup of Quaker Natural Granola, Oats, Honey & Raisins has the calorie equivalent of 8 chicken wings!