A mini kick start

I was really really mad at myself for my post last week. I know I should not be so tied to the number on the scale. It bothers me that I felt great that morning before stepping on the scale and just seeing the number plummeted me into such sadness. 

I gained .4 last week.  .4? Who cares. I know I ate well and drank my water etc, but I still allowed .4 lbs to bother me. 

However, as much as the numbers control me, they also do motivate me. As upset as I was for not losing, it did kick my butt into gear and realize that what I've been doing for the last few months is just not working for me. I want to lose the weight. But instead, I gain a little, lose a little, stay the same for a bit, gain a little, lose a little, etc. 

SO I know how I have been eating is great for maintenance, but I'm not in a maintenance state just yet. I want to get down some more. I want to come off my meds and I don't believe that is going to be possible until I lose more lbs. 

I have figure out the key to maintenance.... great. But what about weight loss?  Well, the only answer for me is less calories. UGH.... And more importantly, tracking... DOUBLE UGH. I know I'll do it for a few days and then stop it. I need something new to excite and motivate me.

In the past, when I have stalled (at least on the low carb way of eating), I have done a 3 day kick start meal plan. The plan is set, there is no counting of calories, but it's 3 days of low calories, extremely low carbs and no dairy. It's worked for me in the past, but honestly, by the 3rd day I'm starving and eat a ton of calories and the weight that I have lost during the 3 days is gained right back. Plus, it's not advised to do more than once a month. 

I wanted to find a new method with similar idea and after some googling and youtubing, I found the 5:2 method.  The concept is simple. You basically eat "normally" or as you normally would 5 days of the week and then for 2 days, you drop your calories very low (around 500). I figured I would try this for a little while and see how it goes. I did last wednesday and this monday and then I will start to rotate mondays and thursdays. I'm not doing 500 cause that's a little low for me right now, but instead I'll do around 650. Last wednesday was 650 and on monday I did 620. 

These 2 days are the only ones I'm going to track. For now. Once I figure out what my low calorie days are, I will likely stop counting the calories for them as well and just wing it. 

So it will drop my calories for the week to put me in the deficit that hopefully will help me shed the last 15-20 that I want to drop. 

So what were my results? I weighed in this morning and I was 173.7. That's down 3.8 from last week! Biggest loss I've had in over a year. I'll take it! 

An idea of what I eat on my low calorie day: 

• Breakfast - I never eat breakfast but I still have my coffee with whipping cream (this keeps me full until lunchtime) 
• Lunch - 1 Egg and 1/2 avocado with pink salt
• Dinner - Protein smoothie with almond milk, Fatso PB, whey protein, ice  and an Egg. 

* This Thursday I may scrap the smoothie and do a 2 egg omelet instead (no cheese, just veggies). 

I also make sure to have electrolytes (biosteel) and tons of water. Sure I get the grumbles, but they pass. I also make the family a dinner that I don't feel like eating that day. 

We will see how it goes. It has me excited right now, so I'm going with it. I know it's not a long term thing but we will see if it gets me closer to my goal in the meantime! 

Hmmmm

Ok. I honestly thought I would see a HUGE loss this week. I even figured if it was a small loss, I'd be ok with it but probably not satisfied.  Well... I gained. WTF??? 

Like seriously. Scale was 177.5 today. Why?

• TOM is over
• I drank all my water 
• I kept my calories in tact this week (I think... but honestly didn't track)
• No alcohol
• I didn't eat anything overly salty yesterday or the day before 
• I haven't been exercising to account for any water gain to repair muscle strain 

So like I said,  WTF? 

I'm mad. I'm mad at myself because I am too reliant on the number on the scale. I'm mad because my two best friends are losing weight when I'm not. I hate to admit that I'm mad at them, cause I'm also proud of them, but DAMN!  I'm mad that what I'm doing is not working and has not been working for some time (September) 

So now what? I honestly don't know, but I can't keep doing the same thing cause it is not working and I feel like I'm just spinning my hamster wheel. 

I need to Regroup, Refocus and Re-evaluate 

I'm going to strip my calories for the next 2 days to see if I can kick start some sort of loss and then reevaluate my numbers. What should my calories be? Do I need to drop my carbs, up my fat, what? 

So for today it's bone broth, eggs and avocado. This has kick started me in the past, so I'm trying it again. I'm also considering a 48 hour fast sometime next week too but I need to do a bit more research. 

Quick Update

Nothing much to report. Weight was down very slightly at WI .4 lbs (176.8). I thought it would be more, but it is TOM so that might account for some bloating weight etc. 

Hoping next week is a good one! 

Doing well on my dry January so far as well as my daily water intake. Actually, I'm doing well with everything so far, so I need to keep it up and hopefully I will see a big loss soon. 

Weather is glorious here today so I need to take advantage and get my butt outside! It's days like today make me think spring is just around the corner but I know Mother Nature is just playing with us. 

So Much Pressure.....

I mean really? Can a year have more pressure than what we are going to be expecting from 2021?  The reality is that it likely, hopefully can't get any worse, so anything will make 2021 better than 2020. 

I need to remember that 2021 has it a lot harder than I do, when I put pressure on myself. Last year was not a good year and I didn't take care of myself as I wanted to. 

My vow for this year is to take better care of myself  than I did last year. That means getting to my goal weight this year (165)!  And maybe a bit lower and also getting my body moving again. 

It might not be today or even tomorrow but I have 12 months ahead of me. 

At first I thought about setting a bunch of challenges for myself, but the reality is that I'm just not ready for that yet. I know if I start, I will fail so I need to ease myself into any challenges I put forth for myself. 

I do want to break the constant merry go round of my weight and finally break fully into the 170s and see that number lower on a regular basis. I looked back and I was basically the same weight (within a few lbs) when I started blogging again in September. I would see a few lbs loss here and there and then it would creep back up. 

It's gotta stop. I can do this. I've done it before. I need to get serious. 

I'm giving up alcohol for the month of January as I know that I am good for the 5 day work week and then all goes to shit on the weekend when I crack open a bottle for a few glasses of wine. The alcohol slows down my metabolism, it makes me snack, it's just not good for me right now. I don't drink a ton AT all, but if I have 2 glasses on friday and saturday, it's enough to sabotage any progress I had during the week. So it's done... for January. And then we will re-evaluate. 

That's it for me for this month. I'm not going crazy with other plans etc as this one will be hard enough for me. Hopefully it will make me drink more water on the weekends and reign in the snacking. 

Bought a new scale for myself for Christmas (FITTRACK) and it arrived yesterday. I calibrated it but it's still .5 lbs lower than my old scale, so instead of marking a loss or gain for this week, it's just going to be a new starting weight. 

There is definitely a change in my weigh over the last few weeks and it appears as of now I'm back on track. My last official weigh in was 177.8 back on Dec 16th so basically back to where I left off. 

So here goes.. my starting weight for January (first official weigh in). I'm back in the 170s.