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Time for a change (story, and ongoing tracker)
Meh, stories probably get pretty old to everyone on here ha, so this is more for me as a way to get a few things written down and a place to keep track of thoughts/challenges/progress. You are welcome to read, flame, comment, whatever;)
Updated Results - Will keep updating this OP with links to weekly posts Starting Weight - 260 lbs Week 1: -9 lbs = 251 lbs "Link to Weekly Post" Week 2: -6 lbs = 245 lbs "Link to Weekly Post" Week 3: -5 lbs = 240 lbs "Link to Weekly Post" Week 4: -3 lbs = 237 lbs "Link to Weekly Post" "Link to Month 1 Evaluation/Recap" Week 5: -4 lbs = 233 lbs "Link to Weekly Post" Week 6: -4 lbs = 229 lbs "Link to Weekly Post" Week 7: -3 lbs = 226 lbs "Link to Weekly Post" Week 8: -5 lbs = 221 lbs "Link to Weekly Post" Week 9: -1 lbs = 220 lbs "Link to Weekly Post" Week 10: -3 lbs = 217 lbs "Link to Weekly Post" Week 11: No Weigh-In Week 12: -5 lbs = 212 lbs "Link to Weekly Post" Week 13: -2 lbs = 210 lbs "Link to Weekly Post" "50 Lb Loss Progress Pictures" Week 14: -2 lbs = 208 lbs "Link to Weekly Post" Week 15: -2 lbs = 206 lbs "Link to Weekly Post" Week 16: -4 lbs = 202 lbs "Link to Weekly Post" Week 17: -0 lbs = 202 lbs "Link to Weekly Post" Total Loss to Date - 58 lbs The About Me 30 y/o male, 260, 5-8...married with a toddler and one on the way. I just turned 30 less than a month ago, that obviously makes you think about some things. I did a lot of things right in my 20's, have a great family, good job, strong friends, etc. But I look back and realize that I wasted a lot of opportunities as well, probably the biggest area was my health. My body type (and all guys in my family) is more stocky/muscular, when I was in good shape I was well proportioned but not ever "thin". Totally fine with that, care much more about fitness/proportions than a specific number. The Why There were several key triggers to starting the process. 1. Turning 30 2. Every cell in my body felt "dead". This is weird and hard to describe, but I'd do the slightest physical activity and I would just want to crash on the couch. 3. Realizing that playing with my daughter usually involved me moving from the couch to a stable spot on the floor and trying to convince her to run around. 4. Realizing that I will need 5 times the energy I have now in order to wrassle 2 kiddos. 5. Not being able to simply bend down and easily pick up something. 6. Excessive sweating becoming pretty embarrassing in front of clients. 7. Seeing the inevitable pictures of myself :( 8. Knowing that I have high-blood pressure, and probably have gotten to the point where I am pre-diabetic. I for sure have unbelievable energy swings, and some periods during the day where I "crash" so hard I almost can't get off the couch. The History College Pretty standard got larger in college in the late 90's, nothing horrible, but just in general got slightly larger and in slightly worse shape for 4 years. Probably went from like 180 to 210 or so over that period. Starting Out - Early 20's Nothing really significant any which way, maybe put on a few more pounds. Got married, I was not very active, but wasn't a vegetable by any means. Never really ate healthy. Was really poor so didn't eat out very much which probably slowed down the weight gain. The Job - Mid 20's Got a job that required pretty extensive travel (60%-70%). Put on another 20ish pounds up to about 240 total. The primary culprit was by far eating out and being on an expense account. I did a lot of skipping breakfast and having huge/fattening lunches and dinners because they were free (pretty hard to choose a chicken breast and broccoli over an expensive steak, twice baked potatoes, etc. Other main culprit was pretty much just not exercising. Sadly I had plenty of opportunity in hotels (pretty much all have gyms), but after a very long hard day of work when faced with a choice of ordering a meat lovers pizza delivered to my room or going downstairs to work out, I always made the wrong choice. Attempt 1 - Around 27 At about 240 I made my first attempt to correct things. I had a prolonged period of several months at home with a flexible schedule and decided to take advantage. I tackled both exercise and diet, although much more focus on exercise. I spent 1.5-2 hours a day in the gym right and worked out hard both weights and cardio. I improved my diet significantly, but still struggled with 2 things, cheating way too often (esp weekends/eating out), and portion control even with the fairly healthy meals my wife would cook. The weight flew off pretty quickly, lost 40 pounds right down to 200 in about 3 months. Felt unbelievable, actually got to the point where I felt like if I didn't go to the gym I had so much excess energy that I had to go do something! Looked great, body transformed a lot since I did a lot of weight training and I was very happy at the 200. 200 is probably still considered too much for my height, but with my stocky build it felt good. My shoulders to waist proportions looked great. The slow part of the slide- Around 28 200 should have been a great number to motivate me to stick with it, but I started a slow slide back to my old habits. This was triggered by an increase in work/stress, the holidays, and just slowly reverting to old habits. The diet slipped first, I was working out so much that I could go eat worse and not gain so that's exactly what I started doing. One Taco Bell trip a week became 3. Skipping dessert became a thing of the past, etc. The the exercise started to slip and I stopped looking at the scale as it slowly crept back up to 210, 220, etc. The fast part of the slide- Around 28-29 Then my wife became pregnant, and I gained almost as fast as she did. At first it was pure portion control when she was had lot of sickness. She'd make dinner and not be able to eat hardly any of it. So if she made a dinner that was say 4 portions, I found myself eating 3.5 of them myself in that one sitting. Then the junk fast food really increased in regularity and content and eating on the road became really bad again. Exercise basically ceased, I could blame it on all the increased activity with the pregnancy/having a newborn in the house, but it was really just laziness. NOW!! Let's solve this thing! The Factors in my favor 1. My wife will be supportive, and she's the cook and can cook good balanced, pretty healthy dinners. 2. My job has a ton of flexibility, the best part is that I can usually go to the gym at the peak of my energy which is in the 10:30AM range. When traveling I always have access to a gym in my hotel. 3. I'm decently educated on weight loss, and understand the simplicity of losing weight through a reasonable calorie deficit and exercise. No shortcuts or anything fancy. 4. I'm still a relatively young guy and think I will be able to lose weight pretty rapidly (2-4 lbs a week) if I change diet and exercise simultaneously, this will be a good motivator. 5. I am injury free and can go to the gym for good solid workouts. 6. I have the means to have a gym membership and buy decent food. Factors working against me 1. Eating out while on the road - this is my huge nemesis!!! 2. My job has a lot of weeks where one week is a very calm 20-30 hours and the next is a hugely busy stressful 50-70 hours. Those crazy weeks it is so hard to exercise and eat right, and taking a full week off is obviously horrible for weight loss, but makes it easy to not resume when things calm down. 3. My wife is pregnant again, and it is definitely harder to eat right with a pregnant wife in the house;) 4. Anything else I would list is an excuse, so I'll leave it there and am glad this list is pretty short. The Goal Unlike many folks on here, I don't have a lbs # target :dizzy: My priorities in order for weight loss are to A) Drastically increase energy level Measurable: Eat in a way that I do not have any crashes, where I wake up ready to tackle the day, and have a consistent alertness/energy throughout the day. Measurable: Be able to go to the park with my toddler and run (as in actually move around) with her, pick her up, roll around, etc without getting tired. B) Drastically increase my fitness level Measurable: Run 5k without stopping. Measurable: Be able to play a basketball or volleyball game and feel "workout tired" at the end not "I'm going to die tired" after 5 minutes C) Get my body in proportion of muscles to gut;) Measurable: Be able to see defined upper body muscles and have visible abs. Do not need to get "ripped". Upper body being broader than waist/gut. D) Fit into normal person clothes Measurable: Fit into 32 inch waist pants comfortably. Measurable: Fit into medium shirts comfortably. If I don't, it should be because my upper body makes the shirt tight, not my gut For those things I think being in the 190's would be about perfect for me. Maybe I'll get there and want to lose more, but I think the 190's is essentially my "target". The Action Plan So how am I going to do it. Here's the changes I've targeted, knowing my personality and what is more vs. less likely to work. Exercise 1. Do official (i.e. at the gym or a run) every business day, and every available Saturday. Workout will typically be 5-10 minute warm up on treadmill, 10 minutes of stretching, 20-30 minutes weights, then 30-45 minutes cardio. The only struggle here is getting to they gym, once I'm there I'm fine. 2. Don't get too caught up in complex approach to weights. Focus A) On doing different things different days (esp mixing up free weights with machine) and B) Not working out so hard that I feel super sore. This is not ideal for muscle development, but this one is more about motivation to get to the gym every day. 3. Vary the cardio method and intensity every day. Alternate between long steady cardio on some days (vary machines/running) with high/low intensity other days (mixing up sprinting/fast walk) 4. Never go out to eat when traveling without going to the gym (for any length of time). This will not only help with fitness but hopefully drastically help my traveling eating problem. 5. Add several of "mini-workouts" throughout the day primarily when at home. Try to have at least 4-6 times thought the day where I do something to get my heart rate up and get blood flowing. Do some jumping jacks, chase my daughter, go for a family walk, etc. 6. Incorporate physical activity into playing with my 30 lb toddler. Our current favorite is "kiddo-squats". I hold her out parallel in front of me, lift her up high, lower her back to level, then do a squat (and repeat). Leg lifts with her hanging on. Chasing her laps around the house and doing high-knee kicks at the same time. She LOVES this kind of stuff so it's a great double checkmark! Food 1. Start by putting primary emphasis simply on total # of calories, and don't get too focused on getting too fancy here. Limit calories to 1800-2000 daily, never go below 1500, and try to go 2400-2600 (healthy calories) once a week so my body doesn't get too "stuck". 2. Really really focus on portion control. Get one serving of dinner and put the rest away as leftovers before eating. For now, any foods that would be easy to binge on, spend the extra money and purchase in portion controlled sizes. 3. Use TheDailyPlate to track. Focus doubly on tracking days I don't do well just so it is there in front of me. 4. Don't try to over change the diet at this point. While not true in many areas of life, in dieting, it is better to be 70% of perfect than not do anything at all. For me one area of struggle is sodium. Many of my favorite high protein/low calorie lunch foods (since I don't cook) are things like turkey chili, fat free hot dogs, healthy choice soups. Seems that anything I like that is low fat/calories outside of veggies is high sodium. I'll tackle that one later. 5. Completely eliminate desserts. This is pretty easy for me, I don't ever crave sweets, but horribly binge on them if I start. This is one of the easier steps, I rarely eat desserts currently. 6. Focus on low fat/calories and greatly reduced processed carbs that are by themselves. By that I mean I will for now not do bread by itself, chips by themselves etc. But I'm not going to totally avoid say a healthy choice chicken noodle soup. 7. At home eat 6 times a day with no individual feeding >500 cals. This is pretty easy at home and really really helps me feel better all day. This will unfortunately be next to impossible on the road. Will have to focus on making my 3 meals healthy. 8. When traveling always bring several meal bars that can be eaten if needed. Never order pizza or chinese delivery. Always order a salad starter and not soup to try to fill up some. Entrees should be a meat and sides, not a pasta/burger/etc. Don't stress about the meat, but always choose a veggie over a starch side. This isn't perfect, but is I think doable and a massive improvement. 9. Supplements - be consistent about a multi-vitamin, fish oil, and green tea for some caffeine. Occasional protein shake as one of the meals after working out. 10. Always eat breakfast. I HATE breakfast, even to the point where I won't go get a fantastic cooked to order breakfast when traveling. I can do breakfast shakes, so always have these handy and at least do that. THE END |
Wow, I feel like I'm reading a nursing Concept map with measurable expected outcomes and all. You have really thought this out. And that is very good.
Just like in nursing, measurable expected outcomes are VERY important to determine progress. I would probably only add time frames. Very cute about the kiddo squats. Congrats on the second baby. Momma does need to eat healthy too though. other than that, nothing I can add, you have a great plan, and well thought out process. WE are here to support you too. |
Cool! Seems totally workable. Only problem will probably be those trips away from home. Just make sure you keep yourself disciplined--that's the important part.
Also, you can look up calorie counts for different restaurants on line. Most of the chains have them. That way if you know you're going to someplace like Chili's or TGIFridays or Red Lobster, you can decide ahead of time what you can order that will help you instead of blow things. If you haven't already done this, have your fasting blood glucose checked just to see where you're at with that. Also your blood pressure. These two numbers are really important to know. And, GOOD LUCK! You have thought this through--now execute! :cheer2: :cheer2: :cheer2: Jay |
That's very inspiring, you write well! I wish you success, but you clearly have what you need :carrot:
:welcome: |
I do a considerable amount of work travel, and my biggest hurdles are the same as yours...motivation to get to the gym while traveling, and handling the eating while traveling on business (I often have meetings where lunch is provided, too, which complicates things...). I also have a lot of experience with 60-70 hour weeks (but I wish I had the 20-30 hour ones to counterbalance...lowest I get is around 50). So hopefully some of this helps with your specific situation.
1. Go to the gym before work when you know you'll be busy or when you're traveling. You probably know ahead of time most times whether you're going to have one of those easy 20-30 hour weeks or one of the 50-70 hour weeks. On the crazy weeks, make sure that your exercise is done before you even start your work day. It's even more important when you travel...I know when I finish a day of meetings and get back to my hotel, I usually have more work to do, and I'm exhausted. Sure, it won't be easy to drag yourself out of bed at 5 to exercise before your big day. But in my experience, it's even harder to drag yourself to the gym after a 14 hour day when you've been away from your family, you're starving, and you just want to get home/back to your room and relax. So look at the day/week ahead, determine when you're likely to be getting home late (I do this based on deadlines and meetings...if I have something due or a meeting to prep or process, I know it's going to be busy, and I exercise first). And if you plan to work out during the day, and you use a calendaring system at your job that shows your availability, block it out so no one schedules over it. And don't feel bad about it, either...that 1 hour in the gym, for me, increases my productivity more than enough to make up for it. 2. Keep emergency food on you at all times. Especially when you travel. I buy high-protein oatmeal...you can prep that in a hotel room with nothing more than hot water from the coffee pot. Protein bars are great when you're in a meeting and they bring in the cookie tray when your energy crashes at 3pm. And if you'll be staying where you are for more than a day or so, do yourself a favor and find a local grocery store when you get there. Get some fruit that keeps well, like oranges. If you have a fridge in the room, and your meetings don't include over-dinner discussions, you can buy enough at the grocery store to get yourself a perfectly on plan meal (and, at least at my company, grocery receipts are also expensable for meals). The emergency food is also important when an anticipated 8 hour day turns into a 14 hour day. 3. If you do go out to eat in a restaurant, double the veggies, nix the starch, and try to keep your meat portions moderate. Since you'll be working on portion control at home, you should have a fair idea of what constitutes of serving of steak...and it doesn't touch both sides of the plate! And if you're really going to be out a lot, you're going to have to get a bit more comfortable with special requests (though that can be awkward in a business setting, particularly for men...I'm guessing that you could probably order two veggies without someone batting an eyelash, but ordering your steak "dry" is another story). Ordering a very lean meal gives you some wiggle room for the invariable restaurant add-ons (oiling/buttering the steaks, the veggies, everything really, not to mention the bread baskets)...if you order a steak, your calorie budget is going to have less room for extras than if you order a nice piece of grilled fish, you know? |
Great input! Thanks all!
re: Time frames for goals...I have sort of mixed emotions on this, am open to input. My tendency is to not set specific timeframes since I don't really know how my body will respond, so don't know what good time frames would be. It seems like I would almost be leading more towards disappointment if I didn't meet the time frame even if I was doign the right steps. OTOH I suppose not having timeframs removes a certain sense of accountability. Mandalinn, great tips about being on the road. I can empathize with the long days. It's miserable to work until 7, then know you have 2 more hours of work so the only break is dinner. That made dinner the highlight of those days and I took full advantage! I think carrying emergency food as you call it with me when I travel is a really great idea. I also think anytime I travel >=2 days I should hit up a grocery store the first night, that would be really helpful. I think ultimately eating some filling healthy snack late afternoon (3-4ish) would be really really helpful. I'm taking a short trip next week, will give it a shot! |
I actually agree with you about the time frame issue. It's common practice to set a time frame on goals, but I think with weight loss/getting fitter in general, there is so much variability in the way every individual body reacts to changes in eating patterns and exercise routines, that saying "I'm going to weigh 200lb by a specific date" may, as you said, be setting yourself up for failure.
That said, I love your plan! Will be interested to track your progress. Good luck. |
WEEKLY UPDATE - WEEK 1
Well I just wrote the OP earlier today, but I actually started this a week ago, so figured I might was well post results/observations from the first week while I can remember it. Weight - 251 -9 last week -9 overall Great first week results wise, and I think I got there with a great combination of eating right and working out (not overdoing either). It doesn't really surprise me to see a 9 week 1. I think I will hit 20 pretty quick (before end of year if I can survive Christmas), then it will slow down a lot to 2-3 per week average if I'm lucky. I'm amazed by how much better I feel after only a week. I easily have double the energy I had just a week ago. I've been able to play with my daughter a lot more without dragging, and really incorporate a lot of motion into playing, mini-exercising. It's crazy how "awake" my body feels after a day of eating right and working out, physically tired in a good way, but "awake" at the same time. Food Observations I did very well this week, probably the best I can reasonably expect to do. What went right was eating 5-6 small meals a day and keeping it in the 1600-2000 calorie range. Only real slip up was a potluck holiday party last weekend, on the bad side I ate a number of things that weren't great for me, on the positive side, I ate half of what I probably ate last year. Got lucky when had dinner with friends at their house and they happened to be serving grilled chicken with a cilantro/lime sauce on the side, brown/white rice (I did brown!), and black beans. Skipped dessert and escaped pretty good. While I did good at dinners they were still my hardest meal. My wife doesn't cook overtly healthy or unhealthy. Her meals are fine for me calorie wise if I just eat the right portions. For example one night she made a lemon pepper turkey breast roast with some steamed rice and veggies. Fine dinner for me, but so tempting to eat about 3x what I should have. I succeeded this week but it was the most temptation I had all week to go back to the pot and get more a couple. Oddly I'm eating a snack in the 3-4 range which I've never done in the past, but I guess due to the exercise I'm back to feeling like I need to eat a lot at dinner. I think I need to focus on eating dinner more slowly and maybe increasing the size of my afternoon snack. No horrible cravings, which I think is a lot due to eating often enough to not be truly hungry very often even though I ate probably half the calories I normally do. Some cravings for chips, and it was hard to not eat a lot of chips/crackers with soups/chili like I normally do. Exercise Observations Boy it was hard to have to admit how out of shape I am. Can't really run a quarter mile without getting out of breath, and can only do about half the weight I used to be able to do. The worst was basketball. One day I went out onto the court just to vary things and just kind of ran, sprinted, shot, jumped, etc. I felt (no....actually was) horribly uncoordinated. It was tough. On the positive side I did really good with my workouts. Made it to the gym every day except Sunday, and even better, did a much improved job of moving a TON more at home. I did a good job of varying my workouts to different types, pieces of equipment, etc. It's really helpful to go in the late morning for me. I need to try to schedule that as much as possible. I have to be careful to not overdo it, it's better for me to work with a little less intensity and not feel so sore the next day that I don't feel like going. My knees hurt a little, need to be careful not to overexert there. I am also really really inflexible, and need to put more emphasis on this. I feel like I am "wasting" time at the gym on this but my head knows that's not true. Next Week Next week is the first big test as I'm traveling for 2.5 days. On the positive side I am traveling by myself and should not have to work a lot of evening hours so the only real barrier is just temptation to fall into old habits. I shouldn't have the pressure of business dinners and 14 hour days. |
Excited about yesterday...had several of really significant victories.
First I went to a playground with my daughter and whereas I usually just sit and watch, today I was able to crawl around with her and move a lot and it felt good, not exhausting. Second, at around 2pm I knew I really needed to go to the gym and for the first time in a week I really didn't feel like it. I was laying on the couch watching a game with the wife and kiddo asleep and really wanted to just veg out. Instead I got up and went to they gym, and by the time I got there I had woken up and got in a really solid workout. Thirdly, tonight was a big annual poker tourney for my weekly game with the guys. Knowing there would be a lot of junk food and alcohol, I put a lot of thought into how to handle the evening. I ALWAYS eat at taco bell (favorite cheap food) on my way to poker. Here's my usual order... 2 chili cheese burritos 1 grilled stuffed burrito 1 supreme nachos 1880calories/88fat Instead I had a protein shake after working out so I would be so starved at dinner time. Then I still went to Taco Bell (just to prove I could lol) and had... Chicken burrito fresco fresco taco 490calories/15fat Fourthly, while at the game (ran until 3am) I avoided all the snack food and alcohol that was there and stuck with diet soda and about 250 calories worth of sunflower seeds (in shell) I snacked on all night. I actually would have been ok with having a beer or two, but I don't like it enough for the calories, plus it hurts my poker game. So a ballpark total of old way vs. new way today. Working out vs. napping - 600 calories saved New Taco Bell vs. Old Taco bell - 1400 calories saved Seeds instead of snacks/beer - 500 net calories saved Total of 2500 calories saved!! I think that gives me a great example of how fixing the "bad days" can actually be so significant. 2500 calories is an entire day's worth of food and a whole lotta working out. Main lesson learned is that I need to think/prepare for dangerous food situations before they happen, makes a huge difference. Managed to stay just under 2k calories and ate at 9am, 11am, 1pm, 4pm, 6:30pm and 9pm. |
Looks like you're doing everything right...can't wait to read that you've reached goal!!!
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Great report, excellent strategies! You showed how to make BETTER choices than you had made in the past! And--you were still able to eat at Taco Bell and stay within your plan.
Keep going--and keep planning. Jay |
Thanks for the encouragement...
Today through Wednesday marks another big test, first work travel. Trying to follow on with observations from this weekend, I need to plan ahead for things and not let them "happen" to me which results in poor behaviors. So here's what I'm thinking. Maybe by writing it down beforehand I'll feel more obligated to stick to it. Monday (today): Going to go hit the gym today before heading to the airport. That way I don't have to worry about it tonight when I'm tired and arrive at my hotel. This sounds kind of dumb but I've gotten away from packing good workout shoes as I travel so much that every inch of room is precious. Since this is just a 2.5 day trip I'm going to pack them. I'm going to pack some snack food to take so I always have some food on me. Snack binging is less of a problem for me than getting to lunch/dinner super starved so going overboard at a restaurant. If the trip was longer I would stop at a grocery store the first night, but I think I can carry enough snacks with me for this length. Tuesday: I forsee 3 challenges. First is breakfast. I really struggle with the all you can eat breakfast buffets with a short order cook (nom nom). 2 options. A) Don't even go, and just eat a banana in my room or a meal bar or something. B) Go, and just order something healthy like an egg white omelete with veggies. B is preferable and a better "lifestyle" choice but is more dangerous. I'll decide this by tonight and stick to my decision in the morning. Second is lunch. Have to take clients out to lunch on Tuesday which is always tempting. Since this is my first trip and restaurant meal out on the plan I'm going to keep it simple and just order a good salad. Kind of wimpy way out but I think that's best for this time. Third is working out. I really really really just need to come back to my hotel room, change and go immediately to the gym. If I "stop" and veg out for even 15 minutes like I normally do, it is 100 times harder to get going again. If I just go ahead and knock out the gym I'll be refreshed after showering and ready for dinner/more work. Wednesday: Same plan for breakfast. Flying home early afternoon so am faced with another frequent travel misstep --- eating bad at the airport before flying. This is a notable challenge as I usually don't have time to stop before going to the airport, and small airports do not usually have great healthy food options (often only one small "grill" type place). So I will try two different things. Option 1 would be to pick up a fast food salad at a drive through on the way to the airport and eat at the airport. Option 2 is to eat at the airport and do my best, and adjust calories for dinner. I'm going to pack workout clothes in my car so I can stop on the way home from the airport and workout. This is key because if I come straight home I won't go back. So let it be written, so let it be done! |
Wow, you're doing great, keep it up! I love reading your updates!
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i love that you think everything through and post it...I feel like I am watching a reality show with you!
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Wow, what a day, not what I expected. Everything was pretty normal through the early afternoon.
Mini Success 1 Even though I travelled today, I was good and went to the gym before heading to the airport. Had to stop by the store to pick up a new temporary belt (my one "fat" belt wore out) and decided to get one 4 inches shorter than my current belt in a moment of boldness (note I have not lost 4 inches, my fat belt had a little growing room). I tried it on and could just get it buckled on the widest buckle so I figure that will be some good motivation to get that new belt up to the 3rd or 4th notch. Got to the airport and found my flight was cancelled so I had to wait at the airport more than 4 hours for the next flight :mad:. I had a ton of work to do, so I had to do it in the uncomfortable airport instead of my comfortable hotel room. Mini Success 2 Needed a snack and happened to be right across from Freshens Yogurt. Bypassed my normal Peanut Butter Chocolate Thing (>500 cals) and got a regular sized mango lo-cal smoothie (90 cals). And it was actually really really good and hit the spot. Also good to knock out the hunger and stop me from heading to Chilis for a Triple Play with a few beers. Mini Success 3 Finished my work with about an hour and half until boarding and was deciding how to kill the time. My usual choices are either a book or Netflix. Instead I was like "what the heck, I'll go for a walk". My home airport is HUGE so I basically just walked for the full hour and a half (about 4 miles on my pedometer). I walked between terminals, saw things I've never seen in my hundreds of trips in this airport. I wasn't speed walking or anything since I didn't want to sweat much, but I was moving. By the time my flight left I was wiped (esp after combining that with the gym). Mini Success 4 Had to eat dinner at the airport and went with a Thai Chicken Wrap from Au Bon Pain. Really didn't want a salad, and it seemed like a decent choice. Turned out to be 530 calories, which was ok for dinner since I skipped chips. Regardless it was a lot better than my usual in that situation (Chili's at the airport Triple Play + 3 beers = 2600 calories :o) Flight was fine, except I sat in between two guys who got in a fight when one of them snuck out his blackberry when he wasn't supposed to and the other guy decided to be the police. I was on a small regional jet (with even smaller seats than a normal plane) and I could have sworn that I fit a bit more comfortably in the seat than I did the last time I flew on one. Could be my imagination. Anyway I then made it to my destination and the rental car company didn't have a car to fulfill my reservation (I had a conf number and everything). I felt like I was in that Seinfeld episode where the same thing happened to Jerry. Anyway, all 6 rental car companies were sold out, and this is a small town that didn't even have any taxis around that time of night (11pm by now). But, fortune shone upon me, and after waiting about 10 minutes for a taxi to show up, a shuttle from my hotel happened to come by, I didn't even know they had a shuttle since it's pretty far from the airport. Felt really blessed at that moment after a really long day. In the end it maybe was a good thing as I would have been pretty tempted to hit a late night drive through after the afternoon/evening I had. So I was able to end up the day getting in more exercise than expected and stayed in my calorie range. Tomorrow could be tough after today, but one day at a time! |
you rolled with the punches and even socked out a few yourself...that is great. I bet you really did fit more comfortably in there...good job!
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Great job with some tough challenges!
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Hmmm, odd day...bit of a mixed bag
Fortunately I didn't have to be at my client until noon. So instead of waking up and eating breakfast first thing I ate a snack and went to work out. I guess I walked too much yesterday because my right knee was pretty sore this AM, preventing me from really going hard at the hotel gym. But I did a "light" workout, and 30 minutes on the elliptical actually helped loosen it. Then I went to breakfast around 10:00, thinking that I could eat a decent sized meal and not be as tempted at my client lunch. I forgot to really pack adequate snacks like I was supposed to so decided to flirt with fire and eat at the hotel restaurant for breakfast. I there encountered a key nemesis, the all you can eat HOT breakfast buffet with my all time favorite breakfast food, biscuits and sausage gravy. Old Choice 2 Biscuits smothered in sausage gravy with 6-8 pcs bacon on top. Calories??? New Choice About a cup of canteloupe/pineapple with an egg white omelette with ham (no cheese). Calories??? Took my clients to lunch around noon and got a bit unlucky as we went to a local greasy spoon with really two choices: hamburgers or sandwiches. This might be an excuse but I do think it is harder for men to do all sorts of special ordering or coming across as picky when out with other males in a business lunch. I ended up having a club sandwich that was fantastic. Only good here was that I had green beans instead of fries (although not sure how good these particular southern style green beans with sausage and bacon actually were:)). Mini Success After my rental car (or lack thereof) fiasco I was left without a car. Instead of hailing a taxi or bumming a ride, I walked the 1.5 miles from my client back to my hotel. This was nice as it was cool out and was a peaceful way to end the work day. The only bad part was I was wearing dress shoes so not the most comfortable. I really didn't feel like going to the gym again, so went out and walked around from about an hour, so burned a few calories there. But made a mistake in not really eating a good afternoon snack so I was STARVED by the time dinner came around. This is a huge mistake because it really magnifies the amount of willpower required when staring at a menu. I decided to go down to the nice hotel restaurant which was a small victory as I usually order a huge delivery meal. Mini Success I told the waitress to not bring the bread with this ridiculously good smelling garlic/chive butter. I would have eaten the whole loaf. Old Choice Another huge nemesis of mine, the seafood pasta platter, an all time favorite. It looked GOOOOD on the menu. Lobster Bisque with Seafood Pasta and a mini loaf of bread and butter. Calories??? New Choice A beautiful salmon with grilled asparagus. I'm sure the sauce on it wasn't great and it was a large piece of salmon. Calories??? Mini Success Have a 6 am flight home tomorrow (have to leave before hotel breakfast). Got the restaurant to give me a banana so I can have something to eat when I wake up. Thinking ahead! Not really sure how many calories I ate today, although it was WAAAY less than I typically would have consumed. I exercised, but it was kind of wimpy and mostly walking. We will see how I deal with tomorrow when I have to get up at 4am and fly home. |
omg, you had so many successes! The sauce on that salmon was NOTHING compared to the calories in that lobster Bisque. I guarantee you. Go Random!
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Look at all the good things you did:
- You thought ahead about your foods. - You tried to choose the better foods of those available. - You passed on the foods that would help pack on the pounds (the bread, the biscuits w/gravy). - You walked instead of riding. - You took it easier when your knee started hurting, instead of just pushing through. :bravo: Jay |
Well, it really takes TONS more discipline to stay on plan when I travel, cause it puts me so far off of a routine that it is just tough. But my first trip is over and I shouldn't have to travel again until 2010.
I had a hard time getting to sleep last night, finally fell asleep around midnight which was problem considering I had to wake up at 3:45am for my 6am flight. That messed with my whole day. Fortunately I had thought ahead and at least had a banana to eat to get my belly going. Made it home around 8, and was back asleep by 9am and slept until 2pm, which really is probably going to throw me off schedule for a couple of days. On the positive side I did make it to the gym this afternoon. Exercise Observation This week has been a lot tougher to exercise, I've felt more sore and haven't been able to do the intensity I want. I've chosen frequency over intensity this week (I've gone every day and done a lot of outside the gym exercise but haven't killed it at the gym). I'm on the fence about which is better, less frequent and more intense or vice versa (opinions?). My guess is that it's probably better physically to exercise less often but more intense, but I think psychologically and discipline-wise it's better to make it a daily habit, at least for now. Had dinner at a friends house which we do once a week and is always dangerous. I did pretty good. We had barbecued chicken, broccoli, scalloped potatoes, and brownies. I had extra broccoli and went easy on the scalloped potatoes (I could have eaten sooo much of that it was fantastic) and skipped the brownies. I could have had one, but then again I don't think I could have had only one. So ended up the day fine calorie wise and made it to the gym so overall success I guess. Very pleased with my overall success on my first trip on the new plan, but also realize this was a pretty easy trip since I wasn't working long hours and it was still pretty hard to stay on plan. I'm not sure if I'll make it to the gym tomorrow as I'm going golfing all afternoon. I might just go ahead and let my body recover for a day since I'll at least be outside and moving while golfing so not sedentary. |
Exercise: I was told that 5-6 days a week was needed to support weight loss. That doesn't have to be the gym, however. I did a combination of cardio (treadmill, exercise bike, etc.) and weight training (free weights, machines) being careful not to lift with the same muscle groups two days in a row. I also walked every day for half an hour. I only had time for an hour and a half a day for exercise/activity.
Think like a marathoner, not like a sprinter. You need an exercise program you can sustain for the long haul, not one that will wear you out too quickly or make you too sore to move. That's just my opinion, of course! :) Jay |
Short post long day...
Didn't do the gym today, but spent 5 hours on the golf course so feel like I got in some good exercise. I did not eat well today, not in terms of total calories which were ok, but the quality and timing of those calories was not good. By 6 pm I had only consumed about 400 total calories, entirely a protein bar and some sunflower seeds. Nothing green or fresh came near my mouth. Tomorrow is weigh-in day and poses several challenges. First of all I'm not sure I can make it to the gym since I have to "daddy-sit" all day and have an event that night. The event involves cookies and hot-chocolate for caroling. There's a small chance I can hit the gym tomorrow but unlikely so I'll try for that, if not, I'll have to maybe go to the park with my daughter and at least do a lap or two. Need to be sure to fill up before the cookie/cocoa event so I don't eat a bunch of cookies like I easily could. I might have to weigh Saturday since I'm using the digital scale at the gym as my reference. I'm hoping for 5-6. |
random - I'm really enjoying your posts and the detail you're putting into the planning, as well as the thoughtful analysis about what's working and what doesn't. As a past road-warrior, I can certainly appreciate the travel challenges!
Regarding the exercise, I think the habits in the gym are just as important as the ones in the kitchen. Frequency will establish a foundation, and you can always build on the intensity later. And while JayEll's position on exercise is certainly supported by plenty of data ... I personally am not going to build in that much time "working out." My husband and I LOVE Matt Furey's Combat Conditioning program. Big pluses are that it's all functional strength - seriously - what GOOD does a bench press do for you in life?, it's fast because it's combination moves (20-30 minutes, tops, until you get really advanced), and it's incredibly portable because it's all body-weight exercises. Based on wrestling strength training and martial arts - builds a lot of flexible strength, and will still get your heart rate up quite thoroughly! My DS10 enjoys it too and it's helped his posture. I knew it was working when I saw him (57" tall) get a running start at a 5 1/2 foot concrete block wall and basically haul himself over it with just upper body strength - and he's only doing 20 minutes 3 times a week. Anyway - keep up the great work! I'm looking forward to reading about more of your successes! |
Thanks ICUWishing!
I might give that a try, I've been looking for things to keep my workouts mixed up. I definately believe in constantly doing different workouts, but it is hard as sometimes I just want to go to the gym and do something that is "easy" for me, which isn't the best. Food Alert Today I am in my house alone until 5pm with about 500 freshly baked Christmas cookies destined for a social event tonight. There is literally not a space free on any counter or table in my house that does not have a tray of cookies and my fridge has about 3 giant things of cookie dough..... AARRRGGGHHH!!!!!! MUST SURVIVE!!!!!! |
Friday 12/19
Another kind of mixed bag day, it's been a difficult week. I've seen a lot this week why I've struggled in the past, and that is simply that my life and job are very non-conducive to a regular schedule. This fact can be used for or against my goals. I knew I wasn't going to be able to make the gym today. I had to Daddysit and was flying around doing a ton of things in advance of a night event. I probably could have put a little effort into doing something at my house and probably should have. On the positive side I was out moving most of the day and did a number of physical things as part of daily life. So that makes 2 days Thu/Fri with no gym this week. That was not my original goal but I'm ok with it this week. Thursday I golfed and frankly was almost as sore after 5 hours of that as I usually am after the gym, and Friday was just one of those days it was impossible. Eating wasn't great on Friday. First the positives Mini Success There were several hundred freshly made Christmas cookies of all varieties in my house today for an event tonight. I didn't have a singe one! It didn't take quite as much willpower as I thought. But my usual struggle is not to eat or not to eat, it's once I have the first one, the 10 that follow. So that was good. I ate well all day (a little under calories) Mini Success I had a nice filling bowl of beef barley soup before this cookie event we had so I wouldn't be starved and eat a bunch. It worked and I didn't have any cookies, again I could have, but didn't really "need" them so passed. Then the bad part, a bunch of friends wanted to go out to eat after this event and they chose Mexican. A big personal weakness of mine and not a lot of easy healthy options. I ate some chips, but made a conscious effort to eat them more slowly (ergo less) than usual. And I chose to have grilled fish tacos with a mexican slaw, charro beans, and this incredible sauteed cucumber side that was too good to be healthy. So I probably had one of the healthiest things on the menu but ate too much (3 tacos) and it was my biggest meal so far on the new plan. I was under calories heading into the evening but it did put me a little over. I was glad I passed on temptation the rest of the day! |
WEEKLY UPDATE - WEEK 2
Ok it is the conclusion of week 2. I had an "extra" day this week since I wasn't able to go to the gym on Friday and use the scale I'm using as a baseline. Weight - 245 -6 last week -15 overall through 2 weeks I'm pleased with the 6, TBH it was right about what I was expecting so it was good to see that number. Overall I had a very successful week, not perfect, but it was also a much more difficult week than week one as I had my first business trip and several "unusual" days. It's encouraging to see results to back up effort. I "feel" skinnier, but don't necessarily see it quite as much in my clothes as I might have expected (although definitely some). Food Observations Calories for the week Sat - 2039 Sun - 1570 Mon - 1691 Tue - 2045 Wed - 1309 Thu - 1655 Fri - 2191 Good week eating wise. Had 2 meals out that could have been better but could have been a LOT worse. The calories were much healthier than they used to be, very protein heavy and low fat. I'm not totally eliminating anything at this point, although virtually no sugar. I've been doing well in splitting up my meals, but on days where I can be perfect (at home, nothing weird), I'm having a bit of a hard time getting my calories split across the day as evenly as I like. Need to work on bigger breakfasts I guess. But the best thing is that for now it is workable and definitely livable. I've been more strict with avoiding temptation than I would like to whenever I get to maintenance, but only had a couple of really tough moments this week when it comes to food. Exercise Observations Exercise for the week Sat - Gym Sun - Rest Mon - Gym/Airport Walking Tue - Gym (2 short sessions) Wed - Gym Thu - Golf Fri - None (although 2-3x normal activity for the day) I expected this week to be easier than week one in regards to exercise but it WAS NOT! I think it was several factors. Burning up stores of energy intensely week one. Traveling which always always takes up more energy than you think it would, and overdoing it a bit on Monday when I had several hours to kill in an airport so walked 4ish miles AFTER going to the gym earlier that day. So the net was I felt a little more lethargic and sore than I hoped to which impacted the intensity of my workouts, I didn't feel like I killed it in the gym as much as I might have liked. On the positive this was still TONS more energy that anything before the new plan. Another positive is that I can't really think to many moments where I was tired throughout the week which is great, no real energy valleys which was one of my main goals. Another positive was that the day I didn't go the gym (Friday) I really felt like I wanted to go to the gym, I wished I could go burn some energy. I discovered "This American Life" podcasts this week which are awesome! I find that listening to speaking while doing long cardio sessions is better than music, while music is better while doing weights. Planning For Next Week The key to next week (which includes Christmas) is maximizing Sun-Thu as much as possible. I'm home all week and on vacation so should be no reason why I can't do some good gym sessions and eat pretty good. I'm going to set my most modest goal yet for Christmas day. Simply don't eat until you can eat no more. That's it... I'll do that a lot on holidays, eat an entire plateful, be full and still go back for more. So I'm not going to restrict any food or beat myself up over eating a "large" meal, but want to keep it to being full and not that next step. I still think 240 is pretty reasonably by the end of the year if I can minimize other issues (including family visiting the week after Christmas). We shall see! |
Mini Success
Went out for some shopping etc. with the fam tonight around dinner. We decided to have dinner out and we settled on Chipotle. Now bear in mind I love Chipotle and had the exact order below at least twice a week the whole summer while on a project up north. Old Choice Chicken Burrito (rice, black beans, tortilla, chicken, lettuce, salsa, sour cream, guac, cheese) with Chips and Guac --1765 calories Today Choice Chicken Salad - really the only difference was no tortilla or rice (add grilled veggies). Extra salsa instead of dressing and nix the sour cream and cheese. --425 calories Net Savings 1325 calories and really hit the spot! |
Randomcards--excellent choice at Chipotle! I really like their food, and was happy to discover that one can "build their own." It helps a lot!
Keep making those better choices and trying to think ahead. Get those emergency snacks down to a habit. You might try keeping South Beach Living High-Protein bars with you--around 140 cals each, and great in an emergency. Jay |
Monday 12/21
Not much to report, good solid normal day at home. Had a great workout and stayed within calories. Was out and about so got one of KFC's new 395 calorie meals...basically 2 pieces grilled chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans. It was unbelievable, will definitely get added to my list of things to eat if I have to do fast food. Also my wife made one of my all time favorite meals which isn't particularly healthy. I got about half my normal portion, ate slowly and it was great and I felt full afterwards. Nice to enjoy a favorite and not feel like I blew the day. |
Tuesday 12/22
Nothing much to report. Another solid day at home, did well with both diet and exercise. I'm glad to be getting in a few good days before this weekend which will be tough. Couple of minor notes. My knees and ankles are hurting/taking a long time to get loose. It's preventing me from running which I want to mix in and limiting the cardio I do. Mini Success As a kid I played a lot of soccer, as part of this I would "juggle" a soccer ball with my feet/thighs/chest/etc. for as long as I could off the ground. I got to a point where I could easily do well over 100 juggle touches and could go the entire length of a soccer field without ever letting the ball touch the ground. When I started working out 2.5 weeks ago I tried this again, and couldn't even keep the ball in the air for 10 juggle touches. It was like I had 20 pound dumbbells strapped to my legs........oh wait that was pretty much true:) Anyway I've mixed this in twice a week to my routine and today I got 50! That was great! Mini Success Was out doing some last minute Christmas shopping. Was at Target around 6:30 and started to get really hungry. Walking in front of/smelling one of my favorite restaurants Pei Wei on the way didn't help! So instead of getting a bag of chips at Target, or some chicken strips at the deli I actually saw they had a fresh seaweed salad (which sounds gross but I actually really like at sushi places) so got that instead. It was great, small, and filled the void until I could get home and eat something healthier. I still need to get better at carrying healthy snacks around. Being a guy I don't have a purse to sneak things around in, and some things like protein bars I can't really leave in the car in the summer. Best I have come up with to stash in my cars is small bags of in the shell sunflower seeds and 100 cal packs of beef jerky. None of which is incredibly healthy, but not too bad either and I like both. |
Wednesday 12/23 Good
Thursday 12/24 Bad Had a solid day again Wednesday on both food and exercise fronts. Today was a different story. Did just ok until dinner tonight. Didn't eat the most healthy but controlled portions and avoided all the sweets lying around (especially the freshly baked banana and ginger breads). Dinner was another story. We were going to go out to eat, but we are having the worst snow here we've had in a while so ended up doing pizza in. That was failure 1, failure 2 was eating 4 pieces. Prob 1200-1300 cals :( Disappointed in that I only wanted to eat two and ended up eating 4. I think family dinners are almost harder for me in that my wife and toddler both eat really slow and I don't, so instead of being able to eat my portion and then move on to something distracting, I end up eating more sometimes (more in the past than recently). I need to work on eating much much slower, I think this will help out. Crossing my fingers about tomorrow. On a scale of 0-5 red devils :devil::devil::devil::devil::devil:....I'm shooting for <=3 |
Hi randomcards - just discovered your thread.
Kudos for such a thoughtful approach and clear monitoring of your steps taken each day. I share your observation that eating out on business trips with work friends is a tough one. Also interesting that you've observed that your eating speed contributes to the amount you consume when you don't have the option to get up from the table and move on to the next thing. Great demonstration that once observed, you can own a behavior and consider options. . |
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Friday 12/25 - Christmas!
So grateful to have a chance to celebrate the day of our Savior's birth with family. I hope everybody had a great day with family and friends. First some results for today and some observations in general about Christmas and the plan. Today I crossed the 3k - I think - calorie barrier for the first time on plan (actually first time over 2.2k calories on plan). I say I think because I really have no idea the true count of several things, but I tried to estimate pretty realistically though I think. The sad thing is that the 3k cals was pretty much only two meals, a big breakfast and Christmas dinner. I definately was not planning to be "on plan" today so overall I give myself :devil::devil::devil: out of 5 which is what I expected;) Negatives from today - Biscuits and sausage gravy with bacon for breakfast, I could have only had one and not two. My favorite breakfast of all time. - Portions were a bit larger than they should have been for Christmas dinner and I didn't put anything off limits Positives from today - I avoided "eating till I could eat no more" today - I only had one roll with no butter instead of 3-5 typical - I had twice the servings of green beans and corn on the cob as I would typically have - I pretty much didn't have any desserts (two small bites of KrispyKreme bread pudding) - I avoided a large unhealthy nighttime meal of leftovers Random Observations At least for me, conquering Christmas isn't as much about the day itself as it is the week before and the week after. The plethora of less healthy leftovers, snacks, and desserts is a problem that is hard to resolve. Am I willing to throw it away? My wife made this unbelievable KrispyKreme bread pudding that I'm sure is like 500 calories a serving and we have half the tray leftover. Why should we keep it? It seems wrong to "waste" perfectly good no GREAT leftovers, but I don't want to eat it (at least not at the moment when I'm full) and it will be a huge temptation until it is gone. We don't have family over so either I will eat it or my wife will. I've decided that some things, especially leftover desserts need to just be tossed in the garbage as a way to prevent binging and moving more quickly back to post holiday plan. Counting calories made me think about meals like this in a different way. When inputting everything for the day (painful) it was interesting to see foods where the "pleasure vs. calories" were high or low. In some cases there were foods I loved that were half the calories as something else I loved equally. So in the future why not do more of the one and less of the other? Another interesting and positive observation today came from my meal size. I'll admit that my two big meals for today were typical size of my meals pre-plan. What was interesting today was that after I ate breakfast (actually a little smaller than usual) I was STUFFED and not remotely hungry again for like 6 hours. My body felt so much different (in a bad way) than eating 6 smaller meals, I also had much much larger energy swings than I've experienced over the last several weeks which I'm sure was based on my eating. |
Saturday 12/26
Well today was another unavoidable day half on half off plan :( But it was to be expected as it was my wife's birthday so things were obviously off due to that. First the bad. The Bad - Didn't make it to the gym or get any real exercise, although didn't plan to as it wasn't where I needed to be today obv. - Ate lunch at Mooyah Burger with the fam where the healthy choices are more fries or less fries;) The Good - Was a good husband and father...that's pretty important - Stayed right at 2k cals, the upper limit of what I am trying to stick to - Did not eat any horrible Christmas leftovers, or have sweets of any kind - Split food at Mooyah burger Key observation of the day I had a bit of an epiphany today...last time my wife was pregnant was the fastest I have ever gained. This was due to a combination of portion control (she would have cravings for something unhealthy, eat 3 bites and I would eat all the rest plus my own) and just unhealthy food. She is sick a lot when pregnant and both times has lost 15ish pounds early in the pregnancy and not gotten back to start weight until ~6 mo. So she tries to eat, but usually eats half or less of a portion before being unable to eat more in a single sitting...this changes in the last trimester. So to use today's trip to Mooyah Burger (her birthday lunch choice while out shopping) as an example.... Old Approach We would both order a burger and fries. I would eat mine, she would eat half of hers and I would finish hers. I thus ate 1.5 meals and around 1800-2000 cals. New Approach So today I simply decided to split one with her. That forced me to eat an appropriate portion (admittedly still "unhealthy" food), we both had plenty, and saved some money. So I ate .5 meals instead of 1.5 meals. Could I have eaten a whole burger and fries...sure...but I wasn't hungry afterwards. I've noticed smaller portions filling me up since trying to eat smaller meals more often. Net Savings 1200-1300 calories!!! Now obv it would have been better had I been somewhere where I could have had say a salad, but this little choice was so vastly better than what I did last time around I know they add up. And I stayed under my calories for the day. I'm going to keep trying this trick as much as possible through the end of the pregnancy. If we split a meal and are still really hungry afterwards we can always just order something small extra. |
Sounds like a good plan, randomcards. Great you are making space in your life to think these things through.
I'm enjoying reading your posts. And re throwing away desserts, I am about to get out of bed to throw away the leftover whipped cream. Thank you for the encouragement! |
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Sunday 12/26
Pretty good day, no gym workout (my gym is closed on Sundays) but got in some exercise at home, although nothing to brag about. I haven't been to the gym now since last Wednesday, so will have to avoid the temptation to overdo it tomorrow, I'm actually excited to go and weigh in. I think I've lose weight this week despite the holidays... we will see. Sundays are tough for me because I have to be at church really early (8am) since I play for the worship team. I need to figure out a snack to take and when to eat it at church because I'm waay to hungry by the time I'm done at noon. Then I usually feel like either going out to eat with friends (a long tradition) or picking up fast food on the way home. And being starved makes me go overboard. Anyway today we went out with some friends to a burger place. I could have said no and maybe that would have been good. However on the positive side I had a Greek Salad with Gyro meat instead of my usual - Chicken Fried Steak Sandwich with large Onion Rings. I'm sure that was a 500 calorie plus difference. I've eaten super well the rest of the day, and was actually kind of low on calories ~1500. This is ok after the past couple of days, keep my body confused hopefully. Portion control thought So thinking about it there are several place to control the portions you eat if you are eating at home. In order (maybe I am missing some) 1. The amount you cook... 2. The amount you put on your plate (vs. put away for leftovers)... 3. The amount you eat on your plate... 4. Going back for seconds... So here are my thoughts on the above. 4 and 2 are to me by far the most controllable. For #2 the secret is putting away the leftovers before I eat my first portion. This is not easy but effective. #4 is very controllable and a matter of willpower. Eating smaller meals and snacks so I am not starved is a huge part of this. #1 is a lot less controllable in many cases depending on recipe, etc. In some cases it is very easy. Frozen meals like lean cuisine are pretty helpful here where applicable. The 100 cal packs are great for this with snacks also #3 is almost impossible for me to control, I just can't do it. I can't have a plateful in front of me and eat half of it (assume I remotely like it). Not sure if is years of programming or what, but I can't focus on portion control here. So I think I need to focus most on areas I can control more to aid the battle of portion size |
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