had a beer late last night, so giving myself a demerit for late night eating. the beer itself is not the crime, i just should have decided to have it earlier in the evening.
other than that, nothing new to report. just want to make note of a couple of trouble areas that have now gone away ...
morning headaches ... since i started having an evening coffee (many weeks ago) i have had only 2 or 3 morning headaches and i would be willing to bet that they were caused by my forgetting to have a coffee the night before.
the obvious solution would be to cut down on my caffeine intake so that i don't go through withdrawal in the middle of the night ... but i ain't doing that.
falling asleep ... without my big dose of food at night i had a hard time sleeping well at first. it took a LONG time, but my body seems to have adjusted and i now fall asleep fairly easily and sleep fairly soundly through the night.
no late-night eating ... 1st of many more days to come.
may has been a weird month; after not budging for the first 2 weeks, the scale went into free-fall for a few days, then crept part way back up and then went into snooze-mode for the remainder of the month. tomorrow is weigh-in day; at least i won't have gained weight but it sure was a lot more fun losing 6 lbs. a month like in the early days. not going to starve myself today in a last minute effort to maximize the stats for the month. that would be a serious deviation from the plan which is basically to make permanent, healthy changes to the way i eat. staying the course, working the plan.
june 1 ... monthly weigh-in and the scale co-operated for a change. made (exactly) my goal of a 4 lb. loss for the month of may. very happy about that as i was very concerned that i wasn't maintaining an adequate calorie deficit.
the goal for june ... a 4 lb. weight loss. also, i am going to raise the water intake target from 4 to 5 glasses per day. there are 2 reasons for that ...1) it's summertime and 2) it really seems to help reduce the snacking. easier said than done but i am going for it.
on a nice little roll now. it seems to help to have a new mini-target, having upped the water intake goal from 4 to 5 glasses per day. it's a do-able goal and i think my body is a little happier with the extra hydration.
i am starting to realize that the body is aware of the calorie deficit, and the (slight, but almost constant) feeling of hunger is natures way of motivating me to seek food. overcoming this with the knowledge that i can get food, usually within seconds, is key. hunger won't hurt me; staying occupied puts the feeling in the background, and maintaining the calorie deficit moves me, inexorably, towards goal.
failed in the water department. change is HARD, and i am realizing more and more that this is about change; permanent change. without making a permanent change (or three) in how i eat and drink, the weight will just come right back after i achieve goal and start backsliding into my old ways.
200 days !!! other than the urge to eat late at night, and the need to keep a leash on daytime snacking, it has been, on the whole not a bad experience. using food as a recreational drug is a tough habit to break, and it is still a struggle but i am glad that i have come this far, and maintenance mode is now just a few weeks away. i will REALLY welcome the extra 300 or so calories per day.
further good news ... the carafe that i measure my daily target of 5 glasses of water into, apparently holds 6 glasses, so on friday i actually had a win in the water department !
more of the same for today. scale showed 176 this morning which is only 1 lb. away from goal. the plan is to drop 5 lbs. below goal to allow for a "5 lb. rebound", which seems to be par for the course going by previous weight loss attempts, although they were of the "fad" variety. i think that this "slow but steady" method, coupled with PERMANENT changes to what, when and how i eat might not produce such a rebound, but i want to err on the side of caution.
not eating late at night has me waking up feeling hungry. nothing abnormal there, and i have always been a big fan of breakfast. i would actually like to eat a lot more for breakfast but then i would have to skimp elsewhere during the day ... so there's that. anyhow, what i have been doing for the past 202 days is working, so not going to make any serious changes right now, i very seldom actually feel "full", but i felt that way even when i was eating pretty much whatever i wanted. something i have to live with, i guess.
when my water intake target was 4 glasses a day, most days i was making target ... barely, and not without significant effort. now that it is 5 glasses a day, most days i am making it ... barely, and not without significant effort. ask me to drink 5 cups of coffee in a day ... i can do that by 2pm; next challenge ?
came up short on water intake. i really feel this is going to be important when i get to maintenance phase. i need to develop the habit of grabbing a glass of water rather than grabbing a banana or cottage cheese. the first glass in the morning, as well as the last glass in the evening, are pretty much automatic, and i am always able to down a third glass sometime during the day. it's those 4th and 5th glasses that are the problem. i need to develop some sort of mechanism whereby it becomes a part of the daily routine. i am going to try bringing a container of water outside with me, or bring a water bottle in the truck when i drive.
did ok with the water yesterday. dragging a bottle around seems to have helped a bit.
my screen name, it seems, was a bit optimistic ... i love fruit, and could eat it all day and all night, and while there are many vegetables that i really enjoy, it tends to be the higher calorie ones that i lean towards ... corn/peas/beans/potatoes/rice. i find that i have to have some sort of salad for lunch, otherwise my leafy green veggie consumption would be quite low.
bump in the road, fail in the late-night eating department as well as the clean eating department. surprisingly, i scored a win in water intake, which is usually the first area that i fail in, if and when i have a fail
