WEEK FIFTEEN PEEPS!

Pounds lost: 30.9

% to super goal: 25%

Still doing the damn thing.

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You might notice that I stayed pretty much flat this week. While it’s disappointing, I’m trying not to let it get me down. I have been through periods before where I go up and down in a period of time and end up close or even higher than where I started. So far, I end up continuing progress even after a mini plateau like that. We will see where we are next week.

Strap in and get comfy, this one is going to be a long one.

This week I wanted to talk a little about the process I’m using to lose weight. I had a couple people ask me in real life what I’m doing, and I felt like they thought maybe I was not being healthy, or I am taking some kind of miracle magic pill, and I didn’t know if anyone else was feeling this way so I just thought I’d lay it all out there.

As boring as it sounds, I’m using the very simple, sometimes-much-maligned calorie deficit model.

What does this mean? Basically:

Calories burned by just “being alive” plus calories burned by exercise or movement needs to be greater than the number of calories I take in per day in food or beverages.

Boring, I know. No magic, no quick solution, no cutting corners. Sahhhrryyyy.

Then

Let me take you back to my “before” eating habits:

• I would easily (and frequently) veg out on the couch with a bag of chips and eat the. Entire. Bag. Before I even realized it, I’d be tipping the last remaining crumbs into my mouth.
• I’d order a slice of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory and eat the entire thing in one sitting.
• To go along with that, I’d order a steak and veggies (and pat myself on the back for eating veggies) and clear my plate.
• In fact, I would almost always clear my plate because I was raised not to waste food.
• I never had any healthy whole food in my fridge that was easily accessible.
• If candy was there, I would eat it.
• If chips were there, I would eat them.
• Basically, if it was loaded in fat, deep fried, crunchy, salty, or sweet, I would eat it.

Because I work from home, I was walking between 600 and 1200 steps a day. That’s it. If I took the dog for a 15 minute walk I might end up with 2500 or 3000 steps.

My basal metabolic rate, or BMR (in other words, what my body burns just staying alive) was around 1430 kcal. This is the number of calories my body burned just keeping me breathing. On top of that I was probably burning, I don’t know, another however many calories, so let’s call it an even 2000 calories a day.

I was taking in what I would have estimated to be about 2000-2500 calories a day. Looking back now with what I know about what ACTUAL calories are in the food I’m eating…it was probably more like 3000-4000 calories on my bad days. As an example, that bag of chips? A 1 ounce serving (between 13 and 17 chips), is 160 calories. A 10 oz bag of chips, then, is 1600 calories by itself, of which over 50% are straight up from fat. My favorite Cheesecake Factory cheesecake (Salted Caramel, if you’re interested) is 990 calories. The steak and veggies? Around 750 calories from the steak and about 300 for the mashed potatoes. Don’t even get me started on my daily Starbucks – that bad boy is 370 calories. On a day where I had all those things, I was downing at least 4000 calories. Without even thinking about it.

There are about 3,500 calories in a pound – so I was gaining probably, what? 1-2 lbs per week on average. Sometimes more, sometimes less.

Now

To change this, I had to change my mindset, my eating habits, and my activity level. I knew I would never be able to sustain a diet where I limited myself to only certain foods or never had my coffee again, for example. I needed a solution that allowed me to make changes to my lifestyle rather than a quick-fix diet where I would gain the weight back as soon as I stopped.

So, here’s the top 5 things I did to change my activity level, how I experience and think about food, and make sustainable changes to how I eat:

1. I stopped feeling like I need to clean my plate. I stay mindful of how my body feels when I’m full. I eat more slowly, and when I’m full, I stop. I also try to put my food on a plate instead of eating from a container, so I know when I’ve had enough. Using smaller plates tricks me into thinking I have more on it even when I don’t!
2. I stocked my fridge with easy to access, healthy snacks. My favorites are Danon Light & Fit Greek yogurt, various fruits and some veggies. I cut them up and put them in plastic Ziploc containers that stack in my fridge and are easy to get to. I also eat them with an incredibly fattening but super yummy ranch dip, I just put it on a plate and stop when it’s gone.
3. I signed up for Noom and MyFitnessPal. Noom is not an eating program or diet pill, it’s a psychology-based program that helps you change the way you think about food. MyFitnessPal uses the macro-counting method to help you count your calories and make sure you stay in your budgeted goals for fat, carbs, and protein (plus more if you want). I log my food every single day. My daily calorie budget starts at 1,200 calories and increases as I get my steps and burn calories. I eat more carbs or fat some days than I should according to my plan, but honestly…those are all the yummy foods!
4. I focused on eating more protein, so I got a blender and make smoothies most mornings, using fruit, yogurt and protein powder. That fills me up till lunch, easy. Protein not only helps convert fat to muscle (which ultimately raises your basal metabolic rate) but also helps keep you feeling full longer.
5. Walking. I don’t do crazy workouts or exercise programs. I might need to at some point, but my losses so far have been doing 6,000 steps a day, most days. I walk outside if I can, and if not, I walk on my treadmill. I don’t meet my step goals every day. I don’t jog much, but I try to walk as fast as I can. I do yoga from time to time, but not enough to call it a staple of my workout regime. I just move as often as I can, for as long as I have time for.

I might grow this list to 10 things later, since I thought of a couple more tips. Also I am going to start doing some weight/strength training as a way to build a teensy bit of muscle and increase my BMR.

But all in all, that’s literally my plan. I still have my crazy coffee drink, though not every day any more. I still go to drive through restaurants. I still have chips. And pizza. And brownies. And candy. I still have my cheesecake AND my steak AND my potatoes. As I talked about before, food is just food. I just eat in moderation now. One serving of chips instead of the whole bag. Half or a quarter of the cheesecake slice and save the rest for later. Stop eating when I’m full and save the rest for tomorrow. Plan when I’m going to treat myself and save some of my calorie budget for the treat.

I exceed my calorie budget some days. Some days I don’t get my steps in. These tips seem simple, but it’s definitely not easy. It’s not magic. It takes work, and paying attention to my body and how I’m feeling, and being aware of what I’m eating when I’m not paying attention. It means walking when I don’t feel like it, or even when my body hurts, or when I’m tired from a long day and the last thing I want to do is move.

Every time I step on the scale though, or post one of these blogs with my progress, I see it’s worth it. And whether I meet my calorie goal every day or get my steps every day or not, it’s more than I was doing before. And so far…it’s working!

At some point, my body is going to settle at a certain weight, and that’s where I will need to be. It may not be my ultimate goal weight. I won’t know till I get there. In the meantime, I’m focusing on eating mostly healthy food, treating my body well, and making sure to MOVE!