Running Weight Loss Totals:
Diana | James | |
---|---|---|
Week 1: | 0.5% | 1.5% |
Week 2: | 1.6% | 2.3% |
Official Tuesday weight: 209. My low weight for the week was 208, though, and I’ve been hovering between 208 and 208.5 all week (except for last Tuesday’s weigh-in, of course).
Last week, I declared that my strategy would be to eat out only once during the weekend, and eat the remainder of the weekend’s meals at home. I managed to successfully stick to my plan, only eating out for lunch on Saturday, after aikido. I also managed to track everything I ate over the weekend, including my lunch at the Reynolds Garden Café.
Next step: eat HEALTHY at home and in restaurants.
Lunch? At the Reynolds Garden Café? Racked up every last calorie I’d burned in aikido that morning, plus some. Ninety minutes of martial arts wiped out by one giant Smothered Chicken Omelet. And I knew better, but I ate it anyway. Dinner that night was Sweet Mustard Chicken and frozen green beans; still a calorie-laden meal, though, since I ate two chicken breasts instead of just one.
It was Sunday’s lunch that was really the kicker, though: I broke down and made alfredo sauce. With full-fat cream cheese, and butter, and parmesan, and 2% milk. Ate it with baked chicken over low-carb organic whole-wheat elbow macaroni. It was a great low-carb meal, but not so much a good balanced meal. Incredible amounts of fat and overall calories… and with no aikido to balance them out. Dinner was super-spicy Thai Coconut Shrimp over brown rice: still a little high in calories, actually. Or maybe my portions are a little out of kilter. Either way, Sunday was a learning experience. I guess I should count myself lucky that I only gained a pound and a half from Sunday to Monday.
As far as exercise goes, I’ve been doing OK. I take half-hour walks during my lunch most days of the work week (although I’ll sometimes work through my lunch one day a week as personal penance for coming in late, even though I’m salary). I went to aikido on Wednesday and Saturday (finally, a day of no bleeding!), plus I did some pilates last Tuesday, and yoga last night.
My goal for next week is going to be portion control, especially on the weekends. I want to make a concerted effort to eat small, frequent meals on weekends, like I do during the week. Weekend weight-gain is my biggest challenge right now; once I can maintain a steady weight from Friday to Monday, I’ll move on to another challenge, like exercise.
Keep working at it! I am constantly plagued by my bad habits when it comes to diet. My weakness isn’t really the high fat as much as it is baked goods, sweeties, and chocolate. I have a serious weakness for anything that includes the words, “chocolate” and “marshmallow.”
There are also lots of switches you can make to help make some of the meals you already eat healthier. You can try adding steamed broccoli or green beans to every meal. Adding lots of greens and reds make “healthy” food much more desirable. The South Beach diet, while hard in the first couple of weeks, will change the way you view food and eat it, for sure!
Lifestyle changes are hard at first, but it gets easier, and it sounds like you’re already well on your way to the changes that you’re looking for. But I’m certain you already know this stuff.
Keep up the good work!