About two weeks ago I got on the scale and had the whoopsie daisy moment of realizing how much weight I had gained back.
It took me a couple of days and I publicly wrote about why I needed to get healthy again. I’m not writing these for your validation or approval. I am writing these to keep myself accountable because I know making public declarations has a real deal effect.
People will ask me about it later on. When they ask, I don’t want to be left here making excuses like well, I just didn’t do what I said. Instead I’d rather achieve the goals and feel great about myself.
With a lot of discipline I’ve been focusing on eating less and as a result am down about 10 pounds already.
Don’t you stress I’m not doing anything radical.
End of the day weight control is largely a formula of calories in vs out
The first thing I had to do was focus on portion control.
Restricting food types and all the diets out there have limited effectiveness. On the other hand learning to eat what I want, but in portions that are mindful of calories, the gains are coming. This isn’t really an excuse to live off junk food, but at the very least lowering my calorie intake to something more in line with what I need.
It’s worth acknowledging that what you eat matters. There are all the macro and micro nutrients and superfoods and proper balances of stuff. None of that really matters to me at this time though inevitably I’ll optimize my diet.
I’m going to learn to eat within my means than when I got that down, work on eating the best versions of stuff.
The main problem I have is that I eat way too much. Like volumes of food that have me convinced I could win food challenges. It’s not good.
So for now I am just going to eat less.
At first there were big cravings and then it just got easier out of nowhere
The first few days of eating healthier is this wild withdrawal feel.
I have radically reduced my sugar and salt intake. My body was craving it like a fiend. I just wanted chips and chocolate and to melt cheese on everything. Actually the amount of money I’m going to save on cheese next year is embarrassingly high.
I was irritable and cranky but I knew that if I held it down and resisted the urge to eat poorly I would feel better. And the truth is I was already feeling better. I’d wake up less bloated and have more energy.
Clearly stuffing my face with all kinds of bullshit before bed was messing with my sleep. When I wore a Fitbit it said I was waking up for almost 2 hours within a 8 hour sleep period. To be fair I have no idea what it is now, I’m going to buy a copiously pricey Apple Watch with my cheese savings.
Also, it’s nice to not need to liquidate as much food in the morning.
I know, TMI.
So far I’m striking a proper balance of eating less without tripping in a prohibitionist way
The reality is between holidays and my job, I’m going to eat some super unhealthy stuff.
Even today, I bought a soft drink, but I copped the 710 mL one so I couldn’t chug 1.5L by accident. I always would get the 2L bottle as it’s more cost effective. But I have no self control so I would go ahead and chug it.
At the end of the day, I would still spend more money and end up drinking more soda. The smaller bottle, once a week, is the kind of moderation the people talk about. Sure never drinking it again would be perfect, but saving it for special moments and more or less eating good every day, allows me to enjoy the unhealthy more.
As time goes on and I replace the delicious amazingness of fries with veggies in life, I start to feel the changes in my body. Today we ate some deep dish pizza and I'm stuffed. Just 2 weeks ago I could have plowed through some more food.
As I continue to lose weight and get in shape so I can… I will keep you posted for my benefit.
Live Long and Prosper Everyone
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