Weight Lost So Far

So far, I have lost 2.25 pounds in total. Not bad! I am pleased with that. Intermittent Fasting for weight loss does work - for me. Of course, some people might not be overly happy with a weight loss of 2.25 in two weeks, but for me, this is on a par with what I would lose if I were traditionally calorie counting and logging. The thing I have to point out is that when I add up my calorie logs for my 2 days of fasting, plus my 5 days of eating and divide it by 7 to get a daily average, it works out at around the same as if I were calorie counting/logging the 'traditional' way.

In my measurements, the most notable descreases are an inch off my waist and one off my hips too. I can't wait for my knees and thighs to go down! They are my real problem areas. To be honest, my hips are a problem area because they are notably larger than my waist, so anything off them is always welcome. I just used this waist-to-hip calculator, and it turns out I am:

Result:	Estimated Health Risk:	Estimated Body Shape:
0.80 or below	Low	Pear

I guess it is nice to have at least one result that is favourable, despite still being officially classed as 'overweight'. 

Coming back to Intermittent Fasting - what I am trying to point out (to anyone actually reading this) is that IF is not a quick fix for weightloss. It is not a magic 'melt away the fat' formula. It is not as if you just do the IF days and then can do whatever you like the rest of the time. I find that it is more flexible for me, which is what I wanted from a plan. I also LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the idea that the IF component comes with excellent health benefits.

Talking about flexibility, one of the reasons I struggled last year with calorie counting and logging was the inflexibility of it. I have a goal of around 1200-1400 calories per day. I tend to be able to eat 1200 to 1300 while being fairly sedentary and 1400 when I am doing more physical activity, and lose. Those numbers do not allow for having a cake when you are out, for going to a friend's house and having whatever they have cooked for dinner or are offering you for afternoon tea, or for visiting a restaurant and having what you want, rather than what you are 'forced' to have (to fit in with the 'diet'). With IF, it is possible to do those things on your regular non-IF days. In my case I have worked out that I still need to keep an eye on what I am eating overall. I have to aim for my average calories across the 7 day period of Monday to Sunday to be between the 1200-1400.

For that reason, I am still logging, because I know that I need to; I need to be held accountable for what I am eating. I come back, on that note, to my posts last year where I wondered if I would have to log for the rest of my life. Maybe I will. It seems that every time I lose weight successfully, I put it back on once I stop logging. I know partly this is because my thyroid problems are still not resolved/optimal, but there is still the fact that I am consuming more than I am burning and I put weight on. Since I got a Nexus 7 tablet, I have found it a lot easier to track my calories because I have the My Fitness Pal android app. I really recommend using a calorie counting app if you struggle to maintain your desired weight or if you are trying to lose weight. After a little while you get use to using it and logging becomes a habit. I don't find it straining like I did when I had to log onto the laptop every day.

Another aspect relating to logging and Intermittent Fasting is that I have noticed you can be a little more relaxed when logging calories when doing IF. That's not to say you cheat, but when I have been losing weight purely through calorie counting and logging, I have had to weigh all my food. Doing that definitely gets old FAST, but it is also the most effective way of doing that weight loss method. I hated having to do that all the time, plus when you go out, it's almost impossible to do it properly. Now on IF protocol, I will weigh things I know are easy to get wrong - cereal, occasionally fruit, and sometimes potatoes/rice/pasta. Generally, however, I am guessing and approximating, and I seem to be doing okay because I am losing what I would expect to lose if I were calorie counting and weighing it all out. Not having to weigh every single item is a massive bonus, that I really appreciate.

Back to the land of logging...

So I am back!

I have decided to give this another shot. I don't know my current weight, but I do know my measurements. They are roughly the same as on the 3rd of May. That being said, I am guessing that I have probably put on between 1-5 pounds during my time off. I have no idea of the actual amount. My clothes are still loose; smallest jeans are still too big... so it can't be that bad.

I will weigh next Monday.

I already logged my breakfast. I shall be aiming for 1,200 to 1,400 again. I am hoping if I can keep this up for a couple of months at least, I can lose between 7-10 pounds. I would be pleased with that.

I do find the whole process frustrating. I realised a bit about myself during the time off:

1. I enjoyed not being fixated on food
2. I enjoyed eating a mixture of things - including fattening things I would normally not be able to eat on a 'diet'
3. I tend to eat without thinking - this is still a big issue for me
4. I tend to eat companionably - i.e. so-and-so is having one, so I will have one too... regardless of if I am hungry/need it or not

Regarding #3 & #4, I am starting to wonder if I will ever crack those. I don't know why they are so difficult for me to break free from. I am almost starting to accept the idea that maybe I won't ever conquer those as I had thought I might. In that respect, I do think that I shall have to keep an eye on my size forever.

Going Around In Circles

I ate 1,525 calories yesterday and 1,423 today. Yesterday was disappointing. I ate way more than I realised. It's embarrassing to say, but I didn't actually realise how much I had eaten till I logged my final meal on Calorie Count. Today was less of a mess, but I still ate more than I should. While some might say: "it's only 23 extra calories", it's still more than I should have and that means I have had 3 days in a row now where I have eaten more than my allowance.

I truly hope this is just a symptom of the holiday time!

I am still struggling with my swollen thigh. I am intending - thanks to a friend's suggestion - to do a juice fast starting tomorrow evening after dinner and running into Tuesday. I am not sure how long it will last. Maybe only 20 hours, maybe 24 or more. I find a juice fast helpful at times to reset the acidity level in my body and just clear out old 'gunk'.

Social Foods & Social Eating

One of the things that becomes apparent when you focus on what and how much you are eating is: the amount of life and socialising that revolves around the intake of some form of food and/or drink. Even if you choose to focus more on going out without involving eating and are a person who likes to go out in the evening/night, you can't get away from the fact that most drinks *alcoholic ones* and many soft ones *unless diet versions* are pure calories.

For me, this realisation feels quite awkward. A lot of the interaction I have with other people is related to eating food. I don't go out much, but when I do, it is normally to have lunch with a friend. If I go shopping or to do chores in town, I would normally have a coffee or tea with my mother and eat a small meal such as a sandwich. These encounters can be incredibly difficult if, like me, you are calorie counting. It is surprising in this day and age how many food outlets do not openly publish nutritional information for their dishes, cakes, drinks etc. Even when you come home and go online, it can be hard or impossible to find this information. I don't want to have to keep asking to see the information and then what... noting it down in a notebook so I can log it when I get home?

Image from: http://cheezburger.com/flair18/lolz/View/111280384

As such, I find myself not really relishing these social occasions, whereas, prior to the calorie counting/logging, I would have looked forward to and enjoyed them. Now I almost seem them as a hassle. My strategy has been to organise no more than one social meeting a week, which I can then schedule to fall on my 'day off' when I eat freely and don't have to log. But it's not always possible to achieve this as some weeks I have more than one meeting or event to go to. So I just try my best to account for what I am having, but it does tend to take the joy out of food.

I find this rather anxiety inducing - yes, anxiety... I find calorie counting and logging can cause me to feel quite anxious. I don't want to do it wrong, to let myself down, to not lose weight because I tripped up... If I am honest, I feel that there is a lot of pressure to achieve my goal. I am not even sure where that comes from as no one else has asked me to or is expecting me to diet. It's more of a generalised thing, an: we all know you would look and feel better if you were slimmer type situation.

This leads me on to my other topic: Social Foods.

Now I mentioned 'Social Foods' a few blog posts ago, and I thought I would share what I mean (and this is just my idea/thoughts/opinion).

I noticed that there are a lot of foods that you can't have when you are dieting/calorie counting/logging/watching your weight/trying to lose weight and that nearly all of them are usually eaten in a shared/group situation.

In my family such foods are:

Biscuits (cookies)
Baked treats (prepared by someone in the family or someone else if I go to their house) - cakes, cookies, bars, etc
Crumble (a fruit pudding)
Pie (of any variety)
Things that go with: cream, ice cream, custard
Chocolates

In other families this list would probably be a little different. It matters not. The point is, there are foods that people want to share with you, but which you pretty much cannot have. The problem with this is not just that you might want to eat them, but that you actually can appear rude or antisocial by not sharing them or having some!


In my case/situation, nearly all these social foods are sweet foods. The reason I can't have them is partly because they are sugary/fatty and partly because my calorie allowance does not give much room for maneuver. That is to say that, if I were to have some of one of those foods, I would not be able to eat my main meals easily (as there would not be enough calories left in my allowance) and I would probably miss out on something healthy like fruit or vegetables, which is nutritionally more valuable.

In general, with savoury fatty/calorific foods such as: roast potatoes, wedges, chips/fries etc., if I cook them I try to make them as healthy as possible (cook them with very little fat) or if someone else cooks them, I will eat a tiny portion to satisfy both myself and the person who spent the time and effort in preparing it. With sweet foods, it is VERY DIFFICULT to do this. I have tried a few times and each time failed. 


I still haven't worked this out... the thing I feel most uncomfortable with is not so much not having the food item, but with not being able to share and participte in a social moment between family and/or friends. I often find myself going off to another room while they eat the particular food I can't have, which can feel rude and is also quite isolating. However, it is equally awkward to sit around people who are eating some delicious/tasty that you can't have. I also wonder how this will work going forward. Assuming I do make my target weight, what then? I can't foresee a way of eating these social foods without regaining all the weight I will have lost. I can't foresee myself going off to another room for the rest of my life. Where's the middle ground? Does anyone know?

From: http://www.zazzle.co.uk/sad_face_sticker-217712888839993310

Current Thoughts

I have been calorie counting for just over 5 weeks now. Time flies when you are having fun... not! In some ways I feel as if I have been doing this much longer. Progress seems slow, even though it's actually not slow, it's average. I guess it seems as if I have to put A LOT more thought and energy into this endeavour than I seem to get out if it.

It is extremely easy for me to put on one pound... yet to lose one is really hard work. Yet, somehow I find it hard to feel that fact when I am eating normally (and by normally I mean not calorie counting). I find that confusing. Why can't the brain take in the fact that every time I go through weight loss, I have to work so, so hard to lose the weight and translate that into warning me to eat carefully and cautiously to avoid any re-gain?

Then there is a sinking feeling when I think about this being my 'forever-life'. I keep coming back to the idea that I will always have to log my calories online and watch what I eat. I can't face the thought of having to go through another serious weight loss attempt (e.g. losing 50, 40, 30 or 20 pounds). I also can't really face the thought of having to live like an anal calorie counter for the rest of my life around a bunch of people who don't have to calorie count! Yes, I resent that fact. So...

Image from: http://fyranyanseravrosa.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html

This whole 'situation' got me thinking about the following...

Negative Associations With Losing Weight & Calorie Counting

1. Weighing and measuring food
2. Having to prepare nearly all food myself to ensure that I know exactly what goes into each meal, which is exhausting
3. Needing to write everything down - all nutritional information - so I can log it later into the calorie counter
4. Having to come online EVERY DAY to use the calorie counter
5. Not being able to socialise easily because I can't eat social foods (will blog more about social foods another day)
6. Getting mad/frustrated when food does not have nutritional information on it and then I can't find the information online
7. Feeling very controlled and controlling about food
8. Blabbering on about how many calories is in things to other people (I know this drives my family mad)
9. Watching other people eat things I want to eat and knowing I can't have them
10. Knowing that to stay the weight I feel most comfortable, I have to watch every mouthful, yet other people who are 'near and dear' to me don't have to do this - seems unfair and builds resentment
11. Feeling a connection between worth and weight
12. The scales - having to weigh myself and be tied to certain numbers

There are probably more... those are the things I can think of right now that really bother me. I shall most likely update this list at some point.

On my next blog post, I will focus on the positives of losing weight & calorie counting.