The Daily Diary Thread

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billdwyatt
billdwyatt Posts: 57 Member
in Getting Started
I notice the various threads here encourage posts on a weekly basis to mark progress. I understand the purpose of doing this. It's easy to get discouraged monitoring your day-to-day weight loss. For me, it's the opposite. If I check my progress once a week, my mindset is almost like only going to Church on Sunday and doing what you want to the rest of the week. Since I have to diet and exercise daily, I seem to only stay motivated if I mark my daily progress - even so it's two steps forward and one step backward. Anyone else like this? If so, join me in posting your daily journey through this Daily Diary thread... or as frequently as you monitor your journey. The more details the better!
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  • lovnlifeinkg
    lovnlifeinkg Posts: 3 Member
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    So good to see that someone else has much the same feeling that I do. Funny that just this morning I commented "Two steps forward and 1 step back" because I gained back .8 lbs this morning; then I log into this thread and see the same saying in your comment billdwyatt. I also feel that I have to weigh in and log each day, for fear of slipping back into my old ways if not monitored closely. That means each morning is either really happy or really frustrated, but since I so far have more happy days that frustrated ones, I think I'll keep with it. Good luck to each of us on this journey!
  • billdwyatt
    billdwyatt Posts: 57 Member
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    My calorie goal here at myfitnesspal is 1500 a day. Got off to a good start. I know how important everyone says to eat breakfast, but my past experience tells me I have better success if I have brunch instead. My main meal is in the evening and that's not going to change. I finished the day full and satisfied and my total came to a little over 1200. I had a roast beef sandwich for brunch and a Mardi Gras Shrimp Po 'Boy and homemade remoulade and romaine salad for dinner. Oh, and I drank water all day. As is typical when I first start I drop some easy weight when the sodium levels go down. This morning I weighed 216.8. No illusions, but it still felt good to be 4 lbs. away from that "record" than the 1 lb. I was a day earlier.
  • lovnlifeinkg
    lovnlifeinkg Posts: 3 Member
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    Again, we have very similar experiences billdwyatt, although I'm way ahead of you on the age thing. This April I will be 68 years old, so my very active days are pretty far behind me. I also have Chronic Lupus and have for about 28 years. I have a fantastic Rheumatologist who has helped me maintain health as well as possible, but like you I have several medicines that don't help with weight control. The heaviest I've ever been was 245 several years ago. I am only 5'3' so definitely didn't carry that look off too well. I just started back this month when I climbed back up to 239 and was determined to never cross over that 240 mark again. Tomorrow makes 3 weeks and I'm down to 231.8 this morning. The main exercises I can handle for now include short and slow walks and riding my recumbent stationary bike. For now I set my long term goal at 150 and figure if I ever make it there I can re-assess any further weight loss goal. I do wish you luck and ask that you do the same for me. We can do this!
  • billdwyatt
    billdwyatt Posts: 57 Member
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    I'm headed to bed and just logged my last food intake for the day. I had a tuna fish sandwich and a few chips and salsa for brunch and a progresso lite soup and grilled cheese for dinner. Everything together was just under 1,100 calories. When I hit the "complete for the day" I got the dreaded "Based on your total calories consumed for today, you are likely not eating enough." It's close to midnight and I'm not hungry. A little thirsty, but I'll take a bottle of water and set it on the nightstand. I'm good. Most days are not like today, but right now - I'm good.
  • Carol_
    Carol_ Posts: 469 Member
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    I was not very motivated today at all. However I finished under my goal of 1200 calories a day. I also am going to bed with a water ( and my Kindle ) . My dog has been ready for some time. However I have been too busy reading message boards. lol Nite to all. ((hugs))
  • billdwyatt
    billdwyatt Posts: 57 Member
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    I'm 215.6 this morning. Still losing water weight. Had the exact same brunch today as I had yesterday. Busy work day.
  • Carol_
    Carol_ Posts: 469 Member
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    This morning I was up 3 pounds at #148. I am always up & down by 3 pounds. It is 8:45 PM ish now. I made Weight Watchers' Cabbage Soup at 75 calories a cup for Supper. Today was a dog sitting day at my daughter's house. Her house is filled with tempting snacks. However rather than eat any, I left her my unopened bag of Chedder Rice Cakes because I was starting to eat too many of them. I ate most of a bag already this week. Today was dark and rainy. Happy Tuesday!
  • billdwyatt
    billdwyatt Posts: 57 Member
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    Well... I went 300 over my calorie goal yesterday. Finished with about 1800. Boneless fried chicken did it. Here's the surprise... this morning I weigh 211.8. That means I've lost between 8 and 9 pounds in 3 days. I always drop 2 or 3 pounds right away when I get back on the wagon, but I've never had that big of a drop. I'm not complaining, just surprised.
  • Nikion901
    Nikion901 Posts: 2,467 Member
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    Isn't it weird the way our bodies react to nutritional intake changes? I've noticed on my own daily weigh-ins compared to the food I had the day before that they never coincide in movement. Then a read an article that said digestion of food takes upward of 30 hours .. so I started looking a couple days past and that seems to fit a bit better. it always surprised me how I can keep at a very low calorie intake for days on end and my weight just stays the same, then I'll have a day of more (not a gross amount of more, just more closer to my TDEE) and the weight just drops! OF course, when I do overeat by a lot, the weight progressively goes up just as readily!
  • GoCleanGoLean
    GoCleanGoLean Posts: 71 Member
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    Last night I had a piece of cake ... a large piece of cake. With much more ice cream than I needed. I've always assumed these late-night mini-splurges would show up on the scale the next morning, but I've never weighed-in the morning after a "bad day" (actually, that cake was the only "bad thing" I ate yesterday so it was more of a "bad night") so I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was down another 0.6 pounds.

    After reading Nikion901's last post, it makes sense. I've been eating decently these past several days so it makes sense that the impact will be seen a few days later.

    Thanks for the knowledge @Nikion901
  • Nikion901
    Nikion901 Posts: 2,467 Member
    edited March 2017
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    GoCleanGoLean wrote: »
    Last night I had a piece of cake ... a large piece of cake. With much more ice cream than I needed. I've always assumed these late-night mini-splurges would show up on the scale the next morning, but I've never weighed-in the morning after a "bad day" (actually, that cake was the only "bad thing" I ate yesterday so it was more of a "bad night") so I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was down another 0.6 pounds.

    After reading Nikion901's last post, it makes sense. I've been eating decently these past several days so it makes sense that the impact will be seen a few days later.

    Thanks for the knowledge @Nikion901

    Thanks @GoCleanGoLean ... it's just something I happened to notice because I do track every lick and morsel eaten and weigh in every morning at about the same time of day ... well, at least in the same bodily situation.

    I've frequently read posts on various community threads where people worried that the overeats of today would cause a sudden weight gain, or they were dissappointed because a day of hunger didn't yield any drop in weight ... and the explaination was invariably that weight loss/gain is not linear.

    The other comment I've often seen is that people wonder why the weight loss/gain does not reflect the amount of calories consumed ... and the explaination would be that it is more of a cummulative effect. Then the advice to just keep tracking/logging/weighing ing and eventually you should see a trend ... or that it takes several weeks for the body to actually show any true weight changes. ...

    For myself, I find that my weight changes are more reliable and that it can take as little as 100 calories a day difference, over a few days time to set the motion going. Also, that if I overeat by, say 500 calories for 2 or 3 days that I will have a half pound to a one pound gain. But, if I undereat by the same 500 calories, then my weight will go down about 4 ounces.
  • billdwyatt
    billdwyatt Posts: 57 Member
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    Nikion901, that's me exactly. On all the diets I've failed (and that's every one) I stay the same weight or even gain on good days and lose on bad ones. I began to catch on that my scales are about three days behind my food intake. Thought it was me. Thanks for sharing!
  • billdwyatt
    billdwyatt Posts: 57 Member
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    Okay, another one of those warnings from myfitnesspal that I'm not eating enough. The tunafish sandwich for lunch seems to be working so I repeated my lunch routine for the third day in a row. Wife was kind enough to fix a shrimp stir fry and mashed potatoes for dinner. My total intake for the day barely topped 1,000. Time for bed and I'm thirsty. Sodium in everything was too much. Going to drink water before bed, but I'll bet I'm up tomorrow. Sodium is not my friend.
  • billdwyatt
    billdwyatt Posts: 57 Member
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    Still thirsty when I got up this morning so I drank 24 oz. of water for breakfast and then realized I hadn't weighed yet. Googled the weight of water and 16 oz. is 1.04 lbs. That's a guaranteed 1.56 lbs extra before I stepped on the scales. So, I tricked my routine... I didn't weight today! B)

    Tuna fish sandwich and potato chips for lunch today. 24 Kroger Classic chips are 160 calories. I'm at 390 calories now and promised the wife I would cook dinner tonight. We're having Sirloin Steak with Blue Cheese Compound butter with green beans and roasted fingerling potatoes - 613 calories. Nice glass of red wine to go with and should have a good calorie day. Still going to go over my sodium limit. Can't seem to conquer that little monster.
  • Nikion901
    Nikion901 Posts: 2,467 Member
    edited March 2017
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    Today is 495 days of logging in MFP without a miss ... it's actually longer, but about day 330 last time I logged in after midnight one day. You would think, or at least I would, that after more than 2 1/4 years on MFP (had a different user ID before Sept 2015), that I would have already attained my weight goal and know all there is to know about my nutrition profile. Hah! Wish that were true. In actuallity, I have a pattern of losing for about 6 weeks and then going into a stall, then slowly regaining ... and then getting on the losing streak again.

    I'm beginning to suspect it's because when I do get ont he losing streak that I eat too little. For certain I lose weight for a time and feel great doing it. Don't feel hungry. Feel 'skinny' on the inside ... and that feels so good! ... But invariably I start to falter. I spent all of mid 2015-mid 2016 eating at maintenance instead of trying to lose weight ... I did end the year about 5-6 pounds lighter than I did at the start ... just because I was convinced my metabolism needed a 'reset'. By the first wigh-in of February I had lost 7.2 pounds from the beginning of January ... it stood there the next week and started to creep up the next 2 weeks so that I ended last week with just over a 2 pound gain-back. This week ... I'm gaining a pound a day and overeating each day.

    It's like I cannot fill myself up for more than 1-2 hours at a time and I must eat again. Plus, I have no energy to do what I need to do for activity. A double wammy! ... Trying and feeling fearful that the pendulum has swung.
  • Nikion901
    Nikion901 Posts: 2,467 Member
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    This morning seems like I'm starting to move in the direction I want to go, once again. Weight was stable from yesterday, calories were within range. Going to meet up with people I used to work with before I retired ... haven't seem some of them for 15 years ... it's a happy hour get together so I'd better prepare with today's food to allow the extra calories I'll have at the gathering.
  • billdwyatt
    billdwyatt Posts: 57 Member
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    Good luck Nikion901 with the gathering! Let the good fellowship fill you up! You and I are quite similar with our dieting habits. Although not similar at all with being consistent at MFP. When I fall off the wagon, I'm absent here. That's one of my resolutions this time... I'm going to stay consistent here and hopefully, it will help when I'm on the edge next. Have you tried doing a 3-day low carb deal when you get in a funk with no energy and staying hungry all the time? It always gives me a boost of energy early and curbs my appetite too... and it's very hard to go over your calorie limit when you are low carbing. I've tried the diet a few times and I always feel so lousy when I hit ketosis that I back off, but the first 3 days are great.

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