Share Your Day

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  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,122 Member
    jjlewey wrote: »
    After my weekend away (birthday celebrations- booze/hot tub/hiking/no logging) my weight was almost back to my start weight thanks to about 6lbs of water gain. It was a bit of a wake up call, or at least more of a wake up call, I've been watching my weight go back on steadily for months but just haven't done much about it.

    So now I am going to follow my own advice and make some small changes a couple at a time.

    This week I am focusing on getting back to accurate logging, increasing my NEAT and doing some strength training. I'm leaving off my 5k running plan for a while as it's something I'd like to do but it's not top of my priorities.

    @TwinThompson I often have days like that, glad you've managed to bounce back from it.

    For me accurate logging is one of the most effective tools. Just the act of logging changes what I will decide to eat. I can delude myself or ignore high calories when I dont log. I remember when I first started to log one of my first omg moments was chocolate chip cookies. Before I always had them in the house and would think nothing of grabbing a half dozen and a glass of milk to wash them down. Needless to say, we dont buy chips ahoy anymore lol. The calories are not worth it to me.

    I've been logging for 3 years so I can more or less get by without logging as I know roughly what the calorie content is of most things, I spent a month without logging recently and still lost a pound, the problem is if I lose my focus, my portions start creeping up, so it's not like the cookie thing (although I've been there - it's a sad moment).

    It's more that I'll guesstimate dinner at around 500 calories because it's something that I've had previously but I would have picked out a larger potato than I might usually use to make chips, added more mayo than usual and maybe used more oil in cooking something so it actually ends up closer to 700 calories and so on until you're eating a tad over maintenance instead of a small deficit.

  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    jjlewey wrote: »
    NovusDies wrote: »
    jjlewey wrote: »
    NovusDies wrote: »
    I decided to switch my slightly higher calorie day and have it today instead of tomorrow. I have been dragging for a few days due to the higher calorie deficit. I have not gotten accustomed to it and I might not. I don't want to feel low all weekend so today I did pizza for lunch. Ate an entire medium thin crust which is my normal on pizza days. Before I ate it I had squash, cauliflower, and an egg white frittata (low cal stuff) to make sure when I finished my pizza I would be good and full and not eyeballing whatever my wife was not going to eat of hers.

    The higher calories today + higher than normal carbs should perk me up. The extra calories/energy should translate into more movement since my steps have been lagging for the last 4 days. Basically it should be a wash or close to it which is why I feel comfortable doing this even though the weight goal for the surgery is right around the corner.

    Thought I would share my thought process on this in case it helped someone else with energy management which is pretty important during prolonged deficits imo. Learning to balance myself was trial and error obviously but I feel like I have a decent handle on it now.

    I was sorely tempted by the chinese buffet today. I miss that place, have not been there in a long time. We went shopping without eating lunch, drove by it. I stayed strong and made some chicken fajitas instead. Gonna need a "pizza day" soon though.


    That is good. It would not be a good idea to suddenly go to a buffet or to give a potentially high calorie craving instant gratification. Those things are better carefully planned. Speaking of which if you were sorely tempted you will need a plan for how to handle the buffet at some point, won't you? Have you ever tried banking calories for a larger treat/treat meal?

    I need to plan a buffet trip but the idea of trying to figure out all of those calories is daunting. Probably my next buffet will be on my cruise in September. Most days I am not feeling bad or out of balance with food. I have been eating around 2500 calories on an average day. Which emotionally feels about right, even though much that I have read has said that is probably a little low for my current weight. I think the main pull of the chinese buffet that day was that I hadn't eaten yet that day. I need to make sure to eat before going out.

    Oh there is no way you will figure out the calories. Your best guess will still likely be pretty far off. A good strategy though will keep you from being wildly inaccurate. It is best, I think, to dampen your hunger with known lower calorie items first so that when you get to the higher calorie items you are content to keep your portions reasonable. Another good idea is to take a 10 minute break after a plate of food is finished before returning for more.

    I wouldn't worry about your calories at this moment unless you start to feel tired a lot. In another couple of weeks you will have enough data to determine your true rate of loss and then you can make your adjustments for the longer term. If you are currently losing faster than you should it would not be dramatically faster and in the short term it is less of a concern if you are not fatigued.
  • merph518
    merph518 Posts: 702 Member
    @christoD88 Nice! Keep it up.
  • TwinThompson
    TwinThompson Posts: 80 Member
    Today and yesterday I’ve said sod it to the diet... and I regret nothing!!
    Saying that though, I did try to make sensible choices, I ordered diet drinks, didn’t add extra dressings/sauces to my meals, and didn’t have seconds at the party buffet lol!
    Overall, I know I’ll have gone WAY over my calories, but I would’ve been a lot lot worse in my pre-diet days and I’m pretty pleased with how I’ve done 😊
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    Today and yesterday I’ve said sod it to the diet... and I regret nothing!!
    Saying that though, I did try to make sensible choices, I ordered diet drinks, didn’t add extra dressings/sauces to my meals, and didn’t have seconds at the party buffet lol!
    Overall, I know I’ll have gone WAY over my calories, but I would’ve been a lot lot worse in my pre-diet days and I’m pretty pleased with how I’ve done 😊

    I hope you had fun and I am glad you have no regrets. Sounds like you made mindful decisions to keep things in check so I would count that as a win.

    It doesn't sound like you really said "sod it to the diet" it sounds like you knew Monday was coming and you just altered course for a moment with a slightly different set of rules. That is great. I like rules even when they are liberal. They let me know that even when I am allowing myself to eat more it is still part of my plan.

    Good job. Now get back to it! Remember there are no quitters here. The really ugly graphic says so!
  • TwinThompson
    TwinThompson Posts: 80 Member


    I hope you had fun and I am glad you have no regrets. Sounds like you made mindful decisions to keep things in check so I would count that as a win.

    It doesn't sound like you really said "sod it to the diet" it sounds like you knew Monday was coming and you just altered course for a moment with a slightly different set of rules. That is great. I like rules even when they are liberal. They let me know that even when I am allowing myself to eat more it is still part of my plan.

    Good job. Now get back to it! Remember there are no quitters here. The really ugly graphic says so![/quote]


    It more like a No thank you to the diet lol!
    I’m finding it a lot easier to make mindful choices, especially now that I know the healthier options. I’m also finding I’m not as greedy! Instead of forcing all a meal down me I’ll keep leftovers for the next day, this used to be a very foreign concept to me

    I’ll be back at the gym 7am tomorrow!!
  • merph518
    merph518 Posts: 702 Member
    I went crazy last night and ate a whole pizza for dinner!

    ...ok it wasn't that crazy. It was a small personal pizza and fit within my budget. ;)
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    merph518 wrote: »
    I went crazy last night and ate a whole pizza for dinner!

    ...ok it wasn't that crazy. It was a small personal pizza and fit within my budget. ;)

    I go crazy if I don't eat a whole pizza on occasion. Pizza and potato chips are the treats I really need the most.
  • jjlewey
    jjlewey Posts: 248 Member
    merph518 wrote: »
    I went crazy last night and ate a whole pizza for dinner!

    ...ok it wasn't that crazy. It was a small personal pizza and fit within my budget. ;)

    I have made a personal pizza on a pita bread a couple times. Pretty good and not as bad calorie wise as any chain store or digiorno pizza.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    jjlewey wrote: »
    merph518 wrote: »
    I went crazy last night and ate a whole pizza for dinner!

    ...ok it wasn't that crazy. It was a small personal pizza and fit within my budget. ;)

    I have made a personal pizza on a pita bread a couple times. Pretty good and not as bad calorie wise as any chain store or digiorno pizza.

    Sounds like a good idea. I may have to keep that in mind if pizza ever falls from my no compromise list. Until then I make the real thing fit or I wait until I can.

    My wife asked me yesterday if I wanted to try and cheapen the mashed potatoes we were to have today by going half potato half mashed cauliflower. Nope. Mashed potatoes are also on my list. Real thing or nothing for me. I can deal with a lot of lower calorie substitutions or workarounds but there are some things that are sacred to me... at least until my calorie goal gets to a point I have no choice anymore. I hope to keep adding activity so it never gets to that point.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    I had my higher calorie day today. I should have done it yesterday like I did last week to boost my energy. Lesson learned.

    Anyway I really enjoyed the pork chops and mashed potatoes. They were a wife pick and it was a good one.

    Looks like the weather is not going to allow for many steps tonight. Ah well.

  • jjlewey
    jjlewey Posts: 248 Member
    NovusDies wrote: »
    I had my higher calorie day today. I should have done it yesterday like I did last week to boost my energy. Lesson learned.

    Anyway I really enjoyed the pork chops and mashed potatoes. They were a wife pick and it was a good one.

    Looks like the weather is not going to allow for many steps tonight. Ah well.

    It's all good @NovusDies, I didnt get my steps in either. Gonna break the streak today, oh well yesterday whipped me lol. Keep up the good work and momentum
  • mo8414
    mo8414 Posts: 13 Member
    edited August 2019
    Pretty busy day today. Woke up made the family breakfast, , me and my son lifted wheights and did the exercise bike. we went to my dads so I could look at my sisters front end on her truck. Got that done then went to my wifes moms house for an hour. After that I drove my wife and son back home(25min) since I unexpectedly had to fix my sisters truck today.

    So I go home, grabed my tools and headed back to my dads. Pulled the idler arm off the truck and tightened up the wheel bearings, went to the parts store for a new arm and put the new one back on my sisters truck. Of course while I was at the store it had to rain so I got wet laying under the car.

    Came home, threw a pork sholder in the prsssure cooker for pulled pork. While that was going I thawed out a pork loin and ground it up in the meat grinder and a couple bonless chicken breasts. Bagged all that up and started making spaghetti for some of my meals during the week.

    By the time that was done the pork sholder was ready so I got that all made up and the extras bagged up. I finally ate dinner at 8pm then cooked up the rest of the chicken breasts for my lunches through out the week cuz ive been eating tuna for the last 2 months at lunch time at work, now I got chicken for a change and let my murcury levels drop lol. So from 10:30am to 10pm I been doing stuff. It's nice to finally sit around doing nothing.
  • merph518
    merph518 Posts: 702 Member
    Had a particularly lazy weekend, mostly because I was sick. Decided to kick off the new week right this morning with a 5 mile bike ride and a long walk into work. Feels good going into the day with a net negative calories after breakfast.
  • christoD88
    christoD88 Posts: 7 Member
    i travelled down to dublin to visit some family that were over on vacation. i ate *kitten* and drank lots of guinness. i didnt even touch my food diary all weekend.
    feeling like i just ruined all last weeks hard work.
    please tell me im not the only one who effed up
  • TwinThompson
    TwinThompson Posts: 80 Member
    christoD88 wrote: »
    i travelled down to dublin to visit some family that were over on vacation. i ate *kitten* and drank lots of guinness. i didnt even touch my food diary all weekend.
    feeling like i just ruined all last weeks hard work.
    please tell me im not the only one who effed up

    I ate all the nice things all weekend, went well over my calories, had full sugar drinks, cheese, EVERYTHING!!
    I regret nothing, you need the odd weekend like that, as long as it’s not all the time and then you get back to the healthy lifestyle you’ll be fine. Don’t beat yourself up, and you didnt eff up, you had a weekend break
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    edited August 2019
    christoD88 wrote: »
    i travelled down to dublin to visit some family that were over on vacation. i ate *kitten* and drank lots of guinness. i didnt even touch my food diary all weekend.
    feeling like i just ruined all last weeks hard work.
    please tell me im not the only one who effed up

    Go ahead and log as much as you can even if it is incomplete and mostly guesses.

    First thing is that we often imagine these things to be worse than they are. Secondly you can't unring that bell so let it go. Ask yourself if there is an opportunity here to learn something that you need to try and prevent or mitigate this from happening again.

    I engaged in non-goal behavior at the beginning of my journey and alcohol usually played a part. I just kept going and eventually those moments became fewer and fewer until they were replaced by a solid routine. None of it kept me from losing over 200 pounds. It just slowed my progress a few times.

    My advice to you is to establish rules for when engage in less ordinary behavior. They don't have to be strict they just need to exist and you need to follow them. It could be something like a money limit. Take only enough cash for so much food and drink and stop when your wallet is empty. The idea is not to keep yourself from ever having fun again it is to keep your goal in front of you all the time.

    Anyway welcome to the imperfect club. I am certainly a gold member.
  • merph518
    merph518 Posts: 702 Member
    Yesterday was pretty good day overall.

    The high point was going out to lunch with some coworkers and having them bring up my weight loss out of the blue and ask me how I was doing it. Very few people outside of family (who've been told about my efforts outright) have noticed / said anything about it. Always a good feeling when it happens.
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,122 Member
    edited August 2019
    christoD88 wrote: »
    i travelled down to dublin to visit some family that were over on vacation. i ate *kitten* and drank lots of guinness. i didnt even touch my food diary all weekend.
    feeling like i just ruined all last weeks hard work.
    please tell me im not the only one who effed up

    9/10 times you have far from ruined all the week's work. A lot of the weight gain after a drinking session is water weight. You'd need to drink 16 pints of Guinness after eating maintenance to gain a pound of fat, now I know the Irish are touted as the drinkers of Europe often, but in my experience of living here for 4 years it's rare I've seen someone drink more than 8 (ye have nothing on us Northern English I promise):lol:

    Sometimes a break from logging is good for the head, as long as it's a rare occasion it's what you do most of the time that matters not occasionally.