I let myself sleep in this morning, but I need to work late anyway so I figured I'd start a little later this morning. Weight was back down to around where I think it should have been, even with the KFC dinner last night. Its going to go up this weekend because of female issues, but I really am not concerned at this point.

Though the "I don't really care" thing probably is a large indicator that I desperately need this vacation next week....

yup; I'd much rather see a true weight gain and know that I was truly at or above maintenance and that this one "took". I figure I'm draggy right now because of being female; we'll see if I can pick back up by the end of next week when vacation is over. Otherwise, I definitely need to have those thyroid levels checked early - there's a good possibility I'm down too low again, especially seeing as I've lost about 20 lbs since the last set of bloodwork panels were taken.

NovusDies wrote: »

The crazy of being so accustomed to lower calorie items and trying to eat more calories is summed up in the bowl of Halo Vanilla Bean Ice Cream smothered with dark chocolate syrup.

lol

Except I totally relate - I made brownies this week and I'm finding myself eating 3 of them a day to get the calories up.

And I'm actually planning on having Wendy's small french fries with dinner and will have to eat the whole box!

ugh - I am sore today! I was sore yesterday, which I expected, and then I went and scrubbed down my house, then pounded T-posts into the ground because I needed to move the fences I've got around my fruit trees out further to give them more room (they are fenced because of the local 4 -legged vermin called deer.....), then I mowed grass.

Unfortunately, after I finished my yard and started on the neighbors, I messed up my riding mower as I was coming down the bank from his yard to mine, I was looking back to make sure I had the blades up high enough to keep from scalping the top of the hill and didn't realize how close I was to the rocks I've got around one of my little blueberry bushes - and I ran right over them. They were big enough to stop the blades and kill the mower, and I can't get it to start. Dad came over, looked the mower over, moved the blades a little and got it to fire right up and mow, but when I went to put it back into the shed - nothing; wouldn't start or even turn over. I'm really, really hoping that the battery is just dead and that I can charge it up when I get back from vacation and she'll work.

*sigh* I know its all part of being human, but I hate it when I make a mistake and screw something up. At least it was my mower and not a borrowed one......

So I had to finish the neighbor's yard with the push mower. Great for steps, but not so great when one is already sore and tired lol Though the scrubbing and the pounding posts were harder on me than the mowing.

Well, that and my neck muscles were screaming at me. I have been meaning to hook up a backup camera in my truck for a couple of months, so yesterday I finally crawled under the truck to do it. I decided to hook it up to the wiring going to the trailer plug - easier to get to and easier to find the right wire since I could just go by the diagram off the front of the plug - but I had to hold my head up while laying on my back while I stripped back the tape and then fished the existing wire through the clip and fished the camera wire into that clip then had to clamp it down. My neck muscles were screaming at me! Of course, they were already sore from holding my head up during jiu-jitsu, too, which didn't help.

Good news though - I got it to work on the first try! Yay! I was so proud of myself lol


Today, after church, I need to pack for vacation that starts tomorrow. So I probably won't get a lot of steps in today.

And my weight was up today which pushed my trend weight up, but I know that the lb weight gain is due to muscle repair if the soreness is any indicator and due to female issues which is due to be here in 24 hours......

So far, according to HappyScale, it looks like the daily average over the last week is sitting right around 241 something and up-ticked just a little over the last 7 days. I'm considering that to be an indicator that I'm at maintenance or a little above; its hard for me to know for sure.

This diet break, I decided to try out the TDEE method, so I just set myself to maintenance at active level and am not eating back any exercise calories until I get to 15,000 steps. But I'm finding this to be difficult to be sure about my calorie counts; I think I'm hitting maintenance or above, but I'm not really sure what calorie level is doing it. I picked this method this time around because of the TN trip lats weekend and the vacation this upcoming week, but I think the next diet break, which should be about October, I will stick with the NEAT method and just add back in exercise calories. I seem to be able to understand my calorie intake a little better using NEAT over TDEE.

Also, it’s been fun trying to get enough calories in! I have been routinely going over the daily limit I set myself for but it’s been needed apparently.

My weight 2 weeks ago when I started was 239.1 lbs. my weight during these 2 weeks did pop up to as high as 243.5, but has been dropping from that high since and today I was 239.5 lbs. to me this indicates a huge success for me because it means that I did indeed maintain-I expected the pop up in weight because I was eating more which meant more carbs which meant more water weight but as I also expected, that quick spike was to have dropped back off during the next few days-which it has.

Tomorrow I have to run into the office for a bit and tomorrow is record day. There might be a bit of a spike tomorrow morning but overall I think I’ve been successful with this break. My body however is being contrary as I was supposed to have started Monday and have not yet so I’m officially late. Stupid hormones.....

Still, I’m bracing myself for the return to deficit fight I know is coming. Glutton me is enjoying the food intake and has acclimated to it now; at first it seemed to be way too much food but I’ve gotten used to it so getting back to deficit will be a challenge. One part of me enjoys the food and wants to stay where I’m at; another part wants to keep losing. I want the keep losing part to win but it’s going to be a battle I’m afraid.

At least the side that wants to eat is only growling grumpily and not roaring like before! Though it’s pretty insidious especially when my willpower is down and I’m tired.

I will probably get my thyroid levels checked when I get back. That burst of jittery energy I had a while ago is gone and I just feel tired all the time. My mom was talking this morning how after my brother had the wls his energy levels tripled but even after dropping 130 lbs I don’t see where mine have changed much. I get my activity in despite the tired filling but it can be a battle-especially when my BES at my cabin is like a rock and I find myself waking up every hour 😡

Well I just finished a five mile hike and I’m off to get lunch except using mfp stats and only counting half of the 3 hours I spent on that hike I apparently burned over 1000 calories *sigh* and I’m sure I did that and probably more as I got 10000 steps in on the hike alone, I was wearing a backpack with about 5 lbs in it and the trail was up and down the mountain side for 3 hours. I don’t think I’ll be taking a walk this evening-I don’t you be adding any more calories!

I'm back at my office briefly for a couple of hours to run a report, so I thought I'd give a quick update before I take off for the wild mountains again

I weighed in this morning at 239.1 lbs, which looks like a 4.8 lb loss but wasn't really because I was retaining water last Thursday. What I AM happy to report is that when I started this diet break on 5/21, I weighed in at 239.5 lbs, and on that Sunday 5/24, I was at 239.1 lbs. So 2 weeks later, I'm statistically at the same weight, which I'm taking to mean that I actually managed to maintain!

I thought about continuing the diet break until Sunday, but think that instead, since thursday are my record days and today marks the 2 week period, I'm going to go back into deficit, but at 1 lb/wk for the next week, then ease back into my 2 lb/wk on 6/11. Meanwhile, I'm going back to MFP's NEAT method; I feel that I can get the math more precise that way; I tried the TDEE method during the diet break but felt like I was all over the place; I managed to maintain, but I was really guessing on the calorie amounts.

However, I'm setting myself to lightly active as my goal instead of sedentary. When I go back to full deficit, that will put me at 1500 calories before exercise, which I know is doable. I also will count back 75% of my exercise, though since I'm setting myself at lightly active instead of sedentary, I won't count the elliptical in the mornings or if I miss the elliptical, the cardio at lunch time.

This is what I've seen here for activity:

Sedentary = less than 5000
Low activity = 5000-7499
Somewhat active = 7500-9999
Active = more than 10000
Highly active = more than 12500

So in other words, I won't start counting my exercise until I hit 5,000 steps, which is pretty much that one 20 minute elliptical session or one 30 minute cardio session. Everything after that will be counted back at 75%.

Which come to think of it means that for today, I need to go back and adjust that hike since I did the cardio first thing; I need 75% of that hike, not 50%! Which is good - that covers my pizza for supper, and maybe an extra smore if I get the other walk in I want to do this evening

Vacation is now over, and I have one thing that I need to get off my chest:

I HATE THE #$#*&$ PHONE APP!!!!!!!

the stupid app is so stinking slow, not to mention it is so hard to get it to search for what I want to search for, horrible in trying to get it to make a post, and it drains my phone battery like crazy. I despise having to use that stupid app!

Now I feel better



What I was doing during the diet break was the TDEE - I set myself at active calories and ate to that number, but on days like I had this week where I knew I was getting into the very active category, I knew I needed to eat more. But the week before that, I was under the active category, though I still ate to calorie level. But I definitely prefer the NEAT system.

Go figure, though, that yesterday's weight was 236 lbs, though back up to 237.7 lbs today. Still both are well under the 239 lbs I had on Thursday morning, which leaves me wondering if I was truly maintaining during this week of vacation, or if I hadn't slipped back into a slight deficit - I apparently dropped a ton of water on Thursday going into Friday, and while I know going back into a deficit can lead to that, can it do it in 24 hours?

My cousin house sit for me, and bless her heart, she swept the house and cleaned the cat pans before she left - I thought I would be coming home to needing to clean house, but that's not the case! Which is good, because I need to mow grass and get my insect dust out and dust my garden plants and spray my fruit trees. The 13 year cicadas are here and I can tell something has been gnawing away on my vegetable plants, and I don't want to lose them - especially my egg plants, and I've already lost one of those. I also am going to have to put up more fencing around my garden boxes. I usually wrap them in plastic fencing about chest height to discourage the deer from eating my stuff, but I saw a rabbit in my driveway the other day, so now I need fencing around the lower half as well. I also have laundry to do left over from vacation, so I really need to get off the PC and get to it!

I had to take a break and go to Lowe's because I realized my big mower wasn't mowing correctly - I accidentally ran over a big rock on Saturday when I mowed last, and I had been afraid I'd done something, and apparently I did, so I went and bought a pack of new blades for it and put them on with dad's air wrench by myself - I was rather proud of myself lol Didn't ask for his help at all!

I also got the weed-eating done, but had a small section of the pushing mowing that I missed because thunderstorms moved in, but the weed-eating got most of the worst of it, so what was missed can wait. I also got seven dust on my plants, but of course it rained, so I'll have to get them again tomorrow morning.

I now need to make an Apple Brown Betty for tomorrow's dinner, then get a shower in. You should see the bug bites on my legs The trails I was walking were not well kept, so I was going though grass and weeds, and in many places, it took some hunting to find the next trail marker because there wasn't really a trail - you were just walking through the woods! Thankfully, I did not pick up any ticks, but I'm thinking I did get my fair share of chiggers and perhaps some fleas. And probably some poison ivy, too. but other than the few patches here and there that are itching, I'm fine, and that will last a few more days and that will be over. I consider it totally worth it lol

I've always thought it would be fun to do the entire trail, but I'd need to be in much better shape than I am now! Besides the fact I'd need a job that would allow me to take so much time.......

There is a 78 mile long trail here, though, that I'd like to give an over-night hike on for 1 night to see how I do, but that's nothing something I'm willing to do by myself. I'll hike for a few hours in a park by myself, but doing an overnight hike alone is probably asking for trouble.

though I intend as of right now to go camping by myself in July - but its a state park and I'll be in a small camper with a lockable door and a bolt! We'll see how this goes; I said I wanted to camper so I could go by myself, but we'll see if 1) I actually end up going by myself and 2) how well it will work