It is all getting very real, now. This summer I went from 240 pounds to 214 pounds. It’s entirely possible I will weigh 200 pounds (or less) by the end of the year 2020. Not bad for a fellow who started out at or near 325 pounds in January 2019. My pants size has gone down as well. I am regularly wearing and buying waist size 40s now. When I weighed between 240 and 245 pounds, I was wearing size 46 and 44 waist pants. I started all this in size 52 and 54 pants.
So basically I have done a lot of work, achieved great things, and now none of my clothes fit. On top of that, looking in the mirror I am still overweight! The weight is most persistent around my middle (back, sides, and front), the tops of my arms and the tops of my legs. Everywhere else, like my neck and face, have thinned out nicely. What will happen as I concentrate on losing another 10 or 15 pounds? Where will the extra weight persist the longest?
But the path forward is clear. I intend to keep going.
My food intake and calorie count
Breakfast – 8oz Steel cut oats (215); syrup (30); pizza (50);
- 295 calories
Lunch – wheat wrap half (60); with steak (100); green beans and potatoes (40); 2x Ole wraps (50); with pork (100); sauerkraut (100); horseradish (50);
- 550 calories
Dinner – Braciole (200); 4oz noodles (200); salad (50); gravy (40);
- 490 calories
Snacking – tea with half and half (80); 1 serving cookies (170)
- 250 calories
Total for the day: 1585 calories (limit 1700)
Nothing is easy but some things are worth it
I recently acquired a Fitbit Charge 4 watch. It has provided a lot of interesting data on my movements, heart rate, exercise patterns, and sleep. Among other findings, my sleep quality is not very good. I am amazed; I always thought my sleep was good quality because I am almost always able to go to sleep quickly and easily. But getting up is always difficult. Now I have a possible reason. I am apparently spending a minimal time in deep sleep or REM sleep, and most of my time in light sleep. I have talked before about the connection between getting enough sleep and overeating, and I am thinking about this issue of low quality sleep, a lot.
One point is that while I spend a lot of time in bed, part of it is spent reading and playing games before trying to sleep. It has been suggested that I should use bed only for sleep and do my reading and game playing while sitting in a chair. It’s worth trying. I have always believed that you need good sleep to do a good job while awake. Even if you aren’t getting a lot of sleep, I want it to be high quality. So I will be paying more attention to this. That part of my lifestyle is out of sync and not helping me towards my goals.
If you are doing a hard thing, make it as easy as you can in all other ways.
My goal of body control is worthwhile and will help me in other parts of my life. I talked yesterday about responsibility. If I take responsibility for my body’s weight, and find ways to make that work, then I can apply those lessons to any enterprise: find what works and keep at it until the goal is reached. What will I do next? After a while I will not have more weight to lose and will have to adjust to maintenance. Sleep is also a worthwhile project. How can I get the best sleep? I’ll look into it!
Goodnight,
-The Doctor