Created: 2019.08.06 | Last updated: 2020.06.24
5th week complete. Showing my progress. I'll update this blog about weekly.
With COVID-19 repercussions and trying to keep all my staff employed. I have given up this year on losing weight. Losing weight causes me too much stress. As of 2020.06.24 I seem to be stabilized for several weeks at 238lbs.
I'm not going to put up a bunch of boring blogs that you have to wade through to read the details - after all I assume MOST people are going to read this long after all the entries and updates are done. I'm going to just keep editing this one, hopefully once a week to tell you were I'm at if you care. I'll create a new blog for maintaining my weight after I lose the weight. So - if you are reading this in real time - and you really care - check back weekly. I work with MRO software (Maintenance, Repair and Operations). When I look at my weight from that perspective, my current state is the Repair state. Sadly I can't use our Maintenance Connection software to help. Not even our mobile offline app will help with this, this is the real world and software isn't the solution! A different page after will deal with my weight maintenance after I achieve my weight loss goal.
I am combining 44/4 and 68/4 Intermittent fasting with exercise, primarily at the most fun place I've seen in Calgary to get exercise, Inja Nation where we have a membership so we (my 4 youngest kids aged 3 to 6 and I) can go as often as we like. I get HIIT there 1-2 times a week speed climbing and trampolining and obstacle courses. Most days I can only do 90 minutes before I'm exhausted, but we usually stay 2 hours. I'm also consciously picking more energetic things to do in general - not hard having 4 kids under the age of 8.
Start, Reality: 242lbs
End of Week 1, 2019.07.31 (technically 3 days) Reality:233lbs As expected I lost 9 lbs quickly. Yes I drank a lot of water. Based on this I decided that WEDNESDAYs would be my weekly target day. Most weeks I will be allowed to eat on Wednesday at 4pm, so basically the question each week will be, was I, at 4pm on Wednesday, at or below or above my target weight? Then, I will adjust the NEXT week target to be 7lbs below actual. My hope is: When I lose MORE than 7lbs in a week I will be excited by the success and eat less to keep on track. When I lose LESS than 7lbs in a week I will be disappointed by the failure and eat less to get back on track. Yes I understand how silly that sounds - but ... we'll see if I know myself or not. So my weight is nominally 233lbs today, that makes my target for next Wednesday 226lbs.
End of Week 2, 2019.08.07 Target: 226lbs, Reality: 225lbs, total 17lbs lost in 10 days. Success plus1! I didn't expect to because of having a wonderful wedding feast on Saturday, and eating 4 times in 4 hours on Monday, and not eating very lightly the other 2 days. But I followed the rules and achieved better than success, 8lbs in 7 days.
End of Week 3, 2019.08.14 Target: 218lbs, Reality: 220lbs, only lost 5lbs, total 22lbs lost in 17 days. (I went to a smorg, Rosebud dinner theatre, on Friday ... didn't eat as much as usual, but I still ate a lot. And the other 2 meals this week I definitely ate more than I usually do at a meal. So ... is the biggest problem that I ate too much, or that my metabolism is messed up or that 7lbs a week really is too aggressive of a goal? I don't know.)
End of Week 4, 2019.08.21 Target: 213lbs, Reality: 214lbs, only lost 6lbs, total 28lbs in 24 days. This is the 1st week without a special 'feast' in it. But I only lost 6lbs, not my 7lb target. So I guess that would be another one in the failure column. Sing with me: Could've been the surpee, It might have been the meat, could have been the 4 or 5 pepperoni sticks, I don't know, but look at the weight I've left...
End of Week 5, 2019.08.28 Target 207lbs, Reality: 212lbs, only lost 2lbs, total 30lbs in 31 days. I was tempted (and fell) into eating before schedule and ended up eating heavily for the next 36 hours. I guess I should be glad I lost ANY weight this week.
Only 1.5 weeks left until I leave for Central America por negotios (business trip.) I've decided to try to stabilize at "no more than 220! before the trip and then restart my loss after the trip.
Hours before leaving: My weight has been steady at Reality 217 for the past several days. So now I'm hoping to keep my weight under 220 and I pray at or below 217. It is so hard to not gain weight though on a a business trip, so I'll be happy at anything 220 or lower.I'll try to eat 'low cal' food mostly, but I expect I'll put a bunch of weight back on and take several weeks to recover, sadly. Plan: take clothing that fits nice, but snug, so that I have no option but not put on fat. It would be better if it was a vacation (lots of physical activity - business meetings are not conducive to exercise.)
Well, despite eating lots, my weight was Reality 214.5 this morning (I returned early this morning.) So that was a raging success. I admit, I stayed 'conscious' that I did not want to exceed 220 and tried hard to 'not gain much' - so I was absolutely thrilled to find I was successful. It really helped that my team member Mike was also trying to lose weight, so we encouraged each other. What did I eat? One Argentinian steak dinner with all the trimmings. In the LA airport on the way and way back I ate a big, nice, Chinese meal at Panda. The other 8 days I ate mostly 'Tipico' - rice and bean (and eggs at breakfast) with one 'meat' like chicken, beef, pork or fish, and I always had either Jugo con Leche or Jugo con Agua (Fruit smoothing with milk or water.) My favorites were really ripe mango or guava con Leche, or pineapple con agua. I had 2 every day, some days 3.
So, I'm calling 'this' week Week 6. It is a 5 day week. Target: 212lbs. (my previous low before the trip.)
So I failed miserably ...Reality 215.5... I didn't fast more than 8 hours (In other words ... while sleeping). So I think I have finally gotten my will power back (Thursday 2019.09.26)
So my target for next Wed, which will be the 6th week of (non-contiguous) fasting if I do have my will power back is 205lbs (yes aggressive, as loss of 10.5lbs - I'm hoping this is like the 1st week of a diet where you lose 10lbs really easily.)Reality: 5.5 lost, 210 so, not bad, but admittedly a little depressing. I've decided this coming week to try to maintain 210. Hopefully I can report success.
It is embarrassing to admit when you fail. I have a lot of stress in my life (mostly self selected/inflicted) and I have bumped up to 225lbs as of this morning (big meals on the weekend - Rosebud theatre smorg, birthday cheesecake, nice steak dinner for my birthday.) I was tempted to 'delete' this page and act like it never happened. But ... I have decided to admit my failure and start over. So ... today (2019.11.12) I have been repeatedly tempted to wait 'one more day' before starting, but so far I have succeeded in refusing to give in to temptation.