Managing is Harder than Losing

I thought that once I hit my goal it make life easier but it hasn't.  Before it was all out doing everything to lose weight now I have to walk the fine line between losing and gaining.  My new strategy is as follows:

I will weigh myself every Monday night.  Depending on those results I will adjust my eating habits for that week.  My goal now is to stay +- 2 lbs of 160 lbs.  I am going to continue with the cartio and weight training.

I have started trying to mix some running into my walking.  Saturday I walked a mile, ran a mile, walked another mile.

Set Back

Yesterday I ate:
Fiber 1 bar - 150 cal
Apple sauce - 50 cal
Lunch at Mi Pueblo Beef enchilada, taco rice nad beans and of course chips - 600 cal?
Pasta with light cream sauce peppers peas corn and sausage - 620 cal

My workout consisted of:
300 curls 5lbs
60 lateral raises
60 front presses
60 shoulder presses
Walked 3 miles ( in the blistering FL sun)
Cycled 4 miles
Walked/Ran 1 mile with my dog

My result:
+.2

I new it was not going to be a productive way when I heard that we were going out to mexican food for a work lunch meeting.  Mexican food it my weakness.  I felt pretty good just gaining the small amount that I did.  I am confident that today I will be able to overcome that and finally get below my goal of 160lbs

Almost There

After losing 1.5lbs yesterday I am within .5 lbs of my goal.  I am working out more and have started eating more.  My 2.5 months of hard work are going to pay off.  I am looking better than I have looked in years.  I am feeling better than I have felt in years.  I am stating to enjoy activities that I have not done for years.  We are now raching the maintenance stage.  this is where it changes from a diet & exercise program to a life style change.  The great thing is that I am not following anyone elses orders and I dont have an official set of rules.  This means that there willbe no feeling guilty if I go to Outback and have a half order of cheese fries, because there is no program to cheat on.  The key from here on out is to be sensible.  If I overindulge one day I will expect negative results, and I will know that I will have to work harder in the following days to get back to where I want to maintain.

I thnk I may have messed up a little by decreasing my caloric intake so far.  i think in hte last couple of weeks my body has gone into starvation mode, my metabolism has gone to a slow crawl and I have had a harder time losing weight.  Now as I stat to increase my food intake I am going to have to watch carefully and not increase too quickly.  If I increase my calories dramatically before my metabolism gets going I will risk adding weight back.  I have purchased some green tea extract which my research seems to indicate is one of the few natural metabolism boosters.  I am going to take this over the next week or so while I increase my food intake.  My goal is to be planning 1500 calories  a day in meals which will give me some room for unplanned snacks and drinks without exceeding 2000 calories per day.  I will monitor this for a few weeks and then adjust as needed in order to maintain a weight of 160lbs.

Yesterday I ate:
special k bars - 3 for a total of 270 cal
Apple sauce - 50 cal
Baked Potato with light butter and bacos - 370 cal
Raspberry sorbet - 70 cal

My workout consisted of:
275 curls 5lbs
60 lateral raises
60 front presses
60 shoulder presses
80 crunches
Walked 3 miles ( in the blistering FL sun)
Cycled 4 miles

My result:
-1.5

A New Look

Yesterday was a good day.  I am having a lot of trouble getting these last 2 lbs to stay off but I think it is because I am startingto work out so I am gaining muscle and I am having more of an appetite.

Yesterday I ate:
 Soup and crackers for lunch (170 cal)
Spagetti and meat sauce for dinner (450 cal)
I also had a few Special K bars throughout the day (2 bars total 180 cal)
grape juice (2 bottles total 240 cal)

My work out consisted of:
300 curls 5lbs
60 lateral raises
60 front presses
60 shoulder presses
60 crunches
Walked 4 miles ( in the blistering FL sun)
Cycled 4 miles

My result was not at all what I had hoped for but it was positive:

-.4 lbs
I am starting to see some results of my upper body work outs.  My arms are starting to get bigger and I have having some definition in my chest.  I still have a lot of work to do in my abs but I am seeing slight progress.  My wife told me she use to do 1000 crunches a day.  I have a ways to go to catch that.

I am going to try to post some before and now pictures in the next couple of days.

A New Chapter

I am within one pound of my goal of 160 lbs.  I am planning to go down to 158 lbs just because I am going to my parents house the end of this month and I always over eat there.  My plan then is to come back home and still be very close to my goal weight of 160lbs.

Since I am reaching my goal it is time to start thinking about a transition from weight loss to weight mantenance and muscle toning.  I have started doing a lot of upper body lifting with light weight and many reps.  Some examples are 200 curls a night, 100 shoulder presses, 100 front presses, and 100 lateral raises.  I am doing these with 5 lb dumb bells.  As I get to a point where I can do these easily  I will raise the weight.  I am still doing cardio by continuing to walk 3 mi/day, cycle 5 mi/day, and I am also stating to train for a 5K run which I will participate in at the end of May.

Of course I will still watch my calorie intake and try to stay below 1500 calories for now and watch how my weight does.  If I continue to lose weight I will up my calories to 2000.

TGIF

I didn't get a chance to blog yesterday.  It was too beautiful outside so I spent extra time walking and riding.  My new eating regiment worked out pretty good.  I lost 1.5 lbs Thursday, and .5 yesterday.  Besdies eating my snacks every 2 hours i had a decent lunch and dinner yesterday.  Lunch was 2 egg ranchero burritos and dinner was a pasta dish that I am going to give you the recipe for.

Pasta with sauteed peppers and meatballs
this is one of my favorite new creations

2 servings of pasta.  Anything will work.  I like to use spagetti
1/2 a red pepper chopped
1/3 cup chopped celantro or a tsp dried celantro
2 Tbsp margarine.  I use I Can't believe Its Not Butter Light
3/4 cup heavy cream
12 small frozen italian meatballs

Bake the meatballs in the oven for about 16 min
Make the pasta and set to the side.
Sauce
   put about 1/2 of the margarine into a hot sauce pan add the peppers and sautee until soft
   Add in the heavy cream and the rest of the margarine
   Let it simmer for a few minutes stirring gently
   Add in the celantro
Presentation
   Put pasta on a plate
   Pour sauce over the pasta
   Put meatballs on top of sauce

Makes 2 servings at 490 calories per serving.

I hope you enjoy the new dish.  It is low calorie but it still tastes rich and nice.  I LOVE IT!

Change of Plan

I have been going at this intense diet for a while now and I think my body has caught on.  I am eating less food than ever trying to drop these last few lbs but I can't seem to lose them.  I believe it is because my body is feeling starved so it is slowing down my metabolism in not burning calories at it should.  I have decided to try a different aproach for the next couple of days.  I am going to eat small snckas every 2 hours for the entire day.  I will start at 6am and have my last one at 8pm.  I am hoping to raise my metabolism back up this way and still not have too many calories.  The snacks will be around 100 calories each.

I am back up to 164 today so I have 4 lbs to lose.

Wish Me Luck!