October 12, 2020

Feeling Ready to Focus on Weight Loss


Today is the final day of Week 3 of my Cookies Fall Challenge. I had attempted to take on all three challenges, but I haven't been keeping up with the Run/Walk Checklist. It seems like that would be an easy one for me to do, considering I walk every day, but I always forget to check the list!

However, I've been doing awesome with the mileage challenge (just a friendly competition for racking up miles either running or walking). I've been walking a minimum of five miles each morning. I've been second on the leaderboard twice in a row (among the walkers; the top runners are hitting crazy mileage!).

As for the Cookies Fall Hard Challenge (a different take on 75 Hard), I've been doing so-so. I haven't been doing ALL of the things every day, which I would love to change. I want have that strict discipline I had when the challenge first started. 

When starting 75 Hard, my goal was to develop discipline in order to stick with my weight loss goals. I didn't care TOO much about the weight loss during 75 Hard, because that wasn't the point of the challenge. However, now that I feel like I've developed some discipline (like the walking), I feel like I'm ready to step it up a notch.

I want to work my best at losing the weight. I still love intermittent fasting, but I know that I am eating too much during my "eating window", which is four hours. I know that it's not because I'm hungry, but because I'm stressed. We've had a lot going on lately--the kids doing school in a totally new and unfamiliar way, working on building a front porch before the weather gets cold, building Noah's desk, refinancing our car for a better interest rate, researching and buying a new mattress, keeping up with the fall challenges, and several other things. 

I'm starting to get used to the kids' schooling, so hopefully that will be less stressful from now on. I finished the porch, Noah's desk, and bought the mattress. I just finalized the refinance loan on the car (our interest rate went from 5.7% to 1.8%!! We'd bought the car just a couple of days before all the COVID stuff started, and the interest rates dropped significantly right afterward).

Now that all of that stuff is taken care of, I feel like it's a good time to work on focusing on the weight loss. I am extremely uncomfortable in my body right now. I'm worried that I'm going to undo all of the work that my skin removal surgery did--I paid a lot of money for that (even though my insurance covered most of it) and I don't want that to be a big waste.

The Cookies Fall Hard Challenge focuses on discipline rather than weight loss, and because it's so similar to 75 Hard, I feel like it's become a lifestyle for the most part. Now that I have the lifestyle part down, I want to set some fresh goals for my weight loss. Here is my most current full-length photo (aside from my daily progress photos):


While my ideal goal weight is 133, I'm not going to obsess about getting there. I'd be happy with 144, which is the top of my BMI range. That means I have to lose about 35 pounds. (Except for the photo above, all of the photos in this post are of me at around 144 pounds--my "happy weight".)


My plan is to continue with intermittent fasting. However, I'm going to do a OMAD (one meal a day) approach. I felt best when I was doing that back at the beginning of 75 Hard. It doesn't mean eating one small meal a day... it can include an appetizer, large meal, dessert, etc. I typically ate a large dinner and then finished with decaf coffee with cream and a sweet treat (zucchini bread was a favorite). I allowed myself a four-hour window (usually between 4pm and 8pm) but I was usually done eating after about two hours.

Here is an example of a large/filling dinner (Eli made this for us!):


About an hour later, I followed that up with coffee with cream and a piece of zucchini bread that Noah made.

I noticed that when I eat past my window, I am really hungry the next day. So, I'd like to be done eating shortly after dinner. I felt SO good and energetic (and my mood was better) when I was eating that way. I want to feel like that again.

That's pretty much it as far as my diet goes. My fasting periods are "clean fasts", which means that I don't consume anything except for plain water. For more info on intermittent fasting, particularly on the "OMAD" plan, I highly recommend the book 'Delay, Don't Deny' by Gin Stephens (Amazon affiliate link). That's the book that really made me want to try it! There are several different options for intermittent fasting--the OMAD approach is just one of them.

I don't only want to do the intermittent fasting for the weight loss, however. There are so many health benefits that I am hoping to see. I'm especially hoping that it helps with my chronic pain! But that could take a while, so we'll see. It most certainly helps with my digestion. I never feel bloated or stuffed, and I became very "regular".

Anyway, enough about that!

As far as exercise, I'm going to continue my daily walks. The five mile walk takes about an hour and twenty to an hour and thirty minutes. I like to go as soon as it's light outside so that I am back home early--by 9:00, usually. Once we change the clocks back for daylight savings, I'll be able to head out an hour earlier.

My overall goal for the weight loss is to lose about a pound per week (on average). When intermittent fasting, my weight goes up and down like crazy, but the overall trend was downward. So I'll be looking at that instead of a specific weight on a specific day. It'd be nice to see a downward slope of about a pound a week, though.

If I manage to do that, I can get to my happy weight of 144 in about 35 weeks--mid-June. That seems so far away right now, but this year has been flying by, and I have no doubt that June will be here before I know it. It would be nice to fit back into my favorite jeans by then!

Here are a couple of favorite pictures of me at about 144 pounds. Not my thinnest (this is borderline overweight, actually!). But I'd love to get here again. I felt so good at this size. (This is when Jerry and I were training for the Martian Half Marathon in 2018.)




2 comments:

  1. I think your happy weight of 144 is perfect. I'm 5'7" and weigh 157, which is almost "overweight" too. I don't put a lot of stock in BMI, it's a good enough gauge of health, but it doesn't take into account body composition. Most pro athletes are "obese" according to the BMI chart, but we clearly see that most of their compositions are muscle mass. I know you can do it! You've already created some solid exercise and eating habits, so now it's just the work of putting yourself in a caloric deficit. You've got this!

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  2. I'm 5'7" + (was 5'9") and stay around 140 +/- 3 lbs. Right now I''m at the higher end and that's OK. Without going to the gym regularly I seem to be a bit flabbier and I'll get that handled one day....one day! For now focus on walking and working out at the gym, eating healthy, and taking care of my mind. Right now stress is on the HIGH side!

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