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Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Reboot Week One: Weigh-In and Meal Plan

Sunday was the first day of my “weight-loss reboot,” as I like to call it. I’m feeling good about all of this - finally realizing what’s been holding me back (spoiler: me) and changing it up. Most of all, I’m just looking forward to making some progress. It will be good for my health, both mentally and physically.


I’m on day 3, and so far feeling good. J (my husband) and I are still consistently going to the gym, and I’m learning that I can lift/push/pull more than I think, and also that consistently challenging my body will yield the most results. We’re also trying to increase the days per week that we go, from three or four to six days a week.

Food-wise, I made a tentative meal plan for the week and went grocery shopping. I like the idea a meal plan as it solves the nightly question of what to have for dinner in a way that’s much less likely to lead to a dinner of frozen french fries, baby carrots, and a veggie burger that’s been in the freezer since Thanksgiving. I can also make at least one big dish and structure the week around it - quinoa with black beans, feta, red onion and bell peppers this week, pan fried mahi mahi next, then turkey burgers, etc. Who knows?




It helps that this stricter plan of having just 1000-1100 net calories per day (plus non-starchy vegetables) is only for the next eight weeks. When I’m tired of doing it, or it gets really hard, I’ll remind myself that even though I’ll probably never be able to stop spending a certain amount of time and effort on weight-loss and maintenance, these will hopefully be the only days where there's so little room for indulgences.


Over the next couple of months, there will be a few happy but food-challenging occasions, including a bridal shower and my firm's annual outing at a country club. I’m going to make a plan, think about what foods are worth enjoying and what foods are better to pass on, and do my best.


Here’s the Tentative Weekly Meal Plan, with Sunday-today showing what I actually had:



Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday -TBD
Breakfast
Coffee (sleep late)
Coffee, Greek Yogurt with honey
Coffee, Oatmeal with whole milk
Coffee and oatmeal
Coffee, Greek Yogurt
Coffee and oatmeal

Lunch
Oatmeal with peanut butter
Quinoa salad with feta, red onion, black beans, and bell peppers
Same as Monday
Vegetable soup with grilled cheese
Same as Monday

Same as Wednesday

Dinner
Garlic gnocchi with tomato sauce
Hot dogs on WW bread, pickles, carrots
Loaded baked potato
Veggie pizza
Loaded baked potato
Challah, roasted chicken, veggies
Snacks/ Prework

Chocolate milk, apple

Strawberries; toast with PB
Strawberries; string cheese

Strawberries, string cheese
Nectarines, string cheese
TBD


There may be more vegetables, we’ll see. My meal plan isn’t the most creative right now, but it’s foods I like and a plan I can follow.



While the good news is that I’m feeling confident for the next months (and years), there was a week or so gap between when I realized why I wasn’t losing weight, and finally starting this stricter plan. Unfortunately I got a little too much of the cursed “diet starts on Monday” mentality. I knew that I was still on my standard 1300/day plan, still working out, and there was no reason to go up in weight before I went down. But alas. I used the future diet as an excuse to have unnecessary indulgences and more than one “last hurrah” treat since I knew there wouldn’t be much room for treats, if any, on 1000 calories.





This brings me to the final weigh-in until August. J is going to log all the weight data, but I won't see it. As much as I would love to get to the 170's by the end of this, I don't want to get discouraged if the numbers don't follow.


Measurements 4/23/20144/30/20145/7/20145/14/20145/21/20145/28/20146/9/2014
Weight188.1188.3185.8187.2186.5187.8191.2
Pounds Fat79.581.578.379.178.578.682.7
Pounds Muscle 67.468.467.468.667.167.167.3


Not good at all. I hope some of that is bloat, but honestly I’m ignoring this number. It’s a “new” starting weight. Like I’ve said, feeling guilty about food and weight gain is utterly pointless (and is often an excuse for inaction). For the next 8 weeks, my focus will be on working out, eating well, and improving my eating habits.

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