Still losing weight!

For a while I had fallen off track on my weight loss journey. There were a couple special events that had me eating more than I would normally eat. It caused me to gain about 3 pounds back. I am happy to say that I am under 235 and still losing weight. Here’s what I’m doing to keep the momentum.

The first thing I’ll mention that caused me to gain weight back was extra snacking after work. With the nicer weather, I had started to walk to work (though the rain prevented that for much of the past couple weeks). The extra energy I had been using had caused me to need more calories. Because I hadn’t changed my breakfast or lunch at all, I had started to snack more when I got home. That “snack” amounted to a small bowl of cereal. I’ll admit to having a handful of dry cereal as a snack most of the time. In fact, I’ve been doing that this week. But that bowl was more cereal than would fit in my hand and the milk added extra calories and fat. Sometimes I’d snack on cheese as well. You see… when I get hungry and it’s not time for a meal, I’ll just put food in my mouth. What I’ve been doing lately at work is eating a bag of Sun Chips about half an hour after I have my sandwich and first apple. It gives me just enough substance to make it longer in the day.

As I mentioned, I’ve been walking to work more often. When the weather is nice, the walk is quite nice. I live almost exactly a mile from the door to my building. When I walk, I wear sneakers and carry my lunch and dressier shoes in my backpack. I estimate that I’m carrying about 15 pounds on my back when I walk to work. It’s quite a bit lighter on the walk home because I’ve eaten my lunch and drunk my half gallon of water, but I actually prefer the lighter weight going home. I just want to get home by the end of the day. The other thing about my walk is going to work in the morning is pretty much entirely uphill. Now, it’s not like I’m climbing a mountain, but it’s uphill nonetheless. It adds some extra work to the walk, especially with the added weight. I’ve been managing to get in at least 2 or 3 days a week of walking. The problem comes with summer. When it’s hot and humid, it almost gets to be too much. Last year, I took to biking to work, which is easier than walking, but still causes me to work up a sweat. The problem is, I don’t have much room in my bag for a change of clothes and there is nowhere at work I can shower quickly. I might try to buy some convertible pants that turn into shorts. I’m not sure if I’ll be allowed to wear them to work, but if my boss allows for it, that will be my answer to the heat.

Here’s basically what I’ve been eating lately.

Breakfast: 6:30 am – large-ish bowl of Honey Nut Cherrios with 1% milk (I always use 1%), probably amounting to 3 servings of the cereal.

Snack: 10:30 am-11:30 am – 4-5 stalks of celery, no dipping

Lunch: 12:00 pm-12:15 pm – sandwich, usually ham or turkey with cheese and mayo (not light mayo), and an apple

Snack: 12:30 pm- 1:00 pm – Sun Chips or popcorn or Twix (depends on what’s in the snack machine)

Snack: 3:00 pm – apple

Dinner: 6:30 pm-7:00 pm – pork or chicken grilled or baked, brown rice or a small baked potato with a small amount of butter, large-ish salad with a low calorie dressing

Dessert: 8:30 pm – 2 scoops of Edy’s Slow Churned ice cream or 1 Edy’s fruit bar (the blueberry ones with added anti-oxidants are good)

I drink a glass (about 14 oz) of water after showering after breakfast to take my allergy medicine and a multi-vitamin.

Throughout my workday I drink about a half gallon of water (64 oz).

I drink a glass of water with dinner and another with dessert. Occasionally, I’ll have a glass after getting home from work and maybe half a glass before bed. It equates to between 100 oz and a whole gallon of water a day.

So that’s about it for this update. As I hit another landmark (probably sub 230), I’ll post more info. I feel like I’m going to hit a plateau soon. I’m hoping I can get down below 230 for my plateau. That’ll put me at a 10+ pound loss before I have to really work for it. My other concern is muscle mass. I’m relatively built and have more muscle mass than I did when I last hit my goal weight. It’s possible I won’t get there, but if I can reduce the amount of fat, I’ll be extremely happy.