So having ballooned back up to a 38″ waist and 190 lbs. at 5’8″ tall, I determined to do something about it:
1) drastically cut my daily caloric intake;
2) adopt an Atkins-style approach for what I do eat;
3) start exercising regularly again.
It’s been all of one week, and I’m both amused and delighted. This is fun, and I feel great! The kicker is, I’ve easily kept under my caloric goals all but one day this week. With the exception of a piece of chocolate cake that kicked me a tad over my calorie limit midweek, all I’ve eaten is listed in the post title (which I find hilarious). And I’ve not felt hungry.
Calories: I’m using the LiveStrong app on my iPhone to track calories and have my calorie count set for a 2-lb-per-week loss rate. That’s easily a third or fewer calories than I was eating (no more quick trips to Carl’s Jr., for example!) This thing is fantastic and makes it ridiculously easy to track what you eat.
Atkins: I’m doing my own version of the “induction” phase of Atkins, in which you limit your carb intake to a measly 20grams “net carbs.” In pure Atkins, alcohol’s verboten, but screw that. I’m willing to get a good chunk of those net carbs from beer (that would be 2 bottles max/day, which is 1 bottle more than I usually drink anyway). Besides, whiskey’s got zero carbs, so nyah.
Exercise: in addition to walking Kaya 30 minutes a day, I’ve started running again.
I’ve also made sure to drink at least 2 liters of water a day.
John Ross (yes, that John Ross) said Atkins was the closest thing to a miracle he’d experienced, and I can see why he’d feel that way.
Of course, I’m going to be eating much more varied stuff in the weeks ahead while still staying within my limits, but I just found it funny that the food I was able to eat this week ended up as it did.
If you need another way to get exercise, I recently bought a treadmill desk because I had been flying a desk WAY to much. Got a LifeSpan TR1200-DT from Amazon. Two weeks and more than 70 miles later, I’m pretty happy with it, though I’m still looking for a good stool to set on it when I’m not moseying along at 2 MPH tying and surfing the net. The hardest part was cleaning out the man-cave to make room for it.
Now that’s a cool idea.
Watch that Adkins diet, Phil. Adkins works ONLY if you are very tight on carbs. That’s why you can’t even eat any veggies for the first month on it. Two BITES of chocolate cake will blow away the diet for 3 days.
Been there, made those mistakes. That’s why I changed to low-fat diets when I have to shrink off some blubber.