Mission Statement

I will in general eat healthy, eat "normal" food, without gimmicks, pills, surgery, or trademarked diets. I will log all calories consumed and estimate calories burned on a daily basis. I will then be able to track my progress and estimate arrival time to my goals through My Food Log. I will also develop non-food rewards for reaching my goals knowing that reaching each goal is a reward in-and-of itself. I will not give up. I know that I will not be perfect but that I am making a permanent lifestyle change. The good days will out-number the bad days. I will not give up!

6.23.2008

Maximize Metabolism

Christina2009
do0rdiet.blogspot.com

I reset my metabolism and my baby boy is not a baby anymore. He turned two on Friday. Click through to read about the metabolic reset.

Last Monday I had a bad weigh-in. It was unexplained. I followed my plan to a "T". I had only one day of actual cheating and even on that day I did not consume more calories than I burn in a day with a resting metabolic rate. By all rights, I should have lost another pound. I was stressed about my sons upcoming birthday and the weigh in led to depression. I made the conscious decision to take a week off from my plan.
Of course the first thing I did was go out to eat. I ate French bread with butter, a vegetable and cheese calzone, and real ranch dressing on a salad. I followed that up with 2 candy bars. The rest of the week I stopped by Burger King every morning and got a Chicken Biscuit meal with a large hash rounds and a large coke. Because I was getting ready for my son's party, I skipped lunch except for a piece of fruit on a couple of days.
The birthday meal was fried chicken, mac-n-cheese, chicken livers, chips, coke, and a cup cake. I of course ate left-overs all weekend. I finished my time off with a pint and half of Ben & Jerry's I fully expected to have another bad weigh-in this week. To my surprise I was wrong. I've actually lost .6 pounds, that's point six for you guys who aren't wearing your reading glasses. How is this possible?
The best answer I can come up with is two fold. For one, I was eating a huge breakfast, albeit an incredibly unhealthy one. I've always heard this old saying, "Eat like a King for breakfast, a Prince for lunch, and a Pauper for dinner." Well, I didn't exactly eat like a Pauper for dinner, or a Prince for lunch for that matter, but I had the breakfast part right. It's possible that I raised my metabolic rate for the day by having such big breakfast.
The second part of the answer has to do with the dreaded "starvation mode." I have always heard about this as a warning for not staving yourself. I have not been starving myself. Based on my plan, I have been eating 3 to 4 times a day. But, I think over the course of 3 weeks, my metabolism gradually shut off.
So, what to do? Watch my weigh-ins. If I see another increase where there really shouldn't be one, then it will be time to reset again. I could definitely skip the candy bars and the Ben & Jerry's, but I think all-in-all taking a week off was the right thing to do. Perhaps I don't need a full week to reset. That's something I will experiment with should this situation arise again.
One other note, my husband believes that the weight gain was due to water retention. I mention it as a real possibility though I think it is unlikely because it wasn't "time" for me to retain water. As always, here's to us. I will not quit! We can do this!

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