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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Like the Leaves of September

My body is changing shape and so is my attitude. My stomach shrinking is great and so is my positive outlook.

I'm sure that this is just me being moody, stressed, and tired but I'm getting bored with dieting. That being said, I am determined not to give up! I should write that ten times just to reiterate it to myself. I do fine with lunch. I am usually skipping breakfast and then I am tending to eat waaaayyy too much for dinner. I'm going to go re-read My Diet Plan (see archives... too tired to put in the link) and hopefully I will revive. My title has to do with the fact that in August I was rapidly racking up red days. Many days were green, some days were yellow, and more often than I would like, red days appeared. My Food Log (see LINX) looks like the leaves of a tree, changing in September. I need to hold on to the green of July and if I have to stumble, my log should then look like a tree in March or April... mostly green but with hints of immature yellowish green.
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When Green Suddenly Turns Red

do0rdiet.blogspot.com
When a good run of green days suddenly turns red... what do you do?*** Last week I was determined to get back on track with my diet after having had a few weeks of events and vacation. I incorporated the use of mini-goals. Instead of just striving for the large progress markers, I focused on the next few days. This was a tremendous success as I ended up with 5 days in a row with green results. But then...

I got busy again, had company come to stay for the weekend, a festival to attend, and an outdoor catering venue to work at. All of these events are out of the ordinary for me. I was completely off schedule. As a result I logged 3 red days in a row! It's like I take 2 steps forward and 2 steps back because on at least 2 of the red days I also consumed more than I burned... this equals weight gain. Actually overall, I have not seen a weight gain, even though I was over eating. I attribute this to the increase my level of activity. I normally have a sedentary day. I work at a computer/phone and I love watching TV. Over the weekend I did lots of walking, standing, lifting, and in general saw a huge increase in my activity level. But none of this explanation answers my question... what do you do when green suddenly turns red? I could try the mini-goal of 3 green days again. I could also concede slightly and strive for 5 days of yellow. I'm wondering if green day goals are putting too much pressure on me and therefore at the first change in schedule or activity I am more likely to fail. This weekend will also be filled with out of the ordinary events. I will be traveling to the Charleston area on Friday. Back home on Saturday. Then I have another outdoor catering event to work Sunday and Monday. Knowing that I may be setting myself up for failure, I am going to strive to have green days for the rest of the work week. Then I'm going to try hard to have yellow days (and I may push all the way up to 1800) all weekend. This is an obvious concession to my overall goal, but even at 1800 calories, I am still having some, albeit slower, forward progress. Should this idea not work out, I will be better prepared for next time, and I will have a better understanding of how to set those short term goals for stressful periods.

***If you're not familiar with my system, visit My Food Log for a better understanding. I color code my dieting success on a log of my daily calories. That way, when it's time to get on the scale, if the results that I'm expecting are not there, I can quickly scan back to my eating history and see why I was disappointed. Green days are days where I met my goal, currently 1200 calories per day (I still call it a green day if I was over the goal but by less than 50 calories). Yellow days are to represent days where I did not meet my goal, but I still was able to burn a significant amount of calories. Yellow days are from 1250 calories up to 1800. Anything over 1800 is a red day. Red days also cover days when I consumed more calories than I burned.

I am pleased to announce that I have had 3 official takers for my offer to develop free, personalized, diet plans. I am looking forward to hearing back from these folks. I am more anxious to see if I've actually helped. I still have 22 slots left for free plans. One aspect of creating these plans that I wasn't quite prepared to deal with is the time it takes away from my blog. My post rate has been low as of late because I have a limited amount of time each day to devote to internet/computer/blog work. So, I apologize for not having fun fresh material every day. I am working on ways to resolve this issue. I am currently "pre-writing" this article. I am hoping that this method will make it so I can get a good archive of articles that are relevant and ready to print while at the same time make my evening work hours more productive.

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Alli, Friend or Foe

do0rdiet.blogspot.com
My mother just announced to me that she is now taking Alli. The question tonight is whether to convince her that is bad or to support her efforts to recover a healthy weight and disregard the chemical side of her plan. What to do?

I think the answer has to be to support her no matter what. For one, she is my mother. Secondly, she is doing this with the blessing of her doctor. Thirdly, I did the workup of her daily calorie usage... it's not pretty. Due to her age and short stature, she only burns 1800 calories in a day. She has to work 14% harder than I do to burn the same amount of calories that I do in a day. This is rough because she is 22 years older than me and is 3 3/4 inches shorter than I am.
Just by coincidence, I discovered that we are now the same weight. I am attempting to get her to wager with me as to who can loose the most weight and keep it off. But, then I realize that I truly have the advantage. While I'm talking about money.... I would MUCH rather her pay me the $45 - $80 monthly that she will spend on Alli.
I can do the same thing for her. I can "block" the fat from her diet by guilting her into not eating junk, but then, I realize that as much as I want her to succeed, I can't do it for her. She has to want to be healthy for herself. She has to want it so badly that she will do whatever it takes to get there. I guess this is my biggest concern with her choice of Alli. It seems like she wants an easy way out.
Now I will say that the "Alli-Oops" or treatment effects (oily and gassy discharges, sometimes uncontrollable) seem to be a struggle to put up with in and of themselves. And according to the Alli diet plan, calories and grams of fat must be counted to make Alli a success and make the Alli-Oops minimal. So they are striving for personal accountability. But I just don't know. It seems terribly unhealthy to chemically alter your digestion in this way. At the same time, doing nothing at all is ultimately just as unhealthy.
All in all, I will support her efforts whatever they may be and continue to offer what I believe to be more healthy tips and information. Got any better advice?
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Free Diets

do0rdiet.blogspot.com
A short post tonight. So far I've had no takers on my offer for free diet planning. The offer is still open to the first 25 people who respond. In other news, I have lost another pound. Go me!

Has anyone talked to Flabuless lately? I haven't seen a post since the announcement of her co-blogging with The Incredible Shrinking Ladies. I worry about her in light of her recent personal troubles. Lady Rose seems to be doing well. And although The Middle Aged Shed is down one buddy, they seem to be shedding along. Hang in there. We Can Do It!
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Back In The Saddle

After a wonderful vacation and successful casting out of demons from my son (baptism) I am very glad to be back. The Great Smoky Mountains National Forrest is definitely a place everyone should visit, several times if possible. I fell off the diet wagon during the vacation, but I didn't fall as hard as I expected.

I learned a few things about my eating habits, metabolism, fitness, and activity level while I was away. My eating habits overall have certainly changed for the better. I generally don't eat so much anymore. I don't know if my stomach has shrunk or if my body is now better able to listen to it's full signals. But in general over the vacation, over-eating was not my biggest downfall.
My metabolism is normal, I think. I did eat more calories but I also had far more activity than usual. I did not gain any weight after falling off the wagon for 7 days.
I am impressed and inspired by my apparent overall fitness level. There were several days where I expected to wake up sore the next morning. Several days of the vacation incorporated far more walking than is normal for me. Two of the days included excessive cooking and cleaning in less than cool temperatures. I experienced no soreness and actually had the energy to push through the work without exhaustion.
The increased activity level and absence of exhaustion lead me to believe that my general activity level is higher than I had originally estimated (during the creation of My Diet Plan). This also would explain why I have lost more pounds than indicated by My Food Log.
So, all of these points are good. In what way did I fall off the wagon? Well, it was mostly in the type of foods I indulged on and in my beverage choices. I was a sucker for dessert. I was able to resist the homemade, freshly made, still warm, and smelling soooo sweet fudge. But, I had a few servings of ice cream and chocolate cake. I also grabbed a Coke at every opportunity instead of my requisite diet sweet tea. Had I cut those two areas out over the vacation, I could have probably lost at least 2 pounds given the increased activity, instead of maintaining the same weight. In other words, I could have probably reduced my daily caloric intake by about 600 calories, if I had skipped the desserts and sodas.
One other, very important lesson I learned.... although I did have the energy to push through some very trying days, I did notice that on the days where I filled up on desserts and sodas, I had a noticeable change in energy level at the end of the night. I guess what I'm suggesting here is that sugar and fat may give an initial energy burst with sustaining properties, they will eventually cause an energy depletion.
All in all I had a very relaxing, fun filled, purposefule trip to the Great Smoky Mountains National Forrest. I would love to do it again. I miss living there but I am glad to be back to my current home.
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This Really Works (My Diet Plan)

The Long and Short of My Diet Plan (Short First). I am down 14 pounds since June 4, 2007!

The Short

1. 1200 calories daily
2. no more than 500 calories in 4 hours
3. 60 or less grams of fat daily
   
4. use the Food Pyramid
5. eat normal foods
6. eat recommended portions (or less)
7. stay hydrated
8. exercise
9. log calories, track progress
10. DO NOT GIVE UP!

The Long

My starting weight is 214 pounds. My goal weight is 140 pounds. I want to loose 74 pounds. I divided that goal into 2 major parts. I initially want to loose 34 pounds. This will put me at 180 pounds. Upon achieving this goal I will have to reevaluate my methodology as my body will no longer be burning the same amount of calories. The heavier you are, the more calories your body burns. The first premise of my diet is to reduce my daily caloric intake to 1200 per day. I also want to divide these calories into 4 meals. Ideally I would consume 300 calories at each meal. This is not always possible, especially when eating on-the-go or at a gathering. The second premise of my diet is to consume no more than 500 calories in any given 4 hour period. Any calories consumed over 500 at the same time are stored in the body as fat. Allowing up to 500 calories in one meal will give me flexibility when eating out or in a group. I will still remain at a daily total of 1200 calories. The third premise of my diet is to limit fat intake to 60 grams in one day. Eating more than 60 grams of fat in a day means that I have not eaten sufficient servings from all of the basic food groups or have neglected to eat from one or more of the groups altogether. Premise four of my diet is to be guided by the USDA Food Pyramid. I want to eat at least one serving from each of the basic food groups daily. I also want to allow for some treats (sugar) and consume some fats to ensure proper digestion. The fifth premise of my diet is to eat normal foods. I want to eat the same foods that I serve my family. I am sure to slowly incorporate healthier, more calorie conscious, and lower fat meals into menus for my family. The idea here is to not have to cook one meal for my family and a separate meal for myself. Premise six of my diet is that I want to eat the recommended serving size of the foods I eat. Eating less than the recommended serving size is also acceptable as often the nutrition label on a food package and the USDA Food Pyramid have different measurements for one serving of a particular food. Eating less than the recommended serving size is also useful when quelling a craving or considering what extra flavor punches to incorporate into a meal. The seventh premise of my diet is stay hydrated. This will be especially important after the first 10 pounds come off as poor hydration can lead to baggy, hanging skin. Consuming the proper amount of liquid daily will aid digestion and help keep the excretory system functioning properly. Premise eight of my diet is to incorporate exercise. Exercise burns calories and build muscle. Muscle burns more calories. This is essential in order for the second part of my weight loss goal to be achieved. Premise nine of my diet is to not rely on the scale as the sole progress indicator. The way my clothing fits and the notches on my belt will also be good indicators of success. Using My Food Log and the calculations for calories burned should be the main indicator of progress. The weight scale should only be used as a reminder of previous success and as a final marker for goal completion. The tenth premise of my diet is to not give up, no matter what! Should I discover that my stated plan is not effective then I will reevaluate and modify the plan. I will not be satisfied until my goal weight is achieved. I will not revert into bad habits and an unhealthy lifestyle upon reaching my goal. Read more!