Monthly check-in

It's been a month since I embarked on this journey, and as of this morning, I am down 9 pounds. I didn't think to do a waist measurement, and after dinner, popcorn and 3 glasses of water, I'm not so sure I'd post an impressive number!

9 pounds is good, and it would be fine if I lost 9 pounds every month. But we know that it doesn't work that way. Usually you start out strong, and your body starts adapting, conserving more calories and making it harder to burn them. 

This is part of the reason I take in 1600 calories a day. I know I could go lower. I think I've read that it's safe to go as low as 1200 a day. But if anything has to give, I'd like it to be the exercise. Basically, I'd rather do more exercise to burn more calories, than to eat less, but have less energy for more exercise. I know that at 1200 a day, I'm not going to be able to work out at the intensity that I want to, and as far as I'm concerned, I'd rather put my focus into building a body that's a fuel burning machine. And if, as expected, I plateau, I'd rather have some leeway to lower the calories down the road. Whereas, if I start at 1200, there's nowhere else to go, except to start starving myself (which I can assure you, ain't happening anytime soon). 

Oh! Today I started back on the couch-to-5k program. Week 1, day 1! This was infinitely easier than the first time I started this program, which was around September of 2010. When I started it back then, I thought I was going to die. I also wasn't doing much in the way of exercise at all at the time. I think I made it through like 3 of the intervals and then walked the rest of the way. I eventually "finished" the program in February of 2011, and ran/walked a 5k. (I had forgotten until 2 weeks before the race that I neglected to take a few things into account. One was the fact that I had done the last 2/3 of the program indoors on a treadmill, and the other was that it was much colder than I had ever run in by the time race day rolled around. So, even though I would have liked to have run the whole thing, I walked a good part of it, and my time was something like 42 minutes.)

Today's set of intervals was great, until about the 5th one, when I began feeling a twinge in my hip. By the last interval, it was feeling really bad. When I got home, I took some Advil and bumped up the glucosamine (yeah, I'm getting old!) I'm hoping it's something temporary, otherwise I'll shelve the running for another time. Ideally, I'd like to be able to run this entire race in May. I mean, come on, running, dogs and wine. What could be better?

Methods -- Diet

I know there are lots of ways to do this: low-fat, low-calorie, low-carb, high-protein, etc. I don't think it can be disputed that calories are the most effective way of measuring food intake. I'll get into specifics of what those calories should be made up of (for me) below.

In the past, when attempting to cut calories, I've aimed for 1600-1800 calories a day. Since I tend to stray a little here and there, and 1600 always turns into 1800, I'm going to say 1600 is the ceiling. And we'll take that "extra" 200 calories per day and bank them for special occasions (kind of like how Weight Watchers gives you the extra points for wine and chocolate, or whatever your particular vices are).

According to the American Cancer Society's Web site, a "moderately active" 192-lb woman would need 3229 calories per day to maintain her weight (I believe this is called the basal metabolic rate (BMR). Another Web site gets more specific with age and height,  and tells me that I burn 2487 per day. Another still, says I get 2385. (By the way--these kinds of discrepancies could be diet killers. 800 extra calories a day could mean an extra pound and a half a week!)

Assuming the truth is closer to 2385, cutting out 785 calories per day translates into nearly 5500 calories per week. Since it takes 3500 fewer calories consumed to equal one pound of weight loss, we're looking at an average of 1.5 calories per week. A totally respectable rate of loss.

According to the American Cancer Society Web site, though, I'm probably considered more than "moderately active." I walk every day, not just 3-5 days a week, which is their definition of "moderate." In any event, I'll be doing more exercise, which can only mean more weight loss and general fitness.

In the past, my "diet" fare has generally been frozen, pre-portioned meals. I like the convenience of food that you can just grab and go with. But I have a few complaints/concerns with these. For starters, they're not that "healthy." White flour, sugar, etc. Second, they're not fresh. And third, you can actually eat so much more, for fewer calories, if you put your own meals together. Personally, I'd rather have double the vegetables and half the starch. I just like to eat a LOT of food.

So, when possible, I'll  make my own food. The past few days have had a lot of spaghetti squash (50 calories a cup!) and brown rice, tofu and vegetable concoctions. But I'll have to get a little more creative to keep myself interested for the long haul.

Another of my weaknesses is, I don't like to eat breakfast. Never really cared for it. But for the past few weeks, I've been eating breakfast casseroles. I made one last night that clocks in at less than 300 calories for a big serving, and since you make 8 servings at a time, you've got breakfast for the week. According to the New York Times article I posted earlier, one of the characteristics of people who successfully kept their weight off for more than a year, was that they ate breakfast. And I shall, too.

So, really, that's about it. 1600 calories. Mostly homemade, fresh food. Breakfast. Avoiding white flour and sugar (for the most part).