Monday, April 20, 2015

Trying again

Monday:

Ah, Monday. Another new week with a clean slate and no mistakes yet.

I think it's a good idea to tackle one health aspect at a time. But I need to start on diet, right now. My weight is not just back to where it started (again), it is up and over. All the other health aspects support weight loss but diet is the one that has the real effect. And I am too unhappy at this weight to continue leaving it until I get other things under control.

It's school holidays with kids home, my dad is probably visiting this week, we have to visit Sydney soon, yeah there is no such thing as a perfect time to start. It is always hard. I have to do it anyway.

I feel a bit paralysed, partly because every single diet plan contradicts every other one, which makes choosing hard. I like some guidelines and structure, so just counting calories isn't enough for me I think, but not too prescriptive about exactly what to eat each meal or cutting out whole food groups. Low carb makes me lose weight, but also messes with my brain. I ended up choosing carb cycling. It was that or stay frozen in indecision forever.

But the real problem is not so much that, it is fear of failure. Again. I dread the thought of making a promise to myself, in front of you all as witnesses, to commit to something and then in a week, or two days, or maybe by the end of today breaking that promise and failing again. So this is what I am going to do. A little promise. Not a weak promise, but a short time-period promise.

Two weeks, or rather a little over two weeks. My next dietbet weigh in is 6 May, the Wednesday, with a 48 hour window. Until I officially weigh in for month three, I will stick to carb cycling. It is only 16 days. I am not expecting to win this month's stage of my dietbet. I doubt I can lose more than 6 kg by then! That is not my goal. I am not in total control of how much weight I lose, anyway. But I can 100% control what I put in my mouth.

If you haven't heard of carb cycling it alternates low carb days with high carb days ("high carb" is a bit of a misnomer, more like moderate carb days). Every day you have some carbs at breakfast, but the rest of the day (eating five times over the day) is either low carb/high fat or high carb/low fat. And protein with every meal and snack. I'll be doing the turbo cycle which is L/L/H/L/L/H/freeday. The idea is that you get the benefit of eating low carb but without the depression and lack of energy that comes with it, because you still have some at breakfast and every third day. And a free day once a week so you don't feel deprived. I tried it once before but gave up after a couple of weeks when I wasn't getting the results I wanted. But I think I was a bit too free on my free day. In any case, I am giving it another try. If I'm not happy with it after 16 days, I will chose something else, but I'm giving it a fair trial. That is my commitment to myself.

I've been noticing my body's response to various breakfasts. On a few days I've had just bacon (and a cup of tea), two rashers, nothing else. And I'm not hungry until lunchtime and could even consider having lunch later than the dot of 12. On days when I have mainly carbs, like oatmeal or toast, I feel full for a little while and then hungry. Two hours after breakfast I want to raid the kitchen for whatever I can find. Definitely need a morning snack. It makes such a difference. Yet I don't think bacon every day is a healthy lifestyle. And is it the protein that is filling me up or the carbs that are making me crave? Today I had one bacon rasher, one egg, plus one toast. And I was easily full until lunchtime. So I can have that slice of toast as long as I have plenty of protein with it. Which fits well with carb cycling, luckily.

Tim took the car today because it was stormy (with a wind warning) and I didn't want him to ride, so the kids and I were stuck at home. They did some painting, I did some Fantasia in a lacklustre sort of way, I let the kids watch a movie on Foxtel. It certainly has come in handy these cold rainy holidays! Foxtel and homemade popcorn.

I've been wearing a fleecy vest for a couple of weeks now, but today for the first time I put a jumper on. Even with the heating on, it's not very warm in here. The vest had the benefit of a high collar - I can't wait for my hair to grow long enough to keep my neck warm! Chilly. At the moment I need either a high collar or a scarf.

Report card:
Diet: Good. I stuck to the plan, but ended up having more calories than I think is right, by about 100. No big splurge, but things like nuts and steak added up over the day. Might need to reduce portion sizes a bit.
Exercise: Good. Very tired today even though I had a good night's sleep, really would have preferred to be napping but I sleep-walked through some gentle exercise. I'm ok with that, at least I did it.
Water: Fantastic.
Sleep: Great. Don't know why I'm so sleepy today. Maybe the cold weather?
Mental health: Resigned.

2 comments:

  1. I think a little promise is a great idea. And I hope this new week is a really good one for you.

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  2. As you know I loosely follow the carb cycling plan and I love it. I used to alternate between 2 different breakfasts but eventually settled to just one: I eat 1/2 cup of oatmeal with 1/2 cup of blueberries in it and some honey for sweetness. I also eat 2 hardboiled eggs. My morning snack is usually 1/2 cup of cottage cheese, handful of almonds, and some celery. I eat breakfast at 6:30AM and my snack at around 9:30AM and I'm good until lunchtime.

    I like you're idea of a short term promise, I know you can do it. Just watch out for those days when your schedule gets out of whack, it becomes easy to go off plan when the routine gets cast aside.

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