A somewhat disappointing weigh-in
Yes, I'm back! At least for a few minutes, before I race off to water aerobics.
Monday's weigh-in disappointed me. No change. AGAIN! The sad part being that Sunday it was looking like I'd see at least a half pound loss. And it's possible I would have... but I do admit to increasing leg resistance on my Nordic Track by a mere two pounds. I felt that within a couple hours of getting off the machine! And felt quite sore Monday in the pool as well. So my muscles could've been retaining water, 'tis true. But, I think I can do better than just a half pound a week.
Now, I'm seeing a lowering trend with my Omron body fat monitor (hit a new low reading today of 39.0% body fat), and I haven't gained, but I'd prefer to be making just a bit more progress than this!
So, where did I go wrong?
Here's my meal compliance chart...
Looks pretty good, right?
Well, it's not perhaps entirely as good as it seems. I was playing "compliance by numbers" rather than compliance by the spirit of the PN habits. Technical compliance... my compliant anytime meals were running at 24% carbs or less, but the truth was, last week, I kept feeling a little hungry or wanting something sweet and I was adding a single serving of dried apricots to many of my meals. OK, veggies and fruits are allowed, but veggies should outweigh fruit choices by about a 4:1 ratio. So I was pushing the envelope a little bit. A non-dried fruit choice might've been better, but I went for easy/quick. I also was eating a whole orange with my breakfast omelet, not my usual half orange.
I also added a tablespoon sized serving of almonds here and there. So, nothing unhealthy, nothing really non-compliant... but little "extras" that chipped away at my calorie deficit.
I need to nip this creeping sugar habit... I will leave off buying more dried apricots for the present! Yesterday was not a stellar eating day, nor was my last meal on Monday night. But the plumbers have been and gone, my house is at least somewhat cleaner and I've started in on the big pile of mail clutter in the kitchen.
I went back to my half orange this morning. The time to change things for the better is always NOW!
Time to run for water aerobics... more later I hope.
If you're trying to kick a sugar habit, I really recommend artificial sweeteners. One of the best ways to get that sweettooth fix without the goolish calorie count is to drink diet soda. I know a lot of people tend to complain a lot about the "high" sodium count in diet soda, but honestly, the only thing that sodium is going to do is make the numbers a little less friendly. The tradeoff of a "treat" and no calories makes this an easy pick in terms of weight loss. Caffeine is also a mild appetite suppressant.
At zero calories, it sure beats any calorie-containing alternative.
Trust the fat percentage, don't let the numbers get you down!
I don't mind artificial sweeteners... I use some Splenda in moderation... it's in my protein powders for instance and I occasionally use some of the Splenda based syrups by Torani and DaVinci.
However, I've more or less dropped my diet soda habit in favor of water and green and other teas. I just feel better with plain old water going in than I do with diet soda. I also had the problem with the diet soda that the sweet taste tended to trigger a craving for something salty and crunchy like Doritos chips!
So I'll stick with my water and tea and only occasionally have the diet soda. But yeah, if the body fat is going down, I'm not discouraged. Just wish things happened faster, but well, don't we all!
I couldn't understand some parts of this article eigh-in at Garbage That GOO!, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.
Hi Daniel,
Always feel free to let me know just what you didn't understand and I'll try to clarify.