Fat - Be - Gone

[Physics Guy]

A big dessert can easily take a half-marathon to work off with exercise. So compensating for some excess calories pretty much has to be with calorie reduction. It just takes too much time and effort to work off with exercise stuff that took just five happy minutes to eat. That’s the whole reason we have this problem.

Sustainability is a huge point and it’s one I’ve kind of put off because my slow and steady reduction phase itself has been well over a year. Now that I’m at my goal, and stalling against a stretch goal, I have to start thinking about an exit strategy.

My plan has been just to relax the two weekly fast days into eat-light days, and ramp them back up into full fast days as needed, to remove gains from holidays and vacations. I don’t see why I won’t be able to sustain this indefinitely.

It doesn’t sound quite like the ideal of a steady healthy diet. But in fact I have been slowly shifting my diet (which means the whole family’s diet because I’m our cook). We’re eating less meat and more veg.

I think it’s actually very good to separate the problems of nutrition and weight maintenance, and not have to solve them both together at once. With throttle-able calorie reduction from intermittent diet/fasting, I can be sure of keeping the weight off, and so I can take my time to improve our nutrition without that pressure. The low-cal days seem to provide enough motivation to explore vegetarian recipes that do then seem to colonize the other days of the week, starting just with leftovers.

I also think of exercise as a separate issue from weight loss. I want to get old as one of those wiry old mountain biker dudes, because I’m pretty sure that that’s as good as old gets. I’ve managed to establish about an hour a day as exercise time (including walking the dogs) and this seems to be stable. It helps with weight loss, and weight loss makes the exercise nicer, but I’m not tying them together on purpose.

[Physics Guy]

I also use food scales and find them really important. I only use them on fast days to measure out our tiny portions, but they’re essential then, because if I were eyeballing I’d overdo it by quite a lot.

[ceeboo]

Bran flakes or oatmeal in the morning with 1 apple and 1 banana; double whopper for lunch; tiny dinner. <--- 2-3 days a week planned right there.

This "morning meal" thing is foreign to me. I very rarely eat in the morning (coffee - shower - off to work) and this is probably why I eat so freaking much from around noon until I go to bed. Eating until I go to bed is also probably why I'm not hungry when I wake up. So yeah, I think I'll try to make some changes around WHEN I am eating as well as WHAT I am eating. In short, I think I need to eat more early in the day and less later in the day.

I'd say the ultra hard-stop is on candy and sugar, sugar drinks and soda. And definitely drink more water and try sparkling water as soda substitute.

Yep! Candy, chocolate and chips are some of my favorite things on the planet. Not sure how I'm going to manage with these beautiful treasures but I will see how it goes. Instead of eliminating - perhaps cutting way back is doable for now? The pop thing isn't going to be an issue for me, I can fairly easily avoid pop without to much pain and I actually like water (I choose water quite often when I am eating out and it's not because of nutrition and or dietary concerns, it's because water is what I want)

Anyway, thanks foe the post. I appreciate it.

[ceeboo]

I’ve managed to establish about an hour a day as exercise time (including walking the dogs) and this seems to be stable. It helps with weight loss, and weight loss makes the exercise nicer, but I’m not tying them together on purpose.

Bold mine:

For some reason, when I read the bolded part, it caused me to freeze and to reread it again. I'm not sure why but something is telling me there is really something to this "not trying them together on purpose" thing.

Interesting!

[Xenophon]

Bran flakes or oatmeal in the morning with 1 apple and 1 banana; double whopper for lunch; tiny dinner. <--- 2-3 days a week planned right there.

This "morning meal" thing is foreign to me. I very rarely eat in the morning (coffee - shower - off to work) and this is probably why I eat so freaking much from around noon until I go to bed. Eating until I go to bed is also probably why I'm not hungry when I wake up. So yeah, I think I'll try to make some changes around WHEN I am eating as well as WHAT I am eating. In short, I think I need to eat more early in the day and less later in the day.

I give a lot of credit to my front loaded eating for my ability to stay on track. By eating 3 times before about 1230 I find I'm much less tempted for the afternoon snacking. Not to mention I prefer to lift in the morning and so I need that extra recovery fuel. For me, a solid breakfast sets the tone for the rest of the day.

[ceeboo]

Good morning, X-Factor

For me, a solid breakfast sets the tone for the rest of the day.

Yeah - This makes a lot of sense to me. Going to try it.


Another thing that's going to come into play for me is that I cook for the family - I always have (This would include my bride and my baby boy who is now 20 and is living with us) So I am hoping that the other people I cook for will join me in this healthy change. We have talked about it and everyone seems to be fired up and on board as of now - Just wondering how fired up and on board we all will be as the days start to pile up?

[Xenophon]

Good morning, X-Factor

For me, a solid breakfast sets the tone for the rest of the day.

Yeah - This makes a lot of sense to me. Going to try it.


Another thing that's going to come into play for me is that I cook for the family - I always have (This would include my bride and my baby boy who is now 20 and is living with us) So I am hoping that the other people I cook for will join me in this healthy change. We have talked about it and everyone seems to be fired up and on board as of now - Just wondering how fired up and on board we all will be as the days start to pile up?

Good morning to you too, Ceebs.

I think having the family on board is a huge help, going it alone is always harder. On days where you might be tempted to "cheat" often another member of the team can keep you on board.

I mentioned it in the other thread but I'm very lucky to have a partner in this who is as or more dedicated to it than I and she definitely is better educated and trained on the matter.

As I write that "cheat" word above I do feel like I need to highlight a point I may have glossed over before. As you attempt to change your eating habits you're going to fail to execute your plan from time to time. THIS IS TOTALLY OKAY AND EXPECTED. Changing your eating habits is hard, our brains are not well wired for it. Just do your best to not let misses stack up and try to learn from them. Ask yourself about the "why" of your miss. This is one of the reasons we meal plan/preparation as much as we do. We found if we waited until the moment of eating we'd make less healthy decisions more often than we would like.

[Atlanticmike]

Good morning, X-Factor

For me, a solid breakfast sets the tone for the rest of the day.

Yeah - This makes a lot of sense to me. Going to try it.


Another thing that's going to come into play for me is that I cook for the family - I always have (This would include my bride and my baby boy who is now 20 and is living with us) So I am hoping that the other people I cook for will join me in this healthy change. We have talked about it and everyone seems to be fired up and on board as of now - Just wondering how fired up and on board we all will be as the days start to pile up?

One more suggestion ceeboo. When trying to lose as much as you are (30lbs) you might want to think about only preparing your food for the 90 to 120 period you're trying to lose weight. Maybe even get a little refrigerator you can stick in the corner somewhere so you can prepare your meals and keep them separate. That way you don't even need to open the regular refrigerator when you're hungry.

[ceeboo]

This is one of the reasons we meal plan/preparation as much as we do. We found if we waited until the moment of eating we'd make less healthy decisions more often than we would like.

Understood - Loud and clear! Thanks!

[canpakes]

I’ve managed to establish about an hour a day as exercise time (including walking the dogs) and this seems to be stable. It helps with weight loss, and weight loss makes the exercise nicer, but I’m not tying them together on purpose.

Bold mine:

For some reason, when I read the bolded part, it caused me to freeze and to reread it again. I'm not sure why but something is telling me there is really something to this "not trying them together on purpose" thing.

Interesting!

Bet on your instincts here; they’re right on. If you don’t see your exercise as ‘exercise’, but instead as activity that yields benefit outside of just weight loss, then you’re more likely to keep up with it.

Do you live near wooded areas for walking? Do you have neighbors or family that also might walk with you?

My grandparents would always go out for a stroll after dinner. It probably helped somewhat in keeping their weight in check, but they always viewed it as their time to be with each other while being out and about in their surroundings.

Also, to Xeno’s comment about ‘front loading’ your food … I had to teach myself to do this, too. Otherwise a coffee or a yogurt would have been breakfast, and dinner would be heavier. It’s hard to not have a good-sized meal at dinner when you’re eating as a family. But SO and I try now to go light in the evening regardless of what’s going on with the family meal, and it really does seem to make it easier to manage the waistlines better.

ETA: thinking about that last part; we’ve also made our lunches much smaller over the past few years. We’ve both probably cut back calories greatest here, whether we’re with each other or apart at our jobs. Nixing a heavy lunch is easier to do when breakfast is more than just a coffee.