Marsh Fire Day 3

Biking Update

My weather page tells me there is an air quality alert still in effect and that people should not be out and about exercising if they do not have to be out.

However, it is not hazy like it was yesterday. I probably could get out there but I’m going to skip the ride and blame it on Wundergound Weather. 😀

Weight Statistics

323/167.2/165

Another nice drop, but I definitely expect a stall or even gain tomorrow. I ate a bit too much today.

Only 2.7 pounds from my low.  Over 7 pounds dropped in less than a week. That pretty much proves it was just about all water.  Not sure how I can keep it from coming right back once I start maintenance again.

Yesterday’s Meal Plan

Breakfast – Burger patty and cheese

Lunch – Tuna with salad

Dinner – Chicken with salad

Snack – Chicken and cheese

Calories – 1450

Biking – 0

Net Calories – 1450

I finally dipped back into tuna for lunch. It was actually pretty tasty. So I may go back to Tuna for lunch for a bit.

Tip Of The Day

I think I might be eating out this weekend. It is a holiday weekend so I’m thinking I might end up with at least one bad meal.

However, I don’t want to knock myself out of ketosis so I need to hit a restaurant with carb friendly meals.

When dining out, try to find a restaurant with an online menu with nutritional information.

There is a burger joint that I can get a bunless burger with a Caesar salad for lunch.  That might be the best option to make sure I stay in ketosis.

Try to steer your friends, family and coworkers to restaurants with online menus so you can have your meal all planned out. Once you get there, don’t even open the menu.

Trust me. Once you open the menu, the aroma of the food around you can lull your willpower and lead you to making a bad choice.  Stick with the meal you picked online and don’t come close to opening that menu.

Happy Dieting, see you tomorrow.

The Grumpy Man

Saved By The Fire!

There is a raging marshland fire happening over in New Orleans East and smoke has made it a bit hazardous to be out exercising in the smoke. I was told by the fellow on the news not to ride my bike yesterday and today. That’s my story and I am sticking to it. 😛

Weight Statistics

323/168.2/165

Another nice dip, but the loss rate has slowed. I think most of the excess water gain is gone and now I am back to losing real weight although I am still not sure how I gained 10 pounds in 10 days. 😛

Yesterday’s Meal Plan

Breakfast – Burger patty and cheese

Lunch – Broiled chicken and salad

Dinner – Broiled chicken and salad

Snack – Cheese

Calories – 1300

Biking – 0

Net Calories – 1300

Yuck! I didn’t notice the date on the salad kit. It was WAY past the expiration date and at about 6pm my stomach started rumbling and yelling at me and did not stop until after midnight. (note to self, along with reading labels, check the darn expiration date.)

Biking Update

Nope. I was not going to ride around on a smoke-filled levee. No thank you. Plus as I said, they guy on tv told me to avoid outside exercise for a few days until the fire stops. I must listen to the man on tv. I am quite sure he is paid lots of money to give me good excuses to stay away from the levee. 😀

Tip Of The Day

I guess one thing I learned with my first try at maintenance was that you need to ease back into higher carb and higher sodium if you have been avoiding them for a long time. I didn’t eat close to the amount of calories to gain 2 pounds let alone 10.  The last 2 days before I went to back into Atkins were the only days out of the 10 that I really ate too much. Thanks a lot Popeye’s.

It is clear to me that I need to slowly ease back into regular eating when I hit maintenance again. I plan to continue to eat 1200 to 1500 calories and slowly add carbs back into my meal plan. Sodium in the kicker. It really is hard to keep my sodium low with any processed food.

Maintenance Tip 1

1. Lose more weight than your goal weight. I want to be around 165 to 170 so I might need to get to 160 then work on maintenance and hopefully I will stabilize around 165.

2. If you have been on a low carb diet, ease your way back into carbs. Don’t go from 20 grams to 300 grams. Your body will punish you if you do this.

That is what I plan to do next time.

Happy Dieting, see you tomorrow

The Grumpy Man

Moving Right Along…..

Actually, the officer is wrong. Plenty to see here. Atkins continues to work its magic on that water weight I gained. I need that magic to continue a few more days and I might just lose all 10 pounds in under a week. 😀

Weight Statistics

323/168.9/165

I’ve dropped 5.5 pounds since Friday and I am only 4.4 from my low point. I imagine the drop will stall a bit soon.

Yesterday’s Meal Plan

Breakfast – Burger patty with cheese

Lunch – Chicken with salad

Dinner – Chicken with salad

Snack – Cheese

Calories – 1250

Biking – 300

Net Calories – 950

I was a bit hungry last night but now that I am back in ketosis that hunger should diminish some. Plus as usual, I ate dinner way too early so by 10pm I was hungry. I need to hold off until later on eating dinner. Some days I eat it at 4:30pm because I convince myself I need the energy for my bike ride. Then I don’t get out for my bike ride. 😛

Biking Update

I procrastinated until after the last moment yesterday. I actually took my shoes off and tossed in the towel for the day but then I decided I wanted to start the week of right so I put the shoes back on and went out for a shorter than normal ride.

Road Marker 330 – 6.4 Miles

The sun had set by the time I got home and bugs were bouncing off my sunglasses and face for about the last mile.  It was hot but the humidity was really rough. It felt like I was pedaling through pea soup.

At least I got out there. That was the first time in a very long time that I did rides on back to back days. I am going for the trifecta today. I need to get out there for the 3rd day in a row. 😀

Tip Of The Day 

A friend of mine on another site started out great with his diet. He then moved into the exercise phase and over did it which then caused him to shift out of his normal diet which then caused him to quit exercise which then caused a stall.

Thankfully he didn’t just quit and kept plugging away. Eventually, he went back to the diet that worked best for him (Atkins) and the weight started coming off again. But…. the dang exercise crowd got on him again, so he is back to exercise doing the couch to 5k plan.

DO NOT OVER DO IT!!!

Yes blah blah blah blah! Exercise makes you healthier but for people with tons of weight to lose, I bet the failure rate is higher than 98% on diets. We over do it both ways. We eat too much then when we finally diet, we over do the exercise to the point we just quit due to exhaustion.

I firmly believe my diet worked because I really didn’t start exercising until 1 solid year into the diet. I did a tiny bit of walking in June or July of 2010. I stopped that immediately because of the heat. I then started up again in late September of 2010, but I hate walking. I think I gave up in October or November.

Even though I did very little on the exercise front, I still had dropped 100 pounds between March 16, 2010 and December 25, 2010.

If you take exercise very slowly, I have no problem with it but we tend to go overboard in both directions leading to burnout and the end of the diet.

Be careful. Don’t over do it and exhaust yourself to the point you toss in that towel. Take it easy with exercise.  Even a tiny bit helps. You don’t need to go crazy at the gym 42 times a week.

Just my two cents even if it is only worth a penny.

Happy Dieting, see you tomorrow

 

 

 

The Grumpy Man

Back On Track

 

 

 

I appear to be back on track and Atkins appears to be the final puzzle piece that will get me back down to my goal weight.

Weight Statistics

323/171.2/165

Boom! I had a huge drop this morning. Almost 3 pounds from yesterday. There goes some of the water I packed on with excess sodium and carbs.  Hopefully it keeps falling off and I get back down to 165 PDQ!

Yesterday’s Meal Plan

Breakfast – Burger patty with cheese

Lunch – Broiled chicken with salad

Dinner – Broiled chicken with salad

Snack – Broiled chicken, cheese slice

Calories – 1600

Biking – 499

Net Calories – 1101

So far, so good.

Biking Update

Weekly report – 1 ride for 10 miles.

Really lousy bike week. I was still a bit under the weather yesterday but I refused to go a whole week without a ride so I headed up to the levee.  This 94 degree heat at 7pm is getting old. Summer can’t move along fast enough. There was minimal wind so other than the heat, the ride wasn’t too bad.

I need to force myself right back up on that levee today.  😛

Tip Of The Day

You want another tip? Didn’t I give you the keys to success yesterday? My Paypal account is still at $0.00! 😀

For me, realizing that I could diet for a finite period of time in misery with the benefit of improved health for the rest of my life was a big key to my success. I decided I could diet for a year and lose all the weight I needed to lose and I would be healthy for the rest of my life.

A diet really is like a train going through a tunnel. There is a nice bright light at the end. The length of that tunnel may be longer for some than others.

My tunnel kept getting longer because I kept lowering my goal weight. My initial goal was 220. I hit that last Christmas eve. Then I wanted to break the 200 barrier. Then I started a competition to get to 185 with someone on another site. Then after I stomped him we set 175 as the next race goal. Then I started the competition with Sam to get to 165.  Even though I told myself at the start that I would diet for just one year no more no less, I decided to keep going so I could reach healthier goals. Plus once you have been on a diet that long, it really does get easier.

You just need to get yourself in the mindset that you are going to have some rough months ahead but in most cases they will be months and then you will have YEARS of health once you reach your goal.

Good luck reaching the light at the end of your tunnel. 😀

Happy Dieting, see you tomorrow

 

 

The Grumpy Man

Under The Weather

I haven’t felt great since Wednesday. Wednesday night I had a bit of a cough that carried over to Thursday. The cough disappeared by Friday but then I had a bit of a headache which carried over to an even bigger headache this morning.

The good news is that as I type this blog up the headache appears to be gone as does the chest cold. I think the headache might have been a bit of caffeine withdrawal. I didn’t drink any coffee Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning. 😀

I’ve had 2 strong Atkins days in a row so I should be entering induction at any minute if I am not already in Ketosis.

Weight Statistics

323/174/165

A nice little dip after my first day of Atkins.

Yesterday’s Meal Plan

Breakfast – Burger patty and cheese

Lunch – Broiled chicken and salad

Dinner – Broiled chicken and salad

Snack – Cheese and chicken

Calories – 1400

Biking – 0

Net Calories – 1400

Back to my standard Atkins meal plan. I’m starting out with chicken for two meals. I just couldn’t stomach tuna yet and I am not sure I will ever like scrambled eggs again. 😛

Biking Update

I skipped my ride because I wasn’t feeling great last night. I did however get a ride in today. Even though I felt bad until about 5pm, I forced myself up to the levee because I did not want to go a whole week without a ride. More on that ride tomorrow. 😛

Tip Of The Day

Simplicity.

Eat less, move more, measure everything, read labels, log everything and get support.  Now that I have told you the secrets to weight loss, please make your payment to my account on Paypal in the amount of $49.00. 😀

That’s it. Piece of cake. Hmm, maybe I shouldn’t mention cake. 😀

No matter what diet plan you choose, you will need to eat less and move more. You don’t need to kill yourself with exercise. Anyone that has read my blog knows I advocate taking exercise very very very very slowly but at some point you do need to move more.

In order to be sure that you are eating less, you need to measure everything and read all the labels. A journal helps you track your progress and support is key to success in pretty much everything in life.

Don’t forget the $49.00. 😛

Happy Dieting, see you tomorrow

 

 

The Grumpy Man