Back On Track, Says the Scale, and more concrete goals...

730 days to go...

I had gotten to 44 pounds down (when I was on previous blog, Once Upon a Diet), but I went from lower carb eating routine back to a, say, medium carb one, and the water weight came back. I know it was water weight, cause it was overnight that it went up like 6 lbs, then overnight again that it came down 3 pounds. Fat doesn't come and go that way.

I do notice I hold less water if I eat low to lower carb. If I have pasta, even in a small amount for dinner, it's like the Chinese Food effect--up go 3 to 6 lbs. When I eat Chinese, I just don't bother to weigh-in the next day. The bloat is immense.

I had a lower number today, so going back to lower carb got some bloat off. :) Not at 255.6 again, yet, but 1 lb away.

I had a lower carb breakfast, incorporating my new breakfast fave high protein and low calorie "hot cakes" from WonderSlim (a DietDirect program with low carb to lower carb items, and even some pasta items that aren't low-carb at all, which is kinda puzzling). I don't do the plan (it's a pseudo-Medifast type diet). I simply use the products for snacks or to augment the protein in my meals. These hot cakes make me feel like I'm having a luxurious treat. They're amazingly easy to make, no mess to clean up, and I have them almost every day. I use Nature's Hollow sugar free syrup and cinnamon most days, and when I feel like it or have raspberries or strawberries around, I make a quick microwave compote (put the raspberries or sliced strawberries in a small bowl, add a drop of sucralose liquid and nuke it for a minute or so--instant fruit compote!) I usually add an egg with cheese, or two eggs scrambled, or egg whites scrambled with veggies and cheese, or some other egg variation to up my early day protein. If I don't feel like eggs and veggies/cheese, I'll shake up an Aloha Mango smoothie (Bariwise from Diet Direct) or some Bariwise Fruit drink (grape, orangeade, wild berry). This way, I know I get more than 20+ grams of fiber to start the day. Satiates me.

I will note that I add the cinnamon not just for flavor, but for it's positive effects on blood sugar since I have insulin resistance and was diagnosed with Metabolic Syndrome years ago. When my A1c and glucose was going up back in 2004 and I was almost put on diabetes meds, I asked my doc for a chance to bring it down on my own. Altering my meal combination (no carbs by themselves, eating complex carbs, reducing starkly processed carbs, reducing sugar) and adding cinnamon got me back to great glucose results and lowered A1c in short order and I only lost 5 lbs that year. I totally trust the effects of cinnamon. I never had to go on diabetes meds.

So...

To meet my goal of 98 lbs in 2 years, I need to lose, roughly, 4.08 lbs per month. 1.02 pounds per week, roughly.

I'll be configuring some sort of lower to medium carb type of eating plan (nothing really organized yet) to do this. I plan to continue with my 2x a week Pilates training as long as I can afford it, and my goal is to, by  month's end, be regularly adding 1 other day of exercise that is more aerobic. My goal is to be exercising 4x a week by year's end, 12-31-10.

I plan to only make measurable, reasonable goals. No crash diets. No grandiose exercise plans. Just increments and steps. This is why my timeframe is 2 years, not 1 year, not 6 months.

Now, we all know weight loss tends not to be linear. We bloat. We are more motivated or more active this month, less so next month. We plateau. We have setbacks. But if, on average, I'm going at a clip of a pound a week, 4 pounds a month, I'll meet my goal by September 1, 2012. I'll be 160 lbs.

So, for my next weigh-in on Friday next, I'm aiming for a one pound to 1.5 pound loss. It's not a high-stress rate. It's a healthy rate loss, I've read and have been told by the several nutritionists I've consulted since 1989 (back when I was 179, 120 pounds less than my highest weight ever).

If you have recommendations or links to great lower-carb, highish fiber lunch and inner easy to make meals, by all means comment and link me up. Especially if you made the recipe and took pics for YOUR blog. I love food pics, although I hate to cook.

Happy Labor Day Weekend!