18st 1? What? 10lbs lighter than yesterday? 18st 7, 18st 5, 18st 10.
We'd unavoidably moved the scales yesterday, and when I weight myself this morning I had about 10 different readings. They eventually settled around 18st 6, which is what I've taken as today's weight. I'm still a little suspicious that it's a artifically low result, especially since SWMBO showed a 3lb drop since yesterday as well. This means it's a New Lowest Weight, and 15lbs (over a stone) lost since I started.
So, the moral of the story is Don't Move The Scales!
I'll be weighing on a different scales for the next week as well, which is going to throw the figures off. But as long as I can keep an eye on things, I'll be happy.
Showing posts with label scales. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scales. Show all posts
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
On daily weighing
One of the common bits of advice to people losing weight that I see over and over again is to only weigh once a week. And I'm starting to see why. This is looking to be the third week in a row that I've put on weight on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday mornings (so, from what I've eaten the day before).
Should I
a) give up the diet because I'm obviously destined to stay fat and ugly if I put on weight on the weekend
b) stop enjoying weekends because they're slowing my weight loss and I'd be happier if I was losing weight faster or
c) try to tame the weekends a little just to make sure the losses continue.
Let me see.....
Should I
a) give up the diet because I'm obviously destined to stay fat and ugly if I put on weight on the weekend
b) stop enjoying weekends because they're slowing my weight loss and I'd be happier if I was losing weight faster or
c) try to tame the weekends a little just to make sure the losses continue.
Let me see.....
Monday, January 29, 2007
What to eat to make you sleep
Yahoo! Food has a post on what to eat to help you sleep. Now, not sleeping isn't something I suffer from, but it's worth posting a mention here.
Most of these are no more than a few points as well, so can be a worth bearing in mind as a snack if you have a few points left at the end of the day.
[via]
The scales went up a little this morning; I guess Saturday's excesses caught up with me, and that any drop yesterday was down to dehydration this morning. Back on the wagon today.
Most of these are no more than a few points as well, so can be a worth bearing in mind as a snack if you have a few points left at the end of the day.
[via]
The scales went up a little this morning; I guess Saturday's excesses caught up with me, and that any drop yesterday was down to dehydration this morning. Back on the wagon today.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
These seven words sum up everything you need to know about healthy eating. They're the tag line in this New York Times article by Michael Pollan that takes an in-depth look at food and nutrition.
There's some hidden depth to those words - after all, the article runs to several thousand words. Mine will be rather shorter, but one of the points he makes is that there are so many contradictory studies out there on what does and doesn't cause cancer in rats, that it's almost impossible to apply that advice to everyday eating.
In a nutshell, though, I can dissect that advice into something I mostly agree with. Eat food. Not vitamin supplements, or omega-3 tables, or whatever the fad du jour is. Not processed stuff. Not artifical flavourings and chemicals.
Not too much. Yeah, right. There's a few odd-ball results out there that suggest that eating an extremely restricted diet will lead to a longer life. But overeating is definitely bad for you - and more importantly, if you follow the advice and eat healthy food, eating too much becomes rather difficult.
Mostly plants. When I first read this, my first reaction was to object: "but I like meat". Yet when I look at my diet so far today, it has been mostly plants. In fact, with the exception of an ounce of ham in a lunch time sandwich, it's been plants all the way, and dinner looks to be fairly low in meat content too. Yesterday was similar - 200g of meat all day.
So, all in all, it seems like good advice to me.
There's some hidden depth to those words - after all, the article runs to several thousand words. Mine will be rather shorter, but one of the points he makes is that there are so many contradictory studies out there on what does and doesn't cause cancer in rats, that it's almost impossible to apply that advice to everyday eating.
In a nutshell, though, I can dissect that advice into something I mostly agree with. Eat food. Not vitamin supplements, or omega-3 tables, or whatever the fad du jour is. Not processed stuff. Not artifical flavourings and chemicals.
Not too much. Yeah, right. There's a few odd-ball results out there that suggest that eating an extremely restricted diet will lead to a longer life. But overeating is definitely bad for you - and more importantly, if you follow the advice and eat healthy food, eating too much becomes rather difficult.
Mostly plants. When I first read this, my first reaction was to object: "but I like meat". Yet when I look at my diet so far today, it has been mostly plants. In fact, with the exception of an ounce of ham in a lunch time sandwich, it's been plants all the way, and dinner looks to be fairly low in meat content too. Yesterday was similar - 200g of meat all day.
So, all in all, it seems like good advice to me.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Lifehacker on diets
One of my favourite websites, www.lifehacker.com has an excellent diet post from Kyle Pott with some "unconventional" tips.
I'm not sure how unconventional they really are, though.
First off, Kyle recommends getting a digital scales. Makes sense to me: more accurate than a mechanical one, and ours has a feature where the weight stays on display for a few seconds after you step off. Perfect if you're tall, short sighted and bleary eyed in the morning!
He also recommend daily weighing, which most diet plans don't. You need a very positive attitude for this to work, but I'm in favour of it as well. In fact, his only tip that I don't already follow to some extent is to drink lots of water and exercise.
I hate exercise. I always have. I don't get this endorphin thing, I just get out of breath. I don't mind a walk if the weather is nice, I don't mind snorkeling since I don't have to work too hard. I can't think of anything more boring than pushing some machine around for an hour!
And as far as the water is concerned, I think the important thing is to drink lots of liquid. It doesn't have to be pure water. I drink mostly coffee, fizzy flavoured water, and beer. None of these will cause you to lose more liquid (from their dieuretic effects) than they provide, so I'm not out to change those habits.
I seem to be on a bit of a roll at the moment. Staying under 40 points (thats 2800 calories or so) seems to be the way to go for me. 18st 11¼ this morning. Certainly hitting 18st 7 before the end of Feb is looking easy at this point, even with a week in the States coming up. And that allows me to put on a few lbs on holiday!
I'm not sure how unconventional they really are, though.
First off, Kyle recommends getting a digital scales. Makes sense to me: more accurate than a mechanical one, and ours has a feature where the weight stays on display for a few seconds after you step off. Perfect if you're tall, short sighted and bleary eyed in the morning!
He also recommend daily weighing, which most diet plans don't. You need a very positive attitude for this to work, but I'm in favour of it as well. In fact, his only tip that I don't already follow to some extent is to drink lots of water and exercise.
I hate exercise. I always have. I don't get this endorphin thing, I just get out of breath. I don't mind a walk if the weather is nice, I don't mind snorkeling since I don't have to work too hard. I can't think of anything more boring than pushing some machine around for an hour!
And as far as the water is concerned, I think the important thing is to drink lots of liquid. It doesn't have to be pure water. I drink mostly coffee, fizzy flavoured water, and beer. None of these will cause you to lose more liquid (from their dieuretic effects) than they provide, so I'm not out to change those habits.
I seem to be on a bit of a roll at the moment. Staying under 40 points (thats 2800 calories or so) seems to be the way to go for me. 18st 11¼ this morning. Certainly hitting 18st 7 before the end of Feb is looking easy at this point, even with a week in the States coming up. And that allows me to put on a few lbs on holiday!
Friday, January 26, 2007
End of month report
Back at the end of December, I decided that rather than trying to Do A Proper Diet, I was going to try and make some habit changes.So, it's almost the end of January - how's it going so far?
Change No 1: Reduce sugar in coffee by ½. Instant coffee is fine with the reduced sugar. I'm still getting used to proper filter coffee with less sugar in it, but its getting to me more acceptable. In some ways I'm finding it's taking longer to adjust to the taste than I expected, but it's also not proving too difficult. Score: 10/10
Change No 2: Limit alcohol intake. With the exception of the last week, this is working pretty well. Again, I haven't tried to cut things out completely, so I'm not feeling I'm missing things. I'm usually grabbing some fizzy water to drink instead in the evenings, since it's zero points, and coffee isn't really a help. The last week has been a bit of a challenge - very stressful long days at work, so I've bent the rules a little, but still kept points totals down to an acceptable level. Score: 7/10.
Change No 3: Healthier snacks. Sell your shared in Cadburys, ladies and gentlemen. I haven't bought a bar of chcolate all year. I finished up the Christmas goodies, and have been eating WW toffee bars, special K bars, and Jordans' cereal bars instead. Score: 10/10
Change No 4: Limit pub lunches and takeaways. I think the guys at work are also trying to be good, since there's less of a "oh, let's go down the pub" mentality, which is helping. With one exception I've had stuff with rice instead of chips. I also made the discovery that I can have two King Prawn Chown Meins for the same points as a tuna baguette! Score: 10/10.
I've been pretty generous with the scores, because I've been keeping track of my intake using the WW points system. This is easy for me since my wife has been doing the diet for a while, and both of us can look at a plate of food -- especially the stuff we eat a lot -- and tell you pretty much how many points are in it.
The official WW diet says I should have been on 33 points a day. You're not supposed to go more than 4 points under that on a given day, or to go too much over. I've been tracking the AVERAGE points over a week: 44½, 43, 39½, 40. More than WW says.
So the real question, then, is "is this working?" Am I losing weight?
YES!!!!
I started out saying I'd be happy if that was enought that I lost 1lb a week. In fact, I've lost 8lbs so far. And a little bit of maths suggests that as long as I stay below 46points a week, I should keep losing weight. Not cutting right down to the minimum points has meant that I'm not encouraging my body to slow it's metabolism right down.
There are a few rocks ahead in the road: a week in the US on business next month, and a holiday at the end of the month. But as long as I steer away from too many sticky desserts and watch the alcohol a little, I don't forsee too much of a setback.
One of the things that a I see a lot of people struggling with on the WW message boards is that they've been good all week, but have still put on a pound - or haven't been good and still lost 2lbs. Well, I've been weighing every day, and I've put a graph together of the results.
The blue line is my actual weight each morning. Almost the same time, after a cup of coffee, and any (ahem) natural needs have been taken care of. Look at the variation, though. The big drop early in Jan that recovered the next day was a hangover: I awoke feeling very dehydrated and thirsty, and felt much better after a couple of pints of liquid. The spike at the end was a couple of higher point days (40, 51 and 40) over the weekend. But I can't explain most of the ups and downs - just variation in water intake, probably.
Weighing every day is WW heresy. You have to be very careful about not attaching too much importance to any one day. That's where the purple line comes in. It's a logarithmic average of the last 10 days weight. You don't need to understand the maths degree, drop me a line and I'll send a spreadsheet that'll work it out. And this is the line I've been looking at. When it's started to level out, I've tried a bit harder to find low point options for the next few days. When it's been dropping steadily I've been quietly congratulating myself and keeping at it. At NO TIME have I used this as an excuse to go on an eating binge. The two options are "carry on" or "try harder".
Another important difference between my approach and "Pure WW" is shown up by the reactions when I dropped below 19st. My wife asked "aren't you excited?" No, I wasn't. Now that I've seen a few consecutive days below 19st, I'm more excited about it, and I fully expect to sneak back over 19st before the middle of next week.
As I said, February will be more of a challenge. Let's see if I can continue to be this optimistic with a few challenges ahead.
Change No 1: Reduce sugar in coffee by ½. Instant coffee is fine with the reduced sugar. I'm still getting used to proper filter coffee with less sugar in it, but its getting to me more acceptable. In some ways I'm finding it's taking longer to adjust to the taste than I expected, but it's also not proving too difficult. Score: 10/10
Change No 2: Limit alcohol intake. With the exception of the last week, this is working pretty well. Again, I haven't tried to cut things out completely, so I'm not feeling I'm missing things. I'm usually grabbing some fizzy water to drink instead in the evenings, since it's zero points, and coffee isn't really a help. The last week has been a bit of a challenge - very stressful long days at work, so I've bent the rules a little, but still kept points totals down to an acceptable level. Score: 7/10.
Change No 3: Healthier snacks. Sell your shared in Cadburys, ladies and gentlemen. I haven't bought a bar of chcolate all year. I finished up the Christmas goodies, and have been eating WW toffee bars, special K bars, and Jordans' cereal bars instead. Score: 10/10
Change No 4: Limit pub lunches and takeaways. I think the guys at work are also trying to be good, since there's less of a "oh, let's go down the pub" mentality, which is helping. With one exception I've had stuff with rice instead of chips. I also made the discovery that I can have two King Prawn Chown Meins for the same points as a tuna baguette! Score: 10/10.
I've been pretty generous with the scores, because I've been keeping track of my intake using the WW points system. This is easy for me since my wife has been doing the diet for a while, and both of us can look at a plate of food -- especially the stuff we eat a lot -- and tell you pretty much how many points are in it.
The official WW diet says I should have been on 33 points a day. You're not supposed to go more than 4 points under that on a given day, or to go too much over. I've been tracking the AVERAGE points over a week: 44½, 43, 39½, 40. More than WW says.
So the real question, then, is "is this working?" Am I losing weight?
YES!!!!
I started out saying I'd be happy if that was enought that I lost 1lb a week. In fact, I've lost 8lbs so far. And a little bit of maths suggests that as long as I stay below 46points a week, I should keep losing weight. Not cutting right down to the minimum points has meant that I'm not encouraging my body to slow it's metabolism right down.
There are a few rocks ahead in the road: a week in the US on business next month, and a holiday at the end of the month. But as long as I steer away from too many sticky desserts and watch the alcohol a little, I don't forsee too much of a setback.
One of the things that a I see a lot of people struggling with on the WW message boards is that they've been good all week, but have still put on a pound - or haven't been good and still lost 2lbs. Well, I've been weighing every day, and I've put a graph together of the results.
The blue line is my actual weight each morning. Almost the same time, after a cup of coffee, and any (ahem) natural needs have been taken care of. Look at the variation, though. The big drop early in Jan that recovered the next day was a hangover: I awoke feeling very dehydrated and thirsty, and felt much better after a couple of pints of liquid. The spike at the end was a couple of higher point days (40, 51 and 40) over the weekend. But I can't explain most of the ups and downs - just variation in water intake, probably.
Weighing every day is WW heresy. You have to be very careful about not attaching too much importance to any one day. That's where the purple line comes in. It's a logarithmic average of the last 10 days weight. You don't need to understand the maths degree, drop me a line and I'll send a spreadsheet that'll work it out. And this is the line I've been looking at. When it's started to level out, I've tried a bit harder to find low point options for the next few days. When it's been dropping steadily I've been quietly congratulating myself and keeping at it. At NO TIME have I used this as an excuse to go on an eating binge. The two options are "carry on" or "try harder".
Another important difference between my approach and "Pure WW" is shown up by the reactions when I dropped below 19st. My wife asked "aren't you excited?" No, I wasn't. Now that I've seen a few consecutive days below 19st, I'm more excited about it, and I fully expect to sneak back over 19st before the middle of next week.
As I said, February will be more of a challenge. Let's see if I can continue to be this optimistic with a few challenges ahead.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Hello UK LadyLuck
UKLadyLuck, another regular on the WW Message boards has a useful website, which also has some more information on the Wendie Plan.
Today has been the first day I've been actually feeling hungry for any length of time. I've had a couple of very low days, so I'm letting up a bit today and not letting it get to me. Tomorrow is the official weekly weigh-in day, so it might not look as good on the weekly figures, but hey, I don't really care. It's all going down hill, in the best possible way.
Today has been the first day I've been actually feeling hungry for any length of time. I've had a couple of very low days, so I'm letting up a bit today and not letting it get to me. Tomorrow is the official weekly weigh-in day, so it might not look as good on the weekly figures, but hey, I don't really care. It's all going down hill, in the best possible way.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
My pal in New York....
Viruz in NY is complaining about the media diet plans. I agree. This plan is crap. Too much time, too much effort. I posted a comment there that's the basis for this blog entry.
I think the secret to success at losing weight is to think about your lifestyle. Then think about the fattening bits. Yesterday, for me, was a good example.
I had a coffee in bed (thank you, dear wife). 1 sugar, no milk. Half the sugar I used to have.
Physio appointment, still in work by 9:45 am. Hungry but decided to wait until I got to work instead of scoffing empty calories of chocolate on the way.
Get to work. Bowl of cereal, 2 mugs of coffee. Sorted until 1pm. Saved another 2 points on the sugar.
Hmmm... What's for lunch. It's cold out there... Chinese takeaway anyone? ... mmm.....
Chicken curry and chips? No, too bad. I know, chow mein is good. Seafood is healthy and tasty. "I'll have a prawn chow mein please".
Work until 9pm. OK, a couple of cereal bars for sustenance, but I avoid the vending machine.
On the way home, I stop for another takeaway. Chicken kebab - grilled chicken, salad, pitta. Tasty, delicious. Low calories.
Even with a couple of beers, I ended up eating the least calories I've eaten during a day all year.
Why? Simple. Try to place yourself where you have good choices, and pick the best you can.
That's it.
I'm using the (UK) Weight Watchers system to track my eating, but I'm not strictly following The WW Plan.
So, yesterday I ate 27 points. If I'd taken the same amount of time, with bad choices. Hmmm... lets see.....
Breakfast: danish pastry - extra 4 points
Snacks: 2 bars of chocolate instead of WW snacks. +8 points.
Lunch: chicken curry and fries. Extra 10 points.
Dinner. Lamb instead of chicken. Add friess. Extra 7 points.
Drinks: 2 sugars per mug instead of 1. +5 points.
That's an extra 35 points. 2450 calories. Just from making the right choices. I more than halved my calorie intake by stopping to think for a few seconds.
That's all it takes. You can always trade a few second thinking, time to cook instead of eat out, or time to exercise instead of watch TV. Don't obsess about targets. Just stop for a second, and think about how you can be in the right place to make a good choice, and how you can make a good choice from the available ones.
I've lost 8lbs in 3 weeks doing nothing more.
I think the secret to success at losing weight is to think about your lifestyle. Then think about the fattening bits. Yesterday, for me, was a good example.
I had a coffee in bed (thank you, dear wife). 1 sugar, no milk. Half the sugar I used to have.
Physio appointment, still in work by 9:45 am. Hungry but decided to wait until I got to work instead of scoffing empty calories of chocolate on the way.
Get to work. Bowl of cereal, 2 mugs of coffee. Sorted until 1pm. Saved another 2 points on the sugar.
Hmmm... What's for lunch. It's cold out there... Chinese takeaway anyone? ... mmm.....
Chicken curry and chips? No, too bad. I know, chow mein is good. Seafood is healthy and tasty. "I'll have a prawn chow mein please".
Work until 9pm. OK, a couple of cereal bars for sustenance, but I avoid the vending machine.
On the way home, I stop for another takeaway. Chicken kebab - grilled chicken, salad, pitta. Tasty, delicious. Low calories.
Even with a couple of beers, I ended up eating the least calories I've eaten during a day all year.
Why? Simple. Try to place yourself where you have good choices, and pick the best you can.
That's it.
I'm using the (UK) Weight Watchers system to track my eating, but I'm not strictly following The WW Plan.
So, yesterday I ate 27 points. If I'd taken the same amount of time, with bad choices. Hmmm... lets see.....
Breakfast: danish pastry - extra 4 points
Snacks: 2 bars of chocolate instead of WW snacks. +8 points.
Lunch: chicken curry and fries. Extra 10 points.
Dinner. Lamb instead of chicken. Add friess. Extra 7 points.
Drinks: 2 sugars per mug instead of 1. +5 points.
That's an extra 35 points. 2450 calories. Just from making the right choices. I more than halved my calorie intake by stopping to think for a few seconds.
That's all it takes. You can always trade a few second thinking, time to cook instead of eat out, or time to exercise instead of watch TV. Don't obsess about targets. Just stop for a second, and think about how you can be in the right place to make a good choice, and how you can make a good choice from the available ones.
I've lost 8lbs in 3 weeks doing nothing more.
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