I got tough yesterday -- no alcohol or chocolate (sugar-free or otherwise), two meals of grassfed beef and coffee, and one moderate glass of well-aged raw-milk kefir augmented with an ounce of coconut oil -- and i'm down a quarter of a pound, after several days of stagnation.
I'm still five pounds from my immediate goal, which is 140#, just inside the "normal weight" boundary for my height. When i reach it, i'll probably try only to maintain this weight until after the holidays, at which point i'll make another push to reach a final goal of 135. I'm toying with the opinion that MAINTAINING a certain weight for an unspecified time is the best way to get your body to defend THAT "setpoint" -- even though i don't believe in setpoints as they're usually defined.
All the low-hanging fruit is plucked, kids! It's becoming harder all the time to make any progress; i feel like i've accomplished something when i make the measly quarter-pound progress i have, this week! To get to my goal i'm going to have to be even more disciplined about the fine details, and i will regretfully give up my wine-bibbing habits. DAMN! Some days, it feels like the cabernet is what keeps me sane!
Well, now that the weather has moderated i'll find it easier to walk the dog in the late afternoon (my favorite time to do it), so that will contribute to the stress-relief the wine customarily accomplishes. I also find that tea-drinking provides a similar "relaxing stimulation" so i'll be doing more of that, too. Twilight-time with a cuppa (decaffeinated), nut bread, butter and coconut cream ... i think i can live with that.
If you are not losing, then you are maintaining. Now the question becomes, can you live long term on this amount of food?
ReplyDeletei'm losing very slowly. i've also shown i can maintain on a lot more volume than i had yesterday. thanks to VLC, though, i CAN be happy on 1500-1800 calories per day. yesterday was about 1660.
ReplyDeleteHi Tess, boy I'm sure with you on wanting to reach even that first goal of "just inside the normal boundary"- for me that would be about 162 lb- and I am about 12 lbs from there- after that I don't know. Even at 162 I'd weigh less than I did 30+ years ago when I graduated from HS,so....not sure about that. Anyway, I'm going to Vegas with my husband in early November. I'd like to have some new "improved" pictures to compare to fron when I was there in 2010 and weighed at least 200 lbs. I've been averaging about 1400 kcal/day by eating 2 meals, keeping the carbs low. But, my energy is suffering a bit. I plan to take a break (from calorie restriction, not LC) while we're on our trip and hopefully just maintain. Will probably ease up around the Holidays. I think it makes sense to :"attack" with full-on effort and then maintain for awhile until the body gets used to the lower weight. I added Tyrosine to my supplements and I think it helps, though I took the second dose late in the afternoon yesterday and I think it interfered with my sleep last night.
ReplyDeleteoh, yeah! i definitely wouldn't take tyrosine after the early afternoon! have you tried carnitine? it's supposed to help FFAs get into the mitochondria for burning, and i kinda suspect it "spares" thyroid hormone, too ... but i'm still trying to find backing for my idea! but keep on keeping on -- you can do it!
DeleteWhat is nut bread and coconut cream? It sounds great. I am looking for a new evening meal.
ReplyDeletehi, Angele! there are a bunch of different breads one can make with nut flours instead of grains -- coincidentally, i just put a pan in the oven with a new experimental recipe, based on freetheanimal's "fatbread"....
ReplyDeletecoconut cream is the high-fat portion of coconut milk, that rises to the top of the can. it can be skimmed off and even whipped, though i've never tried to do it. :-) i'm thinking it'll imitate clotted cream pretty well.