Week 10 Day 7: Fast Food Routine

So we get tired of cooking often because we both grew up in homes where take out or restaurant eating was normal. After I became and adult before I met my wife I normally had 2 meals per day the first was my junk food “dieing of hunger” meal about 2 to 4pm. My second meal of the day was around 8 to 10pm and it was a like 2 or 3 meals in one from the local Burger Baron.

Work days we have discovered that we can stay on plan eating our balanced meals and snacks. By the weekend we seem to be exhausted of cooking and prepping meals for the next day. This exhaustion and the erratic weekend schedules hunger sets in when we are out and all bets are off! It is so important to build a routine and stick to it when trying to lose weight.

You should also think about a backup plan. If you get off routine then you need something to get you back on plan. I have been doing very well against my cravings for chocolate almonds by having a chocolate smoothie now and again in place of a meal or snack.

I don't think my chocolate addiction is my main weakness any more. I can't stand to see my wife upset about being hungry or having cravings. I have a very hard time being strong and playing the tough or mean guy to say no to her. If I'm in the mood to cook it's not so bad but if I don't want to cook I give in and we go off plan. She has told me several times that she appreciates it when I'm strong when she is not but I still have problems. I'm going to work on this and see what happens.

We cheated twice this weekend and I gained 5 pounds...I'm so sad, mad but mostly ashamed. I don't every remember being skinny. Last time I was skinny I think I was in grade 1 so about 1984...what happened to that skinny little kid? I don't know how I got here. I don't really understand the events that created the fat kid that became the fat teen that became the fat adult. I have been trying to lose weight since I was a teen and it's taken me this long to figure it out but now I keep sabotaging my chances.

Me in 1983 or 1984, My first fish in Slave Lake.

-Ian

Week 5 Day 5: Damage Control

On Monday May 23 we had a cheat day as per page 100 of The 4-Hour Body (4HB). We did it because my wife has been volunteering down a the evacuee center for the Slave Lake fire and she has not been able to follow the program to a tee. Different companies where donating lunches to the volunteers so she had not control over what she ate because they were told they wouldn't have any space to store personal things like lunches. This change is daily routine was bothering her and in turn affecting me so we planned an organized preemptive strike!

The Damage Control chapter in 4HB is an important part of shocking the body out of routine to help spur further weight loss. The basics of it are take special supplements that day, then do special yet very simple exercises at certain times through the day and eat a couple of helpful foods during the day. The results were interesting.

I gained 4.4 lbs in that one day...is this bad? Did the cheat day rules not work?

I also LOST 0.5% body fat that day! What does this mean?

I gained weight but lost body fat so...I gained muscle! I would have to say it was a very successful cheat day even though after 5 days my body is still sore all over from the exercises we did that day.

But the real damage control I was speaking about in this posts title would be the next two days after our cheat day.

Even though on our cheat day we got very full and sick from the crap food we were eating we ended up cheating the next 2 evenings. I think we cheated these two other times because we still couldn't get back onto our regular routine the very next day. We were also foolish enough to cheat the second 2 times without following the 4HB rules of cheat days or cheat meals. This is where my problems were this week.

We needed to get right back on program as strict as ever!

Well it's been 1 full day since getting back on full program and I'm already almost back to my weight and body fat pre-cheat day. On Monday I will be getting measured again and I plan on getting the numbers from the weight loss clinic to share with you.

I think after 3 good days on program with weekend the results will be good.

-Ian

Week 2 - Day 6: Weekend Mayhem

So for the last two weeks we have had to develop a whole new daily routine. Adjustments had to be made to account for our new found cave man hunting and gathering life of shopping and cooking. I’m a big fan of routine and I hate change to my routine!

This brings us back to the weekend mayhem…weekends just are not working with our new routine! We like to sleep in so that puts breakfast at least 2 hours late so our snack is late or doesn’t happen because lunch needs to be made. Then you spend time out of the house shopping or driving around no place near a fridge of kitchen so afternoon snack is delayed.

This forces you to eat a snack with a meal which you shouldn’t do because you need the food intake at intervals throughout the day to keep your metabolism going. So having no food kicks your body into starvation mode making the extra big meal that includes snacks to spike your glucose levels! This in turn spikes your insulin levels that are the cause of most cravings.

In short:

Change in my routine = cravings and/or binging!

Well, I would like to say even though we had a change in routine I did not get any cravings so binging didn’t happen. I think this has something to do with the great vitamins we’re taking that are part of the program we’re doing. They did say we would get energy in the second week.

The vitamins we’re taking are giving me more energy and the funny thing is I don’t think I really noticed when I gained the energy. I think it was a slow process over the last week or so.  We got a lot of stuff done today and I almost got my 5000 steps. I’m going to try harder to get some independent walking in when I can. That being said…I had the opportunity to take a walk on my lunch break…and…I didn’t. I think I have a mental block to exercise when I have free time. I think it must be my childhood of video games and movies then my teen years of Internet addiction stopping me from being active.

The 4-Hour Body

On a different note I bought a new book today called “The 4-Hour Body” by Timothy Ferriss. I’m going to read through it and try to add a few of the hints and tips he talks about to my routine. I’ll will you in with some tips now and again if I find something interesting.

Weight update:

Saturday May 7: 369 lbs

That’s a total loss of 22 lbs so far!

Have a great day,

Ian