Sunday Weigh In

Today I got back on the scale for my now-regularly-planned Sunday weigh in. Last Tuesday I weighed 226 pounds. Today I weigh 225. Hey, it's a start.

I also logged calories yesterday and today, after the fact. So they may not be perfectly accurate, since I did not measure but eyeballed my food. I did make a note of what I ate through the day so I know I didn't forget anything. I am just trying to get back into a good habit and get a general idea of my calorie intake. I don't exactly have a calorie goal or anything yet; I am just trying not to overdo it and also making an effort to stay lower carb and higher protein. I have a general eating template that I followed this week but it is *very* loose. Basically, I decided to use up the last of my Medifast meals and also the Wonderslim and Bariwise meal replacements I bought a couple months ago to try. I am not doing either the Medifast Plan or the Wonderslim Plan. I am just using them for snacks and breakfast. It's a nice way to keep my calories and carbs down and protein high without much effort. When my stash is gone, I don't plan to buy anymore. I'll just eat regular foods instead. Anyway, my general template is to have Wonderslim oatmeal or Medifast cereal for breakfast (with almond milk), 3 or 4 meal replacements (bars, shakes, whatever I feel like) for snacks and occasionally for lunch (the soups make ok lunches, with some extra veggies added), 1-2 servings of fruit, and then for dinner I have protein and vegetables. My dinners are pretty much made from the Medifast template since I know how to make those, except that I do not measure the vegetables and I do eat higher carb veggies like peas, carrots, onions, winter squash. No potatoes though. I drink a lot of water, plain tea, and black coffee. I picked back up one bad habit which is sugar free flavored creamer; I have a cup of coffee with that stuff in it most afternoons. Eating this way I am ingesting a lot lower calories than I was before. Like I said, right now I do not have a calorie goal but I know that when I start logging daily again, I will zig zag my calories so that if I eat super low (1200ish) some days, and then have a high day once a week (2000ish? not sure) that might help with the metabolism slowdown issue. I will be frank here and say I still have no idea how many calories to eat. I was only losing 2 pounds a month before on 900-1000 calories a day (but when I *started* Medifast I was regularly losing 7+ pounds a month on that calorie level, so obviously *something* changed). I don't know if eating higher calorie levels for the past several months will reset my metabolism somehow or what. Half the people say I need to eat way more. Half say I need to eat way less. I am just going to eat, log, and see what happens and adjust from there. I am sure things like the medication I am taking for my blood pressure have an effect as well. Anyway, at least the scale is going in the right direction now, so that's good.

Yesterday I ate Medifast cereal with almond milk, a lot of black (decaf) coffee including 2 cups with sugar free creamer added, 3 Wonderslim meals, some salsa, a Clementine, part of a banana, a big bowl of loaded baked "potato" (cauliflower) soup, 3 soft boiled eggs, some almonds, a sugar free jello cup, and a slice of low fat cheese. Total was just under 1400 calories, 86 g protein, 95 g carbs. Today I had a Wonderslim pancake and black coffee for breakfast, a hot cocoa for a snack, and another cup of black coffee. My daughter and I went to lunch at a Mexican restaurant and it was delicious. I got carne asada (steak) and asked them to give me fajita vegetables in place of the beans, rice, and tortillas. The veggies were broccoli, carrots, green peppers, onions, yellow squash, mushrooms, and zucchini. It was so, so good. With the meat and vegetables I had fresh salsa, a bit of guacamole, and 5 corn chips. I logged all of this in sparkpeople and while I don't know exact counts, I estimated high and added some oil for cooking and got about 660 calories for the restaurant meal. Adding in my food from this morning, right now I am at 888 calories, 54 g protein, 61 g carbs. I'll be having two more meal replacements tonight and maybe a Clementine which will put me in the range of 1200 calories, 80 g protein and 85 g carbs.

That's my update and my plan, and I am hopeful this will help me get to a place where I feel better and care more about my eating.