Pigs Fly – Day 4 – Lost 8 Pounds in 4 Days

Friday, July 8, 2016

This morning I was 270.2 – that means I’ve lost almost 8 pounds in 4 days.

Still, I’m not particularly impressed though I am encouraged.

As mentioned before, I’ve pulled off the short-game too many times to let this go to my head. While the number drop is way above average, the duration – 3 days – is way too short to prove anything except that I’m playing the short game again.

You know what would be impressive? 20 pounds lost.

So here’s my first short-term goal: 258 pounds.

That will bring me past my first milestone of 260, which was my highest weight ever just before I started low carb for the first time in September of 2003 after a trip to Montreal and Quebec City.

The question I have about this goal is: should I set a date?

Part of me says no – this could encourage more extreme dieting that might be a health risk. The body has its own rhythms and I believe plateaus are the body’s way of resting up and reconfiguring itself for the next leg of the weight loss journey.

Perhaps I can use the medically advised rate of 2 pounds per week. That would put my goal date at September 6th if I were to begin counting at July 5th. Seems far away – might that provide me the excuse to cheat? ‘I’m doing so well and so ahead of schedule that a few slices of pepperoni pizza won’t matter…’ = end of diet (I know me).

Maybe I need my goal to NOT focus on weight but eating. While I’d certainly like to be less large, a greater focus on healthy, portion-controlled eating might be a better primary goal – and the weight loss should come naturally from this.

Here’s the tough part – I KNOW I could have that pizza binge and not impact the diet – I’ve done it before. The problem was the pizza binge would NOT derail me at first – sometimes the scale would see me lose more weight after those days.

With this kind of feedback from the scale I had proof that I could pull this off occasionally. The problem was that the occasions would start occurring closer and closer together until the diet disappeared and the occasions became the routine.

This is why I’m thinking that – even more than low carb itself – portion control is the number one rule I shouldn’t break.

For me, low carb makes portion control easy – it kills my appetite dead. For example, except for an Atkins shake and the psyllium husks I had nothing to eat until evening. I didn’t feel particularly deprived, no real willpower needed, no distractions from hunger – and mind was sharp – late Friday afternoon a colleague way smarter than me got stuck on a really tricky technical problem and I was able to help him troubleshoot and find a resolution.

So if I really want to cheat – I can probably survive the occasional high-carb day – but this time I am going to put myself on alert that it’s the portion control that can’t slip.

I picked up KFC for myself and my family on the way home and got 2 of the grilled thighs for myself. They’re a great, almost no-carb fast food, though I wouldn’t call it ‘healthy’ as that chicken piece was probably marinated in more high-tech chemicals than I can imagine. Actually, I think I saw the list once – it’s a long list.

Regardless, 2 thighs are only 340 calories (If my stupid Loseit! calorie-counting app is correct). Before eating them I had only about 250 calories for the day so there easily was room for this.

Still hungry though, I paused for a glass of water then hit the fridge to have a hamburger with ketchup and cheese. After that a pause, more water and a hot dog with cheese and mustard (I warmed them up this particular night).

More water and half a movie later (‘The Agony and the Ecstasy‘ – the 60’s movie with Charlton Heston and Rex Harrison that is basically about a guy who paints a ceiling but doesn’t want to) I made a concoction I’ve had before: take maybe 1/3rd cup pasta sauce, cut up 3 slices provolone cheese, sprinkle oregano, nuke for a minute, stir, nuke again for a minute, cover in grated parm cheese and you’ve got a ‘cheese soup’ of sorts that can be a substitute for pizza cravings.

We’ll see what so many of my calories from cheese doest to me, though – I seem to do better when I moderate my cheese intake.

Right before bed I had one mango chunk from the bag my daughter was eating from as well as a half peach in syrup. I added these to my tally.

I finished the day at about 1,500 calories – still nearly 500 under what is recommended given my height by the weight loss app.

Of that, my net carbs were about 27 grams, the fat 97 grams and the protein 125 grams.

Now let’s see if I can navigate the weekend – it’s a good time to fail.