If you don't make a big deal about it, it won't be a big deal.
Weekly Goals
Calories: 1200
Fat: 24-40
Exercise: 200 minutes
When the IDEA program told me that my new calorie goal was 1200, I flinched. That's low! I got my diet about as low as I thought I could get it already. Unfortunately, the "team of dietitians and doctors" are not actually providing individual advice like I thought. Luckily, my fiancee is also a registered dietitian. She showed me some 1200 calorie meal plans online and we've been bouncing around ideas about ways I can meet 1200 calories. I get asked how I do it without being hungry all the time. It didn't happen overnight. For starters, my stomach shrank. I actually eat pretty well. I just do it very carefully. Here's what a day looks like.
Breakfast - 230 calories
Kashi Go Lean Crisps cereal - 190 calories
Almond Milk for the cereal - 20 calories
Gummy Vites vitamins - 15 calories
Black Coffee - 5 calories
Morning Snack - 105 calories
Bananas - 105 calories
Water - 0 calories
Lunch - 280 calories
Turkey and cheese pita sandwich with lettuce, tomato and cucumber - 190 calories
(I use a half piece of cheese, exactly 2 oz. of turkey meat, and a Flat Out low calorie pita wrap)
Side Salad with tomato, cucumber, croutons, and Marzetti italian dressing - 90 calories
Water - 0 calories
Dinner - 640 calories
Green Curry Tofu with asparagus and shallots on a bed of capellini - 640 calories (That's two greedy servings)
Sprite Zero - 0 calories
Water - 0 calories
TOTAL: 1255 calories
Some things to point out... I drink a lot of coffees, teas, water, and maybe a zero calorie soda for a change of pace (sometimes a half diet/half regular soda mix). Liquid calories are easier to cut than most other things. It also lets me have a pretty decent sized dinner. If I decided I wanted a drink or an evening snack, my dinner was 320 calories per serving and leaves me the flexibility to adjust my day if I stray from what I wanted to eat that day. I try to include a lot of veggies in my diet too. They're filling and low in calories.
As for exercise, I'm having trouble staying consistent from week to week. I did great on week 8 but I did horrible on week 9. I'm conflicted between the program's "exercise" vs lifestyle activities. If I mow the lawn, it's a lifestyle activity. It doesn't count as exercise because it wasn't done for the sake of exercising. Yet, that still takes time and energy to do.
Weigh-in Weight: 188.6 lbs.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Weeks 6 & 7
More than a third of the USA is obese. In 2010, 20%-29% of Pennsylvania are now obese.
Weekly Goals
Calories: 1500
Fat: 33-50
Exercise: 150
A better name for this post would be Portion Control...
I'm cruising right along with the program so far. The biggest differences I've done was to following through with a lot of things I already know I should have been doing all along. For instance, I know that restaurant portion sizes are large and loaded with more calories than if I cooked the same dish at home. Before the program, I'd eat the entire meal. Now, I try to pack half the meal to go. It makes for a great dinner the next day too. I knew that I should have been doing that all along, but I rarely ever did it.
One of the difficulties I've had in the last weeks 6 & 7 is cupcakes. I had a cupcake tasting, a "share the cupcakes with the rest of the fam" day, leftover cupcakes from the family tasting, and a birthday party. To get past this, I tried to keep a close eye on my portion size throughout the week to balance out my calorie intake.
So far, it seems to be working. I am now moving below my usual summer weight and into what I'd weight at the end of a good summer. It's been noticeable too because it's happened in such a short period of time. When I cross under 190, I'll be into weights I seldom hit in a given year. However, my weight had a slight plateau despite the increase in exercise minutes. I still lost weight, but it slowed down considerably. I dropped under 200 and consistently maintained it. In this program, 200 is a magic number. My calorie goals are going to drop in a week from now. On top of that, my exercise goals will keep increasing towards 300 minutes a week.
The key to meeting this new challenge will be portion control. I see a few areas where I can be even more stingy about what I'm eating and things like cupcake weeks are going to be nearly impossible to do while still maintaining my goals without doing things like eating half of a cupcake (again, portion control). The calorie levels (1200) won't be high enough to have a few low calorie days to compensate for the higher days. I was upset about this at first, but now I'm starting to view it as a new challenge that I'll have to figure out how to overcome.
Weigh-in Weight: 193.8
Weekly Goals
Calories: 1500
Fat: 33-50
Exercise: 150
A better name for this post would be Portion Control...
I'm cruising right along with the program so far. The biggest differences I've done was to following through with a lot of things I already know I should have been doing all along. For instance, I know that restaurant portion sizes are large and loaded with more calories than if I cooked the same dish at home. Before the program, I'd eat the entire meal. Now, I try to pack half the meal to go. It makes for a great dinner the next day too. I knew that I should have been doing that all along, but I rarely ever did it.
One of the difficulties I've had in the last weeks 6 & 7 is cupcakes. I had a cupcake tasting, a "share the cupcakes with the rest of the fam" day, leftover cupcakes from the family tasting, and a birthday party. To get past this, I tried to keep a close eye on my portion size throughout the week to balance out my calorie intake.
So far, it seems to be working. I am now moving below my usual summer weight and into what I'd weight at the end of a good summer. It's been noticeable too because it's happened in such a short period of time. When I cross under 190, I'll be into weights I seldom hit in a given year. However, my weight had a slight plateau despite the increase in exercise minutes. I still lost weight, but it slowed down considerably. I dropped under 200 and consistently maintained it. In this program, 200 is a magic number. My calorie goals are going to drop in a week from now. On top of that, my exercise goals will keep increasing towards 300 minutes a week.
The key to meeting this new challenge will be portion control. I see a few areas where I can be even more stingy about what I'm eating and things like cupcake weeks are going to be nearly impossible to do while still maintaining my goals without doing things like eating half of a cupcake (again, portion control). The calorie levels (1200) won't be high enough to have a few low calorie days to compensate for the higher days. I was upset about this at first, but now I'm starting to view it as a new challenge that I'll have to figure out how to overcome.
Weigh-in Weight: 193.8
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