More progress on the Hacker's Diet

I'm below 190 now, having lost about 19 pounds since the start. Weekends are harder than weekdays, but if I'm busy enough (in the shop), I forget to eat, so it's not so bad ;-). Vacations are hard, particularly family obligations to the mid-West, where meals are the big highlights of each day ;-( But I've got a routine going during the work week; I know what and how much I can eat, and I'm making good progress.

I've gone from "Obese" into mere "Overweight" - I've being mulling where to stop. I definitely want to get below 180. I was thinking 170 is where I wanted to get to, but a friend of mine from work was recently very ill, and lost a ton of weight. The typical BMI calculation doesn't take age into account, and pushing 50, I'm more vulnerable to a major illness than I was at 18, so having a little cushion seems to make some sense. Still, 180 puts me right at the top of "normal" weight, and 170 is not particularly light for my height.

Pizza is the Enemy

I've been stalled for most of week on my dieting efforts. Pizza is the enemy. It's one of the only foods my son will reliably eat (mac and cheese being the other), and it's easy, with a little forethought, to make fresh in a hurry when you get home late, and have homework, shower, book, bedtime prayers to attend to, all before 8:30.

But it's pretty high in calories, even a basic slice of cheese pizza, and I can eat more than one slice at a time . The cupcakes at the Birthday Party were no help either.

Going back to a REALLY restricted day seems to have jumpstarted things again.

That day looked like this:

Breakfast: one hard boiled egg, a grapefruit
Lunch: About a 2 cups popped of popcorn, about 2 cups of Trader Joes Carrot Ginger soup, tea
Aftenoon snack: a cup each of coconut rice at my sisters house and a similar amount of ginger garlic asian coleslaw.
Dinner: A can of Progresso Minestrone with Chicken.

The key seems to be Volume - lots of bulk, with relatively low calories.

I had a hammering headache in the late afternoon, but I think that was a comgination of too much sun, some allergic involvement, AND low blood sugar.

Progress on the Hackers Diet

I'm about 10 pounds down so far, and sort of at a plateau I fear. It's HARD!!! I do pretty well during the day, but often come home and pig out.

The Hacker's Diet

The Hacker's Diet
My weight has been an irritation to me for some time. I've been meaning to lose some for quite a while. I read Covert Bailey's Fit or Fat long before he became a late night shill for a torture machine, and thought that was the Way. Indeed, I lost a fair amount of weight using that regime several times, 20 years ago, 15 years ago, but could never get below about 180 or so.

Times change. Marriage, a kid, and injuiries that kept me from exercising, and somehow my weight had pressed above 200. Compared to my peers, I felt svelte, because most of them were fatter still, but I knew I was verging on Obese on those weight charts at the doctor's office. But it wasn't until I stepped on the scale at a restaurant in Seattle on a work trip that the awful truth became clear - 220. I didn't need to lose 20 pounds, I needed to lose 40 pounds.

I made changes, but it wasn't until I read John Walker's The Hackers Diet that I started making progress. What I've learned thusfar:
* Feedback is important - standing on the scale every day, and charting the trends is a powerful motivator.
* Make No Small Plans - a fairly severe cut in calories works for me. I'm not sure less would have worked AT ALL.
* Don't expect to be happy about it - my blood sugar is pretty close to the edge all the time, and I can be positively pre-menstrual in my emotional responses.

I've lost about 5 lbs in 2 weeks, and that seems sustainable. Good thing, because I aim to get to about 175, if not lower, in the next 6-8 months.