Friday, July 24, 2020

How I lost weight (content warning: this post is about weight loss)

I wrote a blog post a few weeks ago about how I was attempting to lose weight. Now, I am a mere 300 grams shy of having lost 10 kilograms (i.e. 22 pounds or 1.5 stone) since the beginning of May (just over 11 weeks), which is a reasonable amount of time. In the past, I've tried all kinds of diets and programmes for both health and weight loss, including the Whole 30 diet, Weight Watchers, and plain old calorie counting. About seven years ago, I lost a stone on Weight Watchers, but I remember it being really hard and I was constantly referring to booklets and charts to find points, not to mention that my memory of it is just a constant feeling of being hungry.

Other times when I tried simple calorie counting, I just didn't lose weight and stopped trying. I heard that Weight Watchers had yet another new system and was interested, but then the pandemic happened and it's actually rather difficult to figure out how to do the online WW. That's when I decided to try something new.

I bought my first Fitbit five years ago because my siblings all had one and were competing for steps against one another, and I wanted in on the fun. Once I kicked all their butts, I stopped for a while, then started back up again, but lost the dang thing so I bought a new one in the same price range (the Inspire HR, about 100 euro) and was surprised to find that the new one did a lot more stuff than the old one!

Since I was already doing a lot of exercise, I knew that I would need to change my eating habits if I wanted to lose weight, or to be more precise, be smaller. But honestly I just didn't want to have to do a lot of mental work or futzing around. I decided to give into the marketing ads and try Fitbit Premium, especially since there was a free three-month trial.

I set a weight goal for myself, and then I told the Fitbit app how hard I wanted the weight loss process to be; the harder it is, the more weight you lose. The choices (with calorie deficits in parenthesis) were Easier (-250), Medium (-500), Kinda hard (-750), and Harder (-1,000). I went with 'Kinda hard' because I am only five feet, one inch tall and I think a 1,000 calorie daily deficit would be detrimental to my health, physical and mental.

Here's where it gets interesting. Obviously, you wear the Fitbit all day and it monitors your steps and heart rate. Based on your information, it calculates how many calories you are burning throughout the day. When you eat, you enter it into the app. Most foods are in their database, but you can add custom foods. The app constantly updates and tells you how many calories you have left to stay within your daily allotment, so you don't have to do any maths or think about it too much -- you just enter in what you ate. On more active days, you can eat more; if you are less active, you can eat less.

I can eat whatever I want as long as I have burned the calories. And I know this sounds like one of those weight loss ads, but for me it's really important. If I want to eat more, I just have to exercise more, and that can take many forms. For me, it's usually running, walking, or cycling. You'd be surprised how many calories you can burn in a short amount of time. I've literally wanted to eat something, looked at my Fitbit, and then walked around the block so I could have it.

Having said that, there are some foods that have really gotten me through, which I'll share with you:
1. Slimbos or Slimbos-style buns. They are about 100 calories and I have one every morning for breakfast. They're also great in place of regular burger buns.

2. Eating a protein-heavy breakfast. I generally have two eggs and a Slimbo for breakfast at 8:30am every day and then I don't eat again until 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon. As a person with dodgy blood sugar issues, those two eggs keep me from getting the shakes later on.

3. Feeding cravings with vegetables or fruit first, then deciding whether I really need the thing I'm craving. If I'm feeling like I need something, I might slice up a courgette and sautee it in some spray oil and garlic or eat a sliced tomato with pepper and salt, then evaluate whether I still need the thing my brain told me I wanted. Usually the answer is no. Basically, 80% of my diet consists of vegetables now.

4. Some fruits are surprisingly low in calories compared to others. I've been eating a lot of mangos, but some melons are crazy low in calories. I've never been a huge chocolate fan, so for me, if I'm craving something sweet, something fruity will usually do me. But having to enter in calories for my food has made me aware that, for example, 100g of fresh pineapple is about 100 calories, 100g of fresh mango is only 60, but 100g of gaia melon is only 25. If I'm cutting it tight at the end of the day and it's there, I'll go for the melon.

5. A little of something is usually enough. Before, I'd just eat past the point of full, regardless of what it was. Now, I've realised that a mini ice cream gets me over the craving hump as well as a full-sized one.

6. Alcohol not only makes me hungry, but as my inhibitions fall, so does my willpower. Over the past three months, nearly every day I've gone over my calorie budget involved alcohol, and not just the alcohol itself, but the fact that after a couple of drinks I want to eat everything in sight. Just something I have been trying to overcome and have no solution for, but consider yourself warned.

7. Speaking of alcohol, some are more caloric than others. I love the new hard seltzers that you can get now because they're only about 100 calories per can. But equally, I have found that I'm just as happy with gin and seltzer with lemon or lime and it's a lot cheaper. Being mindful of my calories has made me more mindful of my drinking, which, to be honest, I needed. Turns out, it doesn't solve life's problems and when I drink less, I enjoy it more when I do.

8. Shirataki noodles have been a great discovery! They are glassy noodles that you can get in the asian food shop and they are ridiculously low in calories. You can nearly bulk buy them because they keep for a long time, which is nice.

9. I used to be a 'full fat or gtfo' kind of person. But yes, now I eat low fat cheese slices and low fat Greek yogurt. It's not always a big difference, but sometimes it really is. Once I'm at my goal weight and not working with a 750 calorie deficit every day, I'll probably go back to full fat. Or maybe I won't.

And that's the thing. I've been amazed at how used to all of this I've become. Eating less food means I don't need to eat as much food. Often, I don't even use up my calories because at a certain point I can now ask myself WHY I want the thing and I know that if I just hold off, I will likely forget about it and then my brain moves on to something else. Or I just don't miss things I used to have all the time. For example, I used to put a tonne of butter on my toast. Now, I use either 1/4 or 1/2 teaspoon per slice and I don't eat my toast wishing it had more butter on it. I just don't.

But the bottom line for me is the way that the Fitbit allows me to easily see my intake and output so that I can plan my food (or my exercise). And that makes me feel like I have complete control and that I can eat whatever I want if I'm organised about it.

The thing that's made the biggest difference in terms of seeing changes in my body has been adhering to a strict exercise schedule. Monday to Friday at lunchtime, I exercise. That's my time for me that I carve out (unless something unusual is going on that day). I started doing strength training sometimes at lunch and then going for a run in the evenings after work, which means I can run for longer. But unless I'm sick, I exercise, and even if I'm sick, I'll usually at least be able for a walk. It has become habit and I'm enjoying how much better at it I'm getting. Over the past three months, I have gone from week 1 of the couch to 5k to being able to run nearly 7 kilometres without stopping. I can feel myself getting stronger. My mental health has vastly improved and I'm getting more fresh air and sunshine. It sounds really cliché but I do have so much more energy and when I'm tired, it feels like a physical tiredness, not a mental one like I used to have.

I will say this, though. I'm very privileged to have been able to purchase a good quality used treadmill when we moved into our house. Living in Ireland (especially when I was under strict quarantine) means it rains a lot and going outside to exercise is often not appealing. Gyms are expensive and for me they are a big time suck, having to pack the bag and futz with toiletries and lockers. Having a treadmill in my house means I can pop a film, podcast, tv programme, etc on my phone and take a run or walk at any hour of the day.

But you don't need a treadmill or really any equipment to exercise in your home. I regularly use youtube for strength training workouts, ballet classes, yoga, and cardio workouts in my living room for free. No equipment needed!

A lot of people limit carbs or go high protein, eliminate certain foods or drinks and all of that, but I am just too lazy for that shit and I like being able to eat whatever I want. I like that  I can change the setting from 'Kinda hard' to 'Easy' any time. I like that I don't have to think about points or nutritional value or anything about the food -- just how many calories it has. And if I eat more than the app tells me I can once in a while, it is honestly not the end of the world. Before, when I overate, the guilt just piled up from the days and weeks before. Now, I don't panic and I just try to take a couple of extra walks in the following days. My total goal is two stone, and I'm 3/4 of the way there. These last few pounds are not going to melt off as easily as the first 20, but it's ok because I know that if I just do my best, I'll get there eventually.

I have no idea if this is at all helpful. I'm happy to answer any questions if there's anything anyone wants to know. 

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