Slow and Steady

Breaking through the doldrums of plateaus in a weight loss program is probably the most common cause of failure for most people. It certainly has been responsible for my own past history of falling off the wagon.

What happened to me in the past went something like this:

The program starts out and is really tough, because I miss those great-tasting sugary and fatty foods I've been addicted to all my life. But I'm motivated by really fast results at first, where I see the scale dropping pounds every single week.

After awhile, I sort of fall into the routine, and although I still might look longingly at that chocolate shake or brownie, it becomes less of an obsessive craving and a bit easier to resist. But hey, as long as the weight's still coming off, I can live with that.

But then the plateaus set in. First I don't lose anything for a couple of weeks. It makes me angry. It seems unfair - here I've been keeping the calories down faithfully, but for some reason I'm stuck. But I hang in there, and after awhile I drop a couple more pounds.

Then the major plateau arrives. That's where I sat through June - a whole month with nothing to show for my sacrifice. My body has held onto every calorie, become super-efficient and refusing to let a single pound fall off.

When you've gone a month staying faithful to a diet and get no love from the bathroom scale, it can make you crazy. It also can lead to a tumble off the wagon. I've done it before; I reach a point where I make some sort of decision that I've had enough of this sacrifice. It doesn't mean I immediately abandon the whole program and start binging. Instead, it's gradual; a piece of cake here, a candy bar there, an ice cream sundae on Sunday. Before I know it, I've forgotten all about the diet and stop getting on the scale at all. The realization I've fallen off the wagon doesn't hit until my clothes get too tight. By then, I'm demoralized and discouraged, so I just go ahead and buy bigger clothes and forget the whole thing. Until the next time.

This time I've decided to refocus and hang in there. After a month-long plateau, I suddenly dropped 5 pounds in a single week. It taught me that patience is a virtue. It reminded me that this is a marathon, not a sprint. That my ideal weight may be a destination, but the adventure only begins when I get there. And whether I get there in 3 months or 6 months or a year or even 2 years doesn't really matter as much as staying focused on getting there.

Another thing I've come to learn is related to exercise. Exercise as a weight loss tool really doesn't work, at least for me. Whether or not I exercise really doesn't impact the speed of weight loss at all for me, as far as I can tell. I've had stretches where I've exercised vigorously and faithfully 3 to 4 times a week for a few weeks. I've also had stretches (like right now) where I've been working 10 to 12 hour days and just don't want to take the time to exercise.

The only difference between exercise periods and non-exercise periods in terms of weight lost? If anything, I think I lose less weight when I'm exercising than when I'm not. For one thing, exercise gives me a ravenous appetite, which entices me to increase my volume of food at mealtime. Another effect of exercise may be that it builds muscle, which of course weighs more than fat, which I think may slow down the weight loss a bit.

Not that I don't think exercise is important - just the opposite. I think it's critical for toning and building strength and stamina and all that. It's also really important in helping me reach a major goal of this whole project for me - to be able to join an adult basketball league, hopefully this coming winter, and be able to hold my own on the court.

So I'm soldiering on. And I'll keep soldiering on indefinitely - no stopping even when I get to that magical ideal weight.

Progress Report

In case anyone is interested in the weight loss project, this is a brief update.

Things have slowed to a crawl. Every ounce is hanging on for dear life, but I've accepted that as long as the scale isn't going up, that's OK.

The things that are probably hampering my progress are events that are very hard to control.

First and foremost, I've gotten very busy lately. That means lots of travel, which also means the routine goes out the window. Not that I'm being "bad" on the road; actually, I'm generally pretty consistently making good food choices. But travel means changes to the mealtime schedules, eating at restarants most of the time, and simply being unable to get those fruits & vegetables that help me stay on track.

One client I've been working with treats me to lunch every day. And they like things like pizza and sub sandwiches and the like. One day for lunch we went to a pizza joint where basically I had to order a pizza or go hungry. So I got the thin crust personal pizza, and was so ravenous I ate the whole thing. I'm guessing that wasn't good for the weight-loss project.

Then there's eating at restaurants in general. I order the entrees that I should order, like the grilled chicken or the salad, etc. But the portion sizes are very large, and it's difficult to know when I've had enough. I try to always leave some on the plate, but still have a feeling that even though I've made good food choices, the volume isn't helping.

Otherwise, when I'm home, my routine is unchanged in the last 6 months. My meals are pretty consistent. And I know my caloric intake is pretty consistently in the 1600-1800 range.

Theoretically that should mean I continue to drop pounds. But being very busy with work lately has meant I get very little of the physical exercise I had been doing previously. Because many days are 10, 12, even 14 hour workdays. I have to admit that with that schedule, finding an hour to exercise becomes a pretty low priority.

I'm not too worried. All I need to do is watch the intake at restaurants, find ways to offset the distruptions caused by travel days, and force myself to find that hour 3 or 4 times a week to work up a sweat.

After all, I'm in a marathon, not a sprint. And the finish line isn't really the end of the race.

I May be Doing it Wrong

I've been stuck in another plateau. My reaction has been to cut back even further on food intake, which just frustrates me more as the number on the scale continues to refuse to budge.

Now I have some information that suggests I might be doing it wrong. Literally starving myself in the attempt to break the logjam may be killing my metabolism. It looks like I may need to change direction slightly.

See, I have a basic problem. I really don't like rabbit food. And that's at the root of my metabolism problem. Apparently, I should be filling my stomach with raw vegetables that supposedly burn more calories to digest than they cost. Somehow that is supposed to boost metabolism and help burn the fat faster.

Since I have an aversion to lettuce and carrots and celery and cucumbers, I prefer to just eat the protein and fruit allowed on my diet. And that appears to be what's causing these long, frustrating plateaus.

I guess I'll have to force myself to fill up on the rabbit food. We'll see how that works.

The Weight Loss Update

There are some interesting things happening lately, now that I've lost enough to begin to notice.

My arms are smaller. My watchband has cinched two notches since the project started. My fingers seem longer.

Looking in the mirror, I have a neck again. I can see my chin and the outline of my jaw. My nose and ears seem larger. My face is less round. I wonder whether the skin under my chin will end up hanging, or if it will eventually tighten up. I wonder the same about my belly and chest.

My ankles are noticeably smaller. My socks don't make an indentation anymore. Even my toes seem longer.

The gut's still there, but I can tell there's a lot less of it. I can actually feel my ribs. I've dug out older, smaller clothes, and bought a cheap pair of jeans. The pants are 3 sizes down in the waist; technically I should be down 4, but I don't want to invest in new clothes for every reduction in size. I'll buy just enough to get by when I go down one more size, then make do with those until I get the last 2 (maybe 3) sizes.

I have to hold up the pants when I walk, and can't walk very far with both hands full or they might fall down. A new belt or cutting more holes in the current belt is overdue. Shirts aren't that big of a deal, because if a shirt's a little too big it doesn't matter all that much.

It's easier to put on my socks and shoes in the morning.

And perhaps most importantly, all my statistics are getting really good; blood pressure, cholesterol. glucose. etc., are all looking great.

And I feel pretty good too. I don't feel tired like I did before, don't seem to need as much sleep, and have at least an illusion of being a bit sharper at work.

Starting to Understand

The big question on my mind recently has been centered around how a seeming majority of people could support the frightening things happening as our single-party rulers move rapidly forward with their agenda.

I've begun to get a sliver of insight through some recent conversations.

The reason these people don't find the new political direction frightening is they don't know they're taking place.

The reasons:

They get all their news from the network nightly news programs, which of course studiously avoid the "whole" story. They focus on the Obama celebrity, what Michelle's wearing today or their favorite presidential sound bite of the day. The only hard news permitted is whatever new slams against the evil Bush administration were issued from the White House today.

They either don't really know about the socialist agenda, or believe it's nothing more than right-wing radio talk shows spewing divisive rhetoric toward Obama.

They haven't heard anything about the Homeland Security report suggesting surveillance on conservative groups they've labeled "domestic terrorists". It is dismissed as just another right-wing talk radio invention.

They favor government intervention for people in trouble with their mortgage, and believe government healthcare is past due.

They figure the government's been racking up debt for decades, so it's no big deal if some more debt happens as Obama tries to spend money on infrastructure to help rescue the economy.

They have bought the story that only the rich will pay more in taxes.

They think the greedy oil companies are finally going to be reined in. They don't understand what will happen to every citizen when Cap & Trade is passed into law. In fact, they don't even know what Cap & Trade means.

Wasn't it Ben Franklin who once suggested that the American Republic depends on an educated citizenry, or it will fail. He was absolutely right.

Vignette

My earliest childhood memories go back to approximately age 3. We lived in a small house with the back yard directly adjoining the school playground, which happened to be the very school in which my father was a teacher and coach.

We had a kind retired couple next door, and they may be responsible for my lifelong addiction to ice cream. They gave me some ice cream, and from then on I wanted to visit them every day, just for the chance at another bowl of that elixir from the gods. It was sort of messy, and I got it all over my face and clothes, but I did not care.

I enjoyed the playground, spending plenty of time on the swings and slide. My little sister, about 18 months younger, seemed to like climbing the stairs and sitting at the top of the slide, but then would become frightened. She would sit on the slide, wailing, until I retrieved our mother to rescue her. It seemed just a big bother to me.

My favorite playground activity was basketball. Now I was way too small to put a basketball through those regulation hoops. But I had a small orange toy basketball, which I tried valiantly to hoist through that unfathomably high hoop. Whether my memory is legitimate on this point can be debated, but I still believe that I was able to heave that little toy basketball through that hoop successfully at least once. That memory has me running excitedly into the house to tell my mother, "I made a basket!".

I don't think she believed me.

But my technique must have been interesting, if not humorous. I would fling the little orange ball underhanded with both hands up toward the basket, then quickly duck and cover my head with both hands. Because that little ball could hurt when it landed on top of my head.

The basketball thing might have taken root in a visit I still recall to one of my father's high school basketball practices. I was in awe of those high school players, who seemed so adept at dribbling and shooting. I so badly wanted to be able to do that.

One of the players caught my attention because of his unique jump shot. As I picture him in my head today, he would start with a conventional jump shot, but just as he released the ball, he would sort of kick up his feet behind him. For some reason, I found that to be a fascinating and memorable shooting technique. I don't believe I've ever seen anything quite like it since.

Today I still enjoy basketball, and have recently been trying to dust off my game at the local gym. I'm hoping to be fit enough to start playing in a recreation league for older adults by next winter. So far, so good.

More on Weight Loss Experience

Just in case anybody's wondering how things are going with my little weight-loss adventure, here's an update.

I've been stuck at the same weight for about a month now. It's been somewhat discouraging, but I feel a bit better about it after visiting the doctor for a checkup. He not only raved about how much weight I've been able to lose since starting this little project (25 lbs since my last visit, between 35-40 total), but told me it's quite common to hit plateaus along the way.

If I keep watching the calories and exercising, the weight will continue to come off. Unfortunately, it's not likely to come off as fast as it did initially. I can't count on losing 10 or 15 pounds per month, but should reset my expectations to maybe dropping about 5 per month.

That's kind of hard to accept, but if I continue to keep the attitude that this isn't a short-term "diet", but a permanent lifestyle change, the weight will come off eventually. Patience is key.

The sugar cravings are much less intense. I still think about my favorite treat (ice cream) from time to time, but have been able to steer clear so far.

I still struggle somewhat with another favorite, pizza. It's hard to avoid completely, and I have stumbled on a couple of occasions where pizza was served in social situations. I had to have one. And I wasn't sorry.

So the biggest enemies to keeping on track these days are down to these:

1. Hunger. When I get hungry, watch out! It's often unavoidable, but it's far more difficult to stop myself from eating stuff I shouldn't or stuffing myself if I'm ravenous. Such times really test my will.
2. Boredom. It's tough on weekends when I'm home all day with nothing in particular to do. It takes real focus to stop from walking into the kitchen in search of something on which to graze. Cheese & crackers are a particular problem there.
3. Social situations. I have to be careful in social settings, especially where pizza is being served. However, this category is less dangerous to me than the first two.

So my original hope of reaching my ideal weight in a year looks like it may not be possible. But as long as I keep moving in the right direction, I think I can stay patient.

We shall see how the next 3 months go. I plan to stay "on the wagon".