So if you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll remember that me and a couple of the posse have been experimenting with a different way of spending our food budget, to kind of shock our respective metabolisms and see if we can’t fool their ass into working harder and faster. I’ve given it a good go over the last four weeks but honestly, I think I’m scoring an epic fail.
And I’m troubled. I don’t think it’s working for me on a number of levels so it’s time to chuck in the towel…I’m going to go back to my old non-experiment way. Here’s why.
Firstly, the pounds in my pants aren’t disappearing any more quickly than they did before, in fact they’ve slowed down if anything. Apart from that one amazing week where four melted away pretty much overnight, my weight loss has been distinctly underwhelming, and a couple of weeks ago the needle went up for the first time this year. The following week it nudged down again but only by one quarter of a pound, so the results aren’t great.
I don’t know what I’ve lost this week yet, because weigh day isn’t until Wednesday, and I don’t like that either. I like my weigh days on Sundays, not Wednesdays and I can’t get used to it. I walked into the bathroom yesterday and looked at the Shitbird Scale, but I didn’t stop for a chat and call me a weirdo but it just felt wrong.
I can’t approach it with the same sense of anticipation on a week day somehow. I don’t have time for my best of fifteen routine for a start, and I miss being able to potter about afterwards and pick over the bones of how my week shaped up. There’s no sense of occasion when I do it on a Wednesday because I’m generally flying around getting ready for work. It’s just not for me.
Most important of all, giving myself license to eat all my weekly points on one or two days is driving exactly the sort of behaviour around food that dug me into deep shit in the first place. For me to maintain any kind of balance I need to take a measured and considered approach to eating, and yet I can feel a really unhealthy focus forming around the days where I can eat and eat. It’s not good for me…I think it’s pushing all my buttons, and getting a bit too close for comfort to the big one that says self destruct.
Yesterday, I made protein balls, so I had a quick and nutritious protein-rich snack for after my workouts this week. They’re quite rich, and you can only really eat one or maybe two at a push. Yesterday, I ate ten in one sitting. I needed to use up my points, and of course the Asshole voice was egging me on…more more more…happy days, right? Except it wasn’t. It felt like a binge. And usually if something looks like a binge and smells like a binge, well…it‘s a binge. Consequently this morning I’ve woken up feeling as sick as a dog and like something happened that shouldn’t have. Which technically it didn’t but it still feels wrong.
It’s not the first time the wheels have wobbled in the last couple of weeks either, there was an incident last week too if you recall. I think a light-bulb has come on in my head and I’m feeling flaky because the new routine just isn’t for me. I tried it on, looked at it from every angle, and the long and short of it is that it just doesn’t suit me. What about you guys, has it worked for you?
I’m glad I gave it a go because it never hurts to mix it up a bit, but my gut is telling me it’s time to re-set everything and go back to normal. I’ll hop aboard the Shitbird on Wednesday, record whatever it says but then my next weigh-day will be my old friend Sunday.
I might even do a best of thirty, just because I can 🙂
So, I had a pretty rough winter with all kinds of medical stuff. I’m JUST starting to come around and feel better, but I was not able to workout at all and my food was not off the rocker, but instead of being lean, I’ve become “soft” and I don’t like it. I lost perspective of eating right, especially at night. It became a bit of a “I want this, so I’m going to eat it” routine with me. AND I wasn’t working out…not even walking because I was in so much pain. So…it shouldn’t be a big surprise that I’m “soft.” Long story short, guess what!!! It’s completely back to basics for me. And I feel a lot better. I have to ease into working out super slowly because I can’t afford any re-injuries. But I can eat smart, walk and work my way around the night time binging that does me in. It’s so much easier to do the things that work well for you than it is to introduce a new way of doing things. I also realize when you take short cuts, you can’t wonder why your body shifts. So… off to the gym for me.
Ah I’m so sorry you’ve had a tough time but I’m so glad you’re starting to feel better Tracey. And I’m sending a million positive vibes xx
Echoing the chorus of “do what works best for you.” If that means going back to what you did in the first weeks of your journey, then full steam ahead. Something other people have found helpful, as well, is no-sugar/no-white flour/fewer carbs– but in my experience, that only works if I’m fully, fully committed, because when I’m doing that, even one slip can send me back to a binge-place. (Not good for my mental or physical health.)
I think the most important thing is your drive to persevere, to see your newer lifestyle as one that is being ultra kind to yourself (and something that you’re doing because you love and honor your body (or are working toward that).
So: brava for knowing yourself, trying something new, and recognizing when something isn’t working for you, then adjusting tactics accordingly. You can do this; you*are*doing this!
Thanks, and yes I am! I did consider that diet you’re referring to, sent off for all the oomph but then they started stalking me with daily emails and there’s nothing guaranteed to turn me off faster than that! But I’m pretty much refined sugar free and that seems to be doing ok 🙂
You’ve learned something valuable for maintenance, Dee. If it looks, feels, smells like a binge…its a binge (for you). And that’s the person you have to take care of. Moving on… xom
Yes! I’m regarding it as progress!
Lady I’m giving this week the last week – I’ve gone up the last 2 weeks myself – .2 last week and .6 the week before. So while I had a few weeks of losses it seems to have turned around. Figured I’d give it one more week and see what happens and then call it done. I wasn’t having binge issues or anything but it’s more that I usually ended the week with about half of my weeklies
I’m toying with trying simply filling even though I’ll be doing it kicking and screaming because I really don’t want to
I’ll let you know this weeks result my weigh in is on Thursday. It did get me excited for awhile so that in and of itself was motivating
Good luck!
Ah, not just me then! It was worth a try, and funnily enough me too, I was also toying with the idea of simply filling. I need to get my head around it though. Given that I’m not eating crap at the moment I’m thinking it might be worth a try?
You never know if something works for you until you try it.
Intermittent fasting works for me, but not for everyone, and i didn’t know it would work for me until i tried it.
Exactly Mimi…nothing ventured, right?
If this new experiment isn’t working then stop it and go back to what works. Same goes for weigh in day. I do daily weigh ins to take away the drama of a weekly weigh in. Again, do what works best for you.
Crikey Susan I couldn’t do daily weigh-ins, I’d be a basket case by day 3!