The calm before the storm

 

Yeah, and I actually GAINED weight by the beginning of February! I had to regroup and that's when I started my spreadsheet which I wrote about in previous posts. More on how I fixed that problem below. I still have to keep going. Even when I get back to fitting in my clothes, this is a lifestyle and if we lose sight of our calorie awareness, we backslide.

There is a huge storm coming in and it's apparently like the storm of the century. Randy has been working Sheriff patrol up in Tahoe. It has been storming a bit and he was used to driving over Donner summit. But this next storm is supposed to be so bad that the Caltrans workers won't be able to keep up with the snow removal. They close interstate 80 when that happens.

The storm is coming in hard the night before my surgery!

So, we had to make arrangements for our neighbors to help check on our house and our cats. It's going to be quite a storm at our property too and they are predicting several feet of snow.  We will be staying at a hotel up in Truckee and since we might not be able to get home afterwards, it might be a few days that we are stuck up there.

I've been scrambling to get things done around here to be ready.

I took my pictures and weighed in today since tomorrow we are leaving, and it will be a little hectic.

I weighed-in and I've lost 12 pounds since December:

That's my excel spreadsheet.

I was so mad that I had gained weight that I didn't enter it in the 1P App or take pictures. That was my birthday. Anyone remember that post?

It wasn't in my imagination that I saw more definition in the mirror!

More definition all around. That's all I wanted before the surgery, just a little bit of progress. I still need to keep going to fit into my regular clothes, but I know I can get there if I keep going in a healthy manner and don't give up!

I thought I was doing it right in January, but I had gained a bit, so I had to regroup. I lowered my TDEE goal from 1500 to 1400 since I am older now and that's how it is. I have to eat UNDER 1400 on a consistent basis to lose body fat. I can't go over 1400 very often, those peaks will take away all progress very quickly.  I need a few 1000-1200 calorie days. Now, that would be too low for many people, but I'm a short, small lady, it's always been that way. That's what I had to eat for short periods of time back in the day when I needed to first lose weight, and when I did my various fitness competitions and photo shoot competitions. Nothing has changed, except I'm older, it's harder, and my TDEE has gone down a little so there isn't as much margin between my deficit and TDEE. 

I also had to change my diet to eat foods that were easier to measure, so that my actual calories eaten matched my logging, and my logging was accurate. It's hard to be accurate when you can't actually measure out the food and you are spending too much time guessing. It's especially hard if you are eating a lot of high fat proteins and including too many fats, nuts, etc. Fats are 9 calories per gram, where carbs and protein are only 4 calories per gram. It doesn't take much excess fat to add too many calories to your intake.

I've been writing about my journey at least once a week and I've written about what needs to be done if you are not making progress and you want to.

You have to want it bad enough to change some things in your nutrition that are hard.

It must be a deficit to lose body fat.

If you are not losing after 6 weeks, it's NOT A DEFICIT.

It doesn't matter what you think you were eating or how accurate you think you were! If it's not a deficit, you will not lose body fat. End of story.

If you think it's muscle vs. fat, then get a DEXA scan so that you know.

Your body tells you the truth. The scale is accurate as a trend. Yes, I know there are issues with water weight and such things, but most of us know by now when is a good time to weigh-in. Be consistent with what time you weigh-in, what you are wearing, and what you have been eating and drinking. You KNOW WHAT TO DO ALREADY. 

Don't give up just because it's not working. Regroup. Think it through. Solve the problem. It's pretty simple but it's very hard.

I had to get myself to adjust to less calories and I need to keep that roll going, within reason. I'm staying right exactly at my TDEE this week because of surgery on Friday. I have to eat enough to recover properly afterwards as well. I've been eating healthy carbs (high fiber) and getting in my protein and just enough healthy fats. That's important all the time, but especially for my surgery and recovery.

The 1st Phorm App makes it easy to record a video in the App now to submit with your pictures during the challenge. I made a little video with my submission:

Onward!

Mina you are doing it too, without the App this time but you got the tools, and you know what to do! We can even just add up the calories per the packages on a piece of paper like the old days, and then write down our meal plans. Keep it simple.

Let's keep fighting the good fight!

Roberta

Never Settle

Never Give Up

Live Your Dream (your destiny!)