I hesitate to use the word diet or even weight-loss-plan, because I've used those phrases in such unhealthy formats before in my life. But the truth is, I am aiming to lose weight by eating healthy and working out. I believe that for the rest of my life I'll be eating healthy and working out, but doing it with the intention to lose weight looks a little different. So here are the main things that I'm doing.
- Making a calorie deficit. I'm pretty convinced that no matter what "plan" you're on, you have to make a deficit so that your body uses more calories than it consumes. To maintain my current weight with a lightly active lifestyle, I'd need to eat around 2200 calories/day. So I make a deficit by eating less and working out more. My daily calorie goal right now is a sliding range from around 1200-1600 calories a day. This puts me on a goal of losing 1-2 pounds per week. On day when I can't I absolutely can't work out, I stick to around 1200, but most days I hit 1400ish.
*sidebar: for calorie counting, I literally do all the counting. No estimations. I keep a handy little notebook with me at all times.
- Vigorous exercise. I think, I hope, for the rest of my life - exercise will be important. I mean, it's just silly to even list all the benefits - but I'm sure it's here to stay. Specifically yoga. I could literally do an hour of yoga every day for the rest of my life and be happy. However, to lose weight I'm bumping it up to vigorous exercise. Not just for my calorie deficit, but for metabolism. I know that with my thyroid issues, I need that heavy, hard burn that comes from a vigorous workout to boost my metabolism. So even when I do yoga, I try to run that day as well. I would love nothing more than lifting light weights and sitting in cobra all day, but it just won't cut it weight-loss wise.
- General wellness work. There are some things that I'm doing now that I probably won't be so strict about in the future, if I'm not working to lose weight. Such as... getting at least seven hours of sleep. I'm a little bit of a nut about it, but I know when I get less - my cortisol raises (increasing belly fat), I can barely work out the next day, and I feel gross. I also don't drink coffee past noon most days. I abstain from that so that by the time I fall asleep, my hcg levels aren't still elevated and they can go to work on my fat cells, rather than getting stuck processing my coffee.
- Blood type diet. I've been following the blood type diet for two or so months and I'll continue to loosely follow it as long I'm actively trying to lose weight. For me (type O) this means no gluten or dairy (which I probably will NEVER add back in), no corn, cucumbers, and potatoes. Theres a slew of other things, but those are the heavy hitters. I'll never eat dairy again, but I'm not sure about gluten - I may slowly leak that back in.
So, now I think it's time to publicly state some weight loss goals. You know, "publicly", on my secret blog. There is no way I'll give you numbers, I'm no dumb-dumb - but here are the stats, basically.
(let's start with the good news)
- I'm 30 pounds down from post-Benja body.
- I'm 20 pounds down from May, which is when I went gluten/dairy free and starting counting calories.
- I passed one MASSIVE goal of getting back to what I was just after I had Elias.
- I have about thirteen pounds to go to get to my second MASSIVE goal, pre-all babies weight.
- And about twenty five pounds to go to get to wedding weight. So, sometime around the new year, I'd like to be hitting that goal.
In total, that will be about 55 pounds that I never want to see again. Ever.
Thank you very much.
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