💪✨👽Time to make some adjustments - new rules ✔⚡🌈

241. Lost 1 lb this week, making 56 lbs lost overall.

The last couple weeks has been interesting. I have been feeling crappy and only went to the gym 3 times two weeks ago and only 2 days this past week. But, in spite of that, I have still managed to stay on my nutritional and weight goals for the most part. A little disappointing to only see 1 lb lost. But that is not a setback. I have to keep reminding myself that progress is still progress. 

Part of why I was feeling so shitty though was that I think I hit a limit in terms of my exercise regimen. I was pushing myself too hard and I crashed a little bit. I have had to admit that what I was doing was not sustainable in the long term. I kept raising the bar all the time. Instead of just letting something be a hard push, I allowed it to be the new benchmark and it ultimately did not work.

The interesting part is that I continued to have success and see results even when I fell off the wagon for a little bit. I also have to forgive myself -- I didn't just quit, I was not feeling well and I had to take some time to rest, like completely rest. And, I managed to do that without wrecking my plan or backtracking in terms of my weight. I did gain a little bit but I dropped it all again, and still hit a new lowest weight. 

At any rate, it's time to reevaluate my rules. 

RULE 1: THE GYM

I never officially made a rule about going to the gym 5x/wk, and I am going to reiterate to myself that the actual RULE is: 3x/wk and if I only go 3 times, I am hitting the mark 100%. I will continue to aim for 5x/wk, but that is bonus points, not the goal post. 

I also need to start getting to the gym earlier. Just a few minutes, so I'm not so crushed for time trying to get to work. I find I need overall about an hour and 15 min on weight lifting days, and just under an hour on cardio-only days. So on M-W-F, I really should be getting to the gym by 6. So....... *drags feet*........ I really should be out of bed by 5 on those mornings. I know it's only a few minutes difference and it's not like I actually get any meaningful rest in those 10 minutes. Gotta commit to this again. 

RULE 2: THE HOME TREADMILL

I want to adjust my home treadmill schedule a little. I find the 45-60 min sessions in the evening are a huge drain on my personal time. I feel resentful towards that time drain, but also still compelled to do it for my health. I think I am going to dial it back to 30 minutes, which is a much neater package in terms of fitting it in without it becoming the main event. But in exchange for the lower time commitment, I am going to raise the bar to 6x/wk. Probably Friday will be the off-night, as that is also during my weekly 24-hour fast (noon Fri - noon Sat.) 

RULE 3: MY DIET IS GETTING BORING

I am really pleased with my dietary fitness for the most part. I can say confidently that my nutritional profile is about 80-90% whole foods only, and 50% of my calories or more come from fruits & vegetables. The only processed food I eat in any quantity is dairy -- mostly Greek yogurt and cottage cheese, and feta or bleu cheese crumbles. I still occasionally eat a little bit of white pasta, it's a go-to comfort food that I will probably never give up. And I will still eat an English muffin once in a while, and if I have some bread or something once in a while I don't beat myself up over it. Oh yeah, and granola -- but I buy the Kashi Go Lean Flax blend organic granola, so minimal processing and made with whole ingredients. And I don't eat much of it; a 14 oz. box lasts me 2 weeks. I take it to work with my fruit & yogurt for breakfast about every other day and I eat it by the handful out of the box when I need a snack. 

However, my diet is getting a little boring. I need to change up some of my recipes. I also need to think a little about two things: a) changing the taste profile on my standard meals, and b) increasing the variety of what I eat. I had to just go nose-to-the-grindstone at first, eat the same thing every day, track every calorie, every macro, really get it ironed in. But now, I can see my way a lot more clearly, and since I have totally reset my nutritional profile, healthy eating and positive choices come easy to me. I can experiment a little. 

Which brings me to another topic.... Weight Watchers.

I really love WW. It was what made all of this possible. Without WW, I would never have been able to start losing weight which was what facilitated everything else. Their system is really good, and it is especially good if you don't have any fucking clue what to do or where to start. If you work their system and follow the rules, it works -- and, it works by helping you facilitate a lifestyle change, not just by being a "diet." WW is not a diet. 

That said, I am thinking about quitting WW. For some time now, my go-to tracking app has been MyFitnessPal. And I don't go to WW meetings, nor do I participate in any of the social networking or online content, I don't even read the articles in the app. I just use the app. And for that, I am paying $20/mo. It was worth it for me at the beginning when I needed my hand held. But now, I really don't feel like I need it any more. I've been thinking about this for a couple months now. And, as I have been steadily transitioning my tracking to MyFitnessPal, I find I am only going to the WW app as a cursory thing, like "Oh yeah, go track my WW stuff." Like, I use it because I'm paying for it, not the other way around. 

I think I just talked myself into it. I do worry that I will have some kind of backslide if I leave WW. But, I also know that is not true. And I could join again if I all of a sudden started falling behind my goals. It's not "quitting." It's adapting, and getting $20 back in the budget. I am very grateful to WW for being the catalyst for my weight loss and fitness goals. It is not about WW. Is that weird that I feel loyalty to WW like it is a person? Like I have to apologize for leaving. LOL 

My Mindful

Eat mindfully.

Truthfully, I long believed this was total bullshit. "I've always been a fast eater, I always will be," was my mantra. I told myself that lie so many times I actually believed it. So, lately I have been trying to eat "mindfully" and it really does help me feel more satisfied with my meals, and to eat less overall.

Here is a true, science-based fact: it takes at least 15 minutes, sometimes as much as 30 minutes, for you to feel how full your stomach is from the last bite you eat.

Eating slower, and stopping eating for short periods during the meal help you to enjoy your food more and help you feel full from your meals. This is something I still have to consciously work on, but it does work if you work at it. Here's how I do it:

The very first rule I ever tried out was putting my fork down between bites. I have the rule that once I start to chew, the fork goes on the plate, completely out of my hand. I am still working on this goal. I am pretty good at it when I am at home, but I am still missing the mark at work. Oddly enough, I eat with other people at work, you'd think it would be the other way around, but it's not.

The second rule I tried on was having a sip of water between bites. I don't use it as a hard and fast rule right now, but I might make it one soon.

Once these things started producing results for me, I started listening to the ambient advice out there about "eating mindfully." One of the things I did believe all along was that you should make meals an important event. The idea behind eating mindfully is that you should focus on the meal and it's importance to you, and make meal time an event that has meaning -- not just sit in front of the TV and shovel down a bowl full of garbage.

I'm gonna put this right out there, and I don't give one fuck who thinks it's wrong, it is right for me: I watch TV while I eat dinner.

But, I do have some rules. First of all, I don't have broadcast TV, I have Hulu, Netflix, and Internet sources like YouTube and others, including Curiosity Stream which is an educational / documentary streaming service. I watch TV when I work out at home, too (I watch TV at the gym too...) but I have a rule for that as well: I only watch educational TV while I work out, no fiction or news. So my eating rule about TV is this: I only watch for-pleasure programming while I eat, so the opposite of the workout rule. BUT, no news. Part of My Mindful is that I create my own insular world where I am free and comfortable, which means no news, no perpetual outrage cycle creeping into my subconscious.

I also set up my environment for meal time. I light candles and put on incense and have a show queued up to start when I sit down to the meal. I make sure my chores for the day are done so that meal time is the runway into the rest of my evening. I also make sure to drink a big glass of water at least 15 minutes before I eat. And I normally smoke a nice fat bowl -- note, smoking weed does not give me the munchies, but it definitely enhances my enjoyment of food, and helps me relax and get into the "mindful mood."

I know to a person who does not have a fucked up relationship with food, it should go without saying that you also need to chew your food. But for me, chewing my food is important. Part of how I can be such a fast eater is that I only chew my food a couple times before I swallow it. That is also a function of binge eating -- the only way you can consume huge amounts of food is quickly. I've had a 10,000 calorie binge before. You don't cram that much food down your throat by chewing it too long. So part of My Mindful is that I focus on chewing, as well as tasting the food while I am chewing it.

So, set the scene. Make sure you're hydrated. Put the fork down between bites, chew the food completely before swallowing it, and drink water between bites. And watch something on TV that is for pleasure only.