Charting My Weight Loss

Hi,

I've been keeping a chart of my daily/weekly-average weight since about July of last year. I learned to do this from Dr. Richard and Dr Rachel Heller who are the authors of "The Carbohydrate Addict's Lifespan Program." I gleaned a lot of information from them but found their daily "reward meal" made it hard for me to stay on track.

After continuing to search and read I discovered that there are a lot of people, especially body builders, who do cheat meals where they load up on carbs -- but they rarely do it every day. So the science about the timing and the double insulin release was from the Heller's and the weekly cheat meal revving up the metabolism was from somewhere else. (Still have not found what, where, or who I was reading when I filed that one in my brain.)

Through trying it out I have discovered that what the Heller's teach about weighing every day and taking an average at the end of the week unplugging you from the fear of the scale is actually true. I no longer dread getting on the scale. I do it second thing every morning. First thing is to go to the bathroom. I simply write the number down and whether it has gone up or down it no longer puts me into a panic. A person's weight can vary quite a lot from one day to the next. The practice is now just routine for me. I write the number on my daily food journal page with no hesitation and simply make a mental note of whether it was up or down so I'm aware of my current status and know if I need to make adjustments.

Then at the end of the week I transfer the daily numbers to a chart I devised so that Excel calculates the average for me. It also tells me whether I went up or down this week (on average) and how much I've lost from my highest weight of 355.

I previously reported that I had lost five pounds last week, but when I plugged in the numbers the chart told me I had actually lost 7.02 pounds!! Then the day after my cheat meal I had put on two pounds, but today I went down three pounds for an average weight loss, so far this week, of .93. So I'm excited that the cheat meal weight came off the next day and that I'm still losing what appears to be rather quickly. Here's hoping for a continuation. Of course, it is still only week two, so the end of week three (and later weeks) will be the real test of how the cheat meal affects my weight loss. For now, it is looking good.

So far my total weight loss is about 30 pounds -- again. When you examine my chart below, you will see I had previously been putting weight on, but that has turned around and I'm losing again, now. Thank God!! The blanks are a couple of what I call "missing days" when I discovered that I did not weigh myself on those two days. Missing days are not a good sign, but if I were not making a daily record I would not have noticed that I even had any missing days. I don't fuss about them, I just take them as an indication of where I really am on my program. Keeping the chart allows me to refocus much more quickly.

You cannot argue with your own actual statistics!! And they really burst the balloon on magical thinking. I feel good about this system. It works for me and I advocate it for others if they really want to know how they are doing. Thank you to both Dr. Richard and Dr Rachel Heller for the good advice and instructions on how to do it.

One other thing I wanted to talk about is the difference between the program theory and actually doing the program that I outlined on this blog post: http://cureprediabetes.blogspot.com/2012/01/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none.html

For nearly all of my meals on the six-day portion of the program I eat exactly as is outlined. This means that I'm consuming varying percentages of raw veggies and cooked animal protein for nearly every meal and every snack. It is that word "nearly" that I want to delve into. Sometimes at the end of the day I am just not interested in more salad. Especially if it is within about two hours of when I normally go to bed. Sometimes for that last snack of the day I only eat a small portion of animal protein. It could be eggs, or a half a steak, or a thin breakfast pork chop seasoned the way I like it. This seems to satisfy my hunger without keeping me up all night. It also does not seem to interfere with my weight loss, so I just do that from time to time.

I start the day by making a huge salad which I store in the fridge. This means I don't have to stop and make a salad every time I want to eat. It is already made and waiting for me to fill my salad bowl. Every day I vary the lettuces to keep my body in balance. Some days I add broccoli and cauliflower to the salad. I might also add a few radishes or cucumber. Some times I put in some green or red pepper or some broccoli sprouts. Each time I make the salad I try to do a little something different than the day before.

After I have filled my salad bowl from the big bowl I sprinkle on the salt, pepper, herbs, and spices that add good flavor to my salad. I vary the herbs and garlic each time to give it a unique flavor each time. I also vary the salad dressings. I used to always make my own dressing from extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), vinegar, and prepared mustard. But since I re-read the Heller's book a while back, I've been trying out salad dressings according to their program. They recommend that it is OK to eat any salad dressing that does not have sugar in the first four ingredients. I've tried a couple but they are still too sweet for my taste buds. I hate wasting stuff so I usually end up adding some mustard and vinegar to bring the taste closer to what I like.

I buy my protein (cuts of beef or hamburger, chicken pieces, or skinny pork steaks or ribs) in the family packs and then separate them before freezing. I use the large size plastic zipper bags but I lay the portions in the four corners of the bag and then lay them flat in the freezer. Then when I want to take one or even two out, I open the zipper bag, remove what I need and place it, still frozen, on my Nu-Wave Oven. I sprinkle the flavors, set the timer, and it thaws and cooks them at the same time. Depending on the size of the portion it can take from about five minutes up to a near maximum of twenty minutes. It all depends on whether I'm cooking skinny breakfast pork chops or a rib eye steak. (I don't do rib eyes very often -- they are expensive -- but they are a nice treat once every other month or so.) I also go through at least a dozen eggs in a week -- and sometimes more. I have been known to use about four cans of tuna during a week, also. Sometimes more.

With the way the program is set up, I still feel like I'm eating what I want to eat. It suits my life style to decide when I'm hungry, what I want to eat at that moment. That is the way I was taught to do it as a child and I still operate that way. I'm not so good with "menu's" so I have my shopping list to remind me what I can buy and I stock up on the right foods. Then when I'm making my meal time choices I am choosing from the right ingredients. My meals are plain and simple, flavorful and effective at keeping blood sugars low and it is helping me to lose weight.... so far.

The charts keep me on track. Having the right food in the house keeps me on track. The decision not to eat food that I should not, keeps me on track. Here is to keeping on track! Hear! Hear!

This is a copy of my personal current chart:

Feel free to use the idea if you like.

You are loved and you are worthwhile!!

Be back soon,

Marcia