It's never too late

It's never too late to start again... at least that's what I keep telling myself.
At the end of the summer I realized I was very very close to tipping the scales at 200lbs. That scared me. I noticed a lack of energy, I couldn't stand for long periods of time without my feet hurting and exercise was getting harder and harder.

I started back with Calorie-Count on Aug 29th of this year, weighing in at 195.8lbs. I have weight myself every day since. Some people will say throw out the scale and you should only weight yourself once a week at most, but for me, it is a way to re-start my diet every day. If the scale goes up I know it could just be water weight, but I can think about what I ate and if I need to work a bit harder. If it went down I get almost instant satisfaction and will want to continue. One week at a time is too much to handle.

This go-around I'm pulling no punches. I have drastically changed my diet. No more simple carbohydrates for me, I haven't had bread in weeks. I upped my protein intake and found a great lactose free yogurt which I eat almost every day. I haven't had rice in quite a while either, my poor rice maker has sat unused for weeks.

I'm trying to only have a 'cheat' day once every 14-15 days. And even with the cheat day I don't want to go too wild. Usually I'll have more food then I usually do, or maybe a simple carbohydrate or two. For one of them I was missing the Mexican restaurant I had lived off of every day for several weeks. I would always order the Jalapenos Relleno but instead I went with a chicken burrito which has just rice beans and chicken instead of all the cheese and mole sauce. Another time I wasn't feeling well and ate chinese takeout. My splurge was the 5 or 6 spring rolls that I ate over the course of 2-3 days. I also had some white rice with my chicken and broccoli the first day but quickly realized it wasn't actually adding much, so I just ditched it.

As of now my calorie intake is hovering between 800-1000 most days, but I try to keep it under 1200. This seems very low and I've read that 1200 is the magic number you should eat every day, but if I eat most of my calories in vegetables, then this becomes very very difficult. I was able to get my stomach to shrink, so I can't actually eat many more calories. I've added protein powder to my diet, after a few days of fussing with it I think I can only add just under a scoop for my breakfast and then I have to get my remaining protein from other sources. I also have increased my fiber intake, which I must take with the protein powder as to not upset my stomach. In the last several days I have slowly been adding spirulina to my list of supplements. I do take my multivitamin every day.

After one month I weighted in at 185.8 a loss of 10 lbs which spurred me on to the next month where I clocked in at 177 a loss of 7.8lbs in that month to bring the total to 17.8lbs. Now I'm half way through the next month and weighing in at 170.8 which is a loss of 6.2lbs so far this month and a total of 25lbs.

I need to keep at it but I've noticed that my temper is shorter and I am having extreme hormonal fluctuation. I think this blog might turn into a bit of a way to let out some of my feelings while I go through this. I want to stay on the right track.
This post hasn't had much to say about food but I am discovering some wonderful things to do with the protein powder that I think I'll put in the next few posts.