During the week I plan my every bite, record every morsel of food that passes my lips, count protein grams and water ounces and control my carb intake. I eat on a schedule and if I go off plan it's only a small bite that fits well within my caloric target range. I follow the rules and work really hard to make smart choices.
For the past two weekends... and now this weekend too .... I've taken Saturday and Sunday off of my strict and regimented eating plan. I make sure I get my water and protein in, but after that, there are no rules. I don't overeat and I don't indulge in stuff that is too far off my eating rules (no cheesecake or deep fried slabs of meat). Moderation is key with these free weekends, I think.
My theory is that feeding my body exactly the same amount of calories every day (within 100-200) and eating at exactly the same time every day and not really having a lot of variety in the foods I eat .... it's causing my body to become too efficient and it isn't working hard enough to use up my stored fat as energy.
I've gone through my weight chart this afternoon. It's a handwritten chart that I keep in my WLS notebook. But today I entered it all into a spreadsheet so I could apply some formulas and really examine what's been going on.
Right now I'm in the midst of a plateau that has lasted 11 weeks. In the 6 weeks prior to that, I was also on a plateau. In the 7 weeks before that, another plateau. Between each of these 3 individual plateaus I've lost a total of 8 pounds - with a loss between stalls of about 2.5 to 3 pounds.
While on this current plateau I've played around with the same 3 pounds. The scale jumps between 189 and 192. When I started this "free weekend" experiment the scale kind of stayed closer to the 192 range ... but now after a couple weeks of this experiment the scale seems to be hugging the 190 range.
So is the free weekend thing working? or is the 192 vs 190 number simply a natural progression of this particular stall? I don't know. All I know is that EVERYthing else I've tried has not worked. This whole thing might backfire on me and trigger a bad habit or two. But I feel that since I'm doing the free weekends in a very regimented way (is that an oxy moron?) - when the stall is over, I can go back to my typical meal planning routine and get back on the road to my goal weight.
Even though I'm free to choose my foods as I wish today -- I know that today's free day has been a bit heavy on the carb side and I'm short on protein. So I'll pick some delicious high-carb choices for dinner which is coming up right after I finish writing this. I've got a Turkey Mignon in the freezer that I know has 32g protein and with a side of steamed edamame, which has 14g protein, I'll meet my protein goals for the day.
I'll report back on how this experiment pans out. Hopefully it'll be what the body needs to kick this plateau to the curb.
~Pam
Phew... You are still alive =} I was beginning to wonder! I think the change of pace on the weekends is a good idea. I kind of do that already. It hasn't done much for me, but I'm sure your nonregimented regimine will be much better than my free wheeling weekends. I've had a very crappy food day. No one is here, and I'm in the baking mood... muffins, cookies, oh my!!! Good thing I've been Wii ing it up this week. We finally broke down last weekend and bought a Wii and Wii Fit. It has been kicking my butt! Take care... Kris
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