Fat Loss Diary — Day 2
I stepped on to the scales this morning with contradictory expectations. Part of me didn’t expect to have lost any weight. It told me I was stupid to expect weight loss in twenty four hours, especially as I’d messed up my diet yesterday. Yes, I messed up on day one, details later. Another part of me silently suggested that I should step on the scale every day because I must monitor my progress. Because I need data to guide me. If I’m not losing weight, I know I need to eat less. If I am losing weight, I can congratulate myself and feel easily motivated to carry on.
So what happened? Yesterday I had my first meal replacement drink at 7am, it contained 200 calories. I don’t know how many calories I was having for breakfast before yesterday, it was usually a bowl of granola with tropical fruits and full fat milk. Probably 400 calories. I could be way off, I’m guessing. It’s not an entirely uneducated guess, but calories can be surprising. On some days I’d have two slices of toast with butter, one with jam as well, and a boiled egg. My guess is that was about 600 calories.
I’m still using full fat milk in my milkshakes because according to the book Food for Life, full fat milk contains all of the beneficial nutrients to be found in milk. They are removed by skimming. There is not a lot of fat in milk to start with, so cutting it in half, or removing it altogether has a negligible impact on calorie consumption, whilst also making the drink itself less nutritious. My current position on fat is that it is safe to eat when it occurs naturally, as it does in milk. Fat’s current position on me is everywhere, especially around my waist and pon my back. I have a fat back. When I start losing fat, my back almost immediately becomes more defined.
I found it hard to stay awake in the morning. But that wasn’t due to a desperate need for more calories. I’d had less than six hours of sleep. I need six hours really. Last night I got about five and a half. I woke up a few minutes before my alarm went off this morning. It was set for 6 am. I put my head on my pillow last night at ten minutes past midnight. Today I anticipate a bit of a challenge staying awake in the office. But consuming less calories does seem to help me focus. I have no idea why that is. Eating less seems to unclutter the mind and make it easier to concentrate. Sleep is important though. Not sleeping enough can make losing weight harder. It makes everything harder.
I had my second milkshake yesterday at 3pm, eight hours after the first one. I didn’t feel terribly hungry, and that was a surprise. The first time I tried this diet a couple of years ago, I was so hungry on the firs day that I didn’t think I was going to make it through. But on the second day, I didn’t even feel hungry. I had planned to have a second milkshake at lunchtime, then had to remind myself at 2pm. People can adjust to having less food very quickly.
I came up with a good line on the weekend when I was thining about something entirely unrelated to dieting. It’s never too late to start, it’s always too early to quit. That applies to losing weight as well. I could get really fat, I could be really old, I could have missed the summer and I could use them all as excuses to get out of losing weight. But actually you can start whenever and wherever you are. I know some people who, in my opinion, desperately need to lose weight, for the sake of their health. It’s not too late for them to start. For me, they are a warning of what I could become if I’m not careful about what I eat and drink. And it’s always too early to quit. You have to keep going to hit your targets. It’s always tempting to pack it in. Don’t do it. Prioritise what you want most over what you want now. Prioritise your health, or seeing your abdominals again, or getting into a certain piece of clothing, or whatever it is, over eating that delicious morsel of food. Probably junk food.
Getting back to yesterday. I had two milkshakes and in the evening I had a meal. It was quite a large meal. A rump steak, a boiled egg and some pasta. It was delicious. I thought I’d blown it. What would blowing it look like? Not losing any weight or even worse, gaining weight. I had that meal at 7pm.
I had intended to go to the gym. That didn’t happen. I started cleaning the oven at 9:30pm thinking it would take about an hour, and I could go to the gym at 11pm. Cleaning the oven took over two hours and in light of my narcoleptic morning, I figured I’d better get to bed.
Today’s diet plan is a deviation. I’m just going to have a bowl of granola then eat nothing until my evening meal. It’s only day two. I’ve fallen off the wagon, but I’m on another one that’s going in the same direction. In effect today will be a twelve hour fast. Success will depend on the size of my evening meal. On the days I work from home, I’ll stick to the milkshakes. I’ll assess this when I step on the scales tomorrow morning.
I’ve been typing for long enough now. Thanks for reading.
