It's NOT a New Year's Resolution! Really!

The end of 2012 rolled around and I stood on the scale at 205 lbs, and for the third time in the last year I said to myself, "you've really got to loose that weight again!" The two previous times I made the mental effort, and once the physical effort to loose, even dropping to 192 lbs by July 2012. But there were two self-induced problems. 1) I didn't use my spreadsheet because I figured I could track my caloric intake in my head. 2) My attitude wasn't in the right place.

This time though, I decided to go back to the hacker's diet whole hog. After all, it worked once, to the tune of 40 lbs in six months. So I dug up the spreadsheet from 2006, cleared out the data and started from January 1, 2013 to track my weight and calories. I decided to go back below 180 lbs as a goal and the timeline was conveniently provided by my daughter, who is coming to visit from Germany the end of March. So I resolved to be at or below 180 lbs by end of March this year. (But I swear I don't do New Year's resolutions, it just happens my timing sucks!)

As far as the hacker spreadsheet tracking goes, my approach differs from the hacker's diet by my adding calorie tracking to the weight tracking. He recommended only tracking weight and using the smoothed line of weighted average as a guideline to indicate whether to consume more or fewer calories. However, I decided that I honestly didn't know how many calories were in what I ate. So I created a calorie tracking sheet and chart to go along with the weight sheet and chart. Once I started weighing food and calculating calories for what I actually ate, I discovered that it is very easy to eat too many calories. Once I learned how little food is required for weight loss or maintenance, I concluded that our obesity epidemic is strictly a function of far too much food availability and consumption.

I grew up in a family of 6 where food wasn't always available in big quantities and "clean your plate" was the norm. But what's on one's plate in a restaurant these days is sufficient to feed at least two people and if I followed the "clean your plate" rule at every restaurant, I'd be obese too. I find I still have to fight the "clean my plate" mentality at restaurants and at home. But at home, I solve the issue by not loading my plate with more than what is required for that meal on that day.

So with the spreadsheet activated, AND loaded on the google cloud so I can access it anywhere I have a networked computer, I started again to track weight and calories, with the goal to maintain my calories, on average, below 1800 calories per day. With that level of consumption and with the exercise I get naturally, I should loose around the recommended 2 lbs per week. And so far that's where I've been tracking as shown in the chart below:

Red line indicates weighted average
Blue dots are the daily weights

The first time I used this method, I didn't exercise for about two months into the weight loss regimen. But after two months of weight loss, I started feeling pretty darned good and I developed a desire to exercise. So I started going to the work training facility and working out on the elliptical machines. However, I am just not comfortable working out in these places and it wasn't long before I stopped going. Instead, I started walking in my neighborhood at a brisk pace. I have been walking ever since, and now, with our chocolate lab, Penny, I walk every day except strong rain. I have more tricks up my sleeve when it comes to exercise and I'll discuss those and my discovery of the Kettlebell as an additional exercise source in the next post.