Creeping back to Unfit

So where am I today? After successfully dropping to my goal of 180lbs (at one point down to 178) I slacked off but vaguely paid attention. I now knew that the primary fact is that if I consumed more calories than I burned, I gained weight. Over time I began to slack off in paying real close attention and over the course of 2008 through 2012 my weight crept very slowly up. By the end of last year (and the ever present holiday food indulgences) my weight topped out at 205 lbs.

What are the consequences of this? The 220lb to 180lb drop in weight coincided with a cholesterol drop from 210 to 160. My Triglycerides dropped from 240 to 130. I walked vigorously nearly every day and felt fantastic. I still walk every day, but one thing I learned from The Hacker's Diet is that exercise can not make up for excess calories. A pair of cookies can negate a 30 minute walk calorie for calorie. The simple fact is I must change how I eat if I want to loose and maintain weight. This past fall, at 200 lbs, my cholesterol was 198 and my triglycerides 190. I was a bit shocked because I didn't feel that weight gain would make that much difference in my lipids, but it did!

Interestingly, from a quality standpoint, I eat well. My wife and I are excellent cooks but we eat her cooking most of the time due to my engineering work schedule. (We seldom eat out to the point I have to beg to eat out!) We've always "shopped the perimeter" of grocery stores, eating meats and fresh or frozen (or occasionally canned) vegetables.  The primary exception is both of us bake a bit. She bakes German cakes and pastries (which are not as cloyingly sweet as American baked treats) and I bake German-style rye bread. (Roggenmischbrot). The bread I bake is eaten with various cheeses and wursts. Therefore, any problem I have with diet is a quantity issue, not quality issue. And it is lack of self control in serving portions that invariably results in eventual weight gain. I love to eat Inge's delicious cooking and it is painfully hard to resist coming back for seconds on Schweinebraten, Sauerbraten, Erdbeerkucken (strawberry cake), etc. So the love of great food and double-dealing portions resulted in the creep back to 205. But the creeping gain is insidious! 25 lbs gained in 4 years amounts to just over half a pound a month.

At the beginning of 2013 I decided that it was time to return to 180 and below. Today I stand at 192 and I'll discuss how I got there next.