A little over a year ago I posted about a new plan I had come up with. So far I've lost around 50 lbs and for the first year of it I tried to keep a log of my progress. The basic idea was to use a physical currency of some kind to incentivize eating better and exercise while also limiting my bad habits by putting a cost to them. I ended up with 3 bowls and a mixture of white and red (equal to 5 white beads) plastic gems/beads as my currency.
The main thing I think this process has shown me is how important it is to customize a diet to yourself. What I did probably won't work for most people, but it has been right for me and my specific life.
Bead Counting Start Date 2/18/2023
Goals
- Setting a new base line without feeling like I'm on a diet
- Build in failure states as part of the plan (a bad day just means I over spend on my beads)
- Focus on changing habits more than losing weight
- Less late night food
- More consistent exercise
- More healthy options for meals
Rules for earning beads
- 15 minutes exercise = 1 bead
- Large scale 30min+ chore = 1 bead
- Salad (or equivalent healthy meal) for lunch or dinner = 1 bead
Rules for spending beads
- after dinner snacks (not including fresh fruit) = 1 bead/serving
- after dinner fresh fruit = 0 bead
Weight Measurements
- Start weight 335
- 3/18 weight 327
- 4/18 weight 323
- 5/27 weight 319
- 7/18 weight 314
Observations
- Phase 1 went really well and I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything. My appetite went down and eventually my dessert servings went from 3 or 2 at a time to 2 or 1 at a time.
- Dessert's were almost always ice cream. It's one of the least healthy options, but also a favorite and really easy to measure out accurate servings using a food scale.
- Toppings on the ice cream were harder to measure so I ended up eyeballing it. Probably went over a serving most the time, but not excessively so.
- Since one of the main goals here was to not have this feel like a diet I was pretty loose on the measurements. A serving of ice cream is 95 grams, but if I put 100 grams in the bowl I was letting it slide.
- I actively tried to not store up huge amounts of beads for this phase. I wanted this to not feel like a diet so it was important to just try and just set the baseline that I would work off of in the future.
Phase 2 starts 7/18/2023
Goals
- Have larger goals to target to keep my mind away from the long term weight goals that can be less motivating.
Rules for earning beads
- 15+ minutes exercise = 1 bead
- Large scale 60min+ chore = 1 bead
- Salad (or equivalent healthy meal) for lunch or dinner = 1 bead
Rules for spending beads
- after dinner snacks (not including fresh fruit) = 1 bead/serving
- after dinner fresh fruit = 0 bead
- $100 to spend on liquor/weed/gambling = 25 beads
Weight Measurements
- Phase 2 Start weight 314
- 7/28 weight 308 - hit 25 beads
- 8/11 weight 303 - hit 25 beads
- 8/28 weight 299 - hit 25 beads
- 9/15 weight 295 - hit 25 beads
- 11/10 weight 289 - hit 25 beads
- 1/4 weight 295 - after holidays
- 1/18 weight 291 - hit 25 beads
Observations
- I ended up adding a third bowl to work as a kind of savings account so that it was easier to keep track of my current day. Every evening before bed I move the beads from the current day to the savings bowl. I also added red beads that count for 5 of the other beads.
- Weight loss slowed down a huge amount, but there was no rebound weight gain and I had no real desire to stop this diet structure.
- I have got on a pattern of salads for lunch every day of the week and for dinner Mon-Thur. Fri-Sun I have a larger dinner and ice cream in the evening.
- I find myself looking forward to those Friday dinners a bit more and putting a bit more effort into them.
- I'm still having ice cream once or twice during the week, but I try to keep it to smaller portions.
- I've maintained my exercise each day.
Current Phase
I've stopped recording my weights, but I'm currently down to 284 pounds. I had a vacation in March where I didn't exercise or limit my meals in any way and ended up gaining 6 pounds.
Recently I bought a vr headset and that has given me an excuse for additional exercise each day. Before that all I was doing was using a stationary bike, so the variety has been very helpful.
I only eat ice cream Fri-Sun now and my stomach is noticeably smaller. I get fuller easier and if I eat the amount I was eating before I start to feel really bloated and get sick to my stomach.
The last month or so I've ended up losing .5-1 pound per week. The great news is that this still doesn't really feel like a diet.
[link] [comments]
from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/mQZs7nV
No comments:
Post a Comment