COUNTING CALORIES & ATTEMPTING YOGA

I’ve lost 3.4 pounds (1.54 kg) since my last journal entry, two weeks ago! That’s not as drastic as the loss I experienced during the first two weeks, but I have hit a plateau in my weight loss. More on that toward the end of this journal.

I’m still doing well and happy to be losing weight. Right now, I’m probably at the weight I was 6 years ago. So, that’s fantastic! I have a long way to go, but I’m getting there.

This time, I thought I’d talk about my experience with counting calories, what I’m eating these days, and my single attempt at yoga.

Counting Calories

With smaller, more frequent meals and snacks, I notice being hungry more often. I’ll be sitting, completely satisfied, when I suddenly feel hunger rumblings. Not painful or starving, by any means, but I am aware that I need to eat something during those times.

It makes sense now that I’m not eating giant lunches and dinners any longer, but it is an adjustment and still surprises me sometimes when I’m suddenly hungry.

Despite that, I’ve gotten into a pretty good routine and I’m usually satisfied with the number of calories I eat per day.

Some days, I do struggle with not going over my caloric intake, especially when I decide that I’m going to want a tasty treat that day. I have a friend who always makes fun of me when I say tasty treat (yes, I actually say it out loud), so now I find it funny.

By tasty treat, I’m referring to something less than healthy and higher in calories, such as cereal or another processed sugar snack.

I know I should avoid those altogether and they’re terrible for me, no matter how many calories I eat!

Well, you know what? I have the sweet tooth of a 5 year-old and sometimes I need something more than fruit or yogurt to satisfy my sweet craving. OKAY?!? Okay!

I adore ice cream. We'd be married by now if it was socially acceptable. But I haven’t had any since counting calories. It’s just too much to justify. There has been a package of Heath Klondike bars in my freezer for two months that are at serious risk of freezer burn, but I’ve somehow avoided eating them. Generally, I buy normal ice cream, but the Klondike sounded really good back when I bought them.

I’m proud of myself for not eating foods with extremely high sugar and calories. I’m able to exhibit self-control because fitting it into my daily calorie budget becomes too difficult and stressful, so I convince myself not to eat it.

Hey, whatever works, right?

Honestly, the longer I do this, the easier it is to eat healthy alternatives. I expected it to much more difficult.

What Do I Eat?

Several people have asked me what types of food I eat nowadays.

For dinner, I generally eat chicken. That’s the only type of meat I have eaten since beginning this journey.

A serving of chicken is 4 ounces. I don’t have a scale, so I generally have to estimate when things are measured by weight. My solution to chicken is dividing the weight of the package of chicken by the number of breasts in it. It’s not rocket science, but it provides me with a pretty accurate count.

Most of the chicken breasts I buy are approximately 10.5 ounces each. I usually cook the whole breast and divide it in two, then eat the other half the following night. It’s a bit over a serving size, but it’s impossible to portion it out any better than that without a scale. All in all, my chicken portion (not including cooking oil or marinade, when used) is 245 calories.

I’m still not over how high that seems to me for such a small amount, but it is what it is!

My dinners vary quite a bit, from teriyaki chicken, Greek marinated chicken, Mexican seasoned chicken, etc. With it, I’ll usually have a vegetable, salad, roasted zucchini, steamed broccoli, sautéed onions & bell peppers, sautéed bok choy, raw veggies, etc., and a starch such as a serving or rice or roasted gold potatoes.

It changes based on my taste or how many calories I calculate something will be.

For snacks, I am OBSESSED with tzatziki and bruschetta. Before you become angry, hear me out.

Tzatziki is basically just plain Greek yogurt and cucumbers. Both are great snacks and extremely healthy. The worst part of the tzatziki is a small amount of olive oil, but it is still an extremely low calorie item. I usually eat it with a slice of toast, carrots, raw cucumbers, or as a salad dressing. The possibilities are endless and it is amazing!

Compared to other salad dressing, nothing beats tzatziki with relation to calories. ¼ cup is 46 calories. That may seem a little high, but store bought balsamic vinaigrette is 120 calories for the same amount, Italian dressing is 160 calories, bleu cheese dressing is 320 calories, or homemade ranch dressing I used to make is 220 calories. No contest!

As someone of Italian descent, I also have to add a note about the bruschetta. Technically, what I make isn’t bruschetta. Mine involves a mixture of chopped tomatoes, basil, and garlic. That’s part of it, but true bruschetta is much more. You need to toast thick slices of fresh Italian bread, rub garlic on the bread, and drizzle olive oil. Then you add your mixture, which in some parts of Italy don’t include tomatoes. I generally eat mine with a plain slice of sourdough or whole grain toast, or with avocado.

Other than those things, I basically snack on what I have. Part of an avocado plain or spread on toast, raw vegetables, or fruit. Some fruits I eat are red grapes, oranges, strawberries, or apples. I always want watermelon, but the ones at my local grocery store are usually covered in fruit flies and that disgusts me away from that section.

Sometimes, I’ll even have a cup of milk between meals to hold me over.

Attempting Yoga

In my effort to be healthier and increase my level of fitness, flexibility, and cardiovascular health, I decided one day that I would try out yoga. I downloaded a free phone app that includes yoga positions for beginners.

“Perfect!” I thought.

I know yoga can cause injuries if done incorrectly, and there are some insane moves that I wouldn’t even dream of trying in my current state. So I figured a beginner’s guide ought to be perfect.

I was wrong. Dead wrong.

I did one activity and I was in so much pain, mainly in my back and neck.

The majority of the “lesson” involved sitting crisscross applesauce. I think that was the biggest problem. I don’t like sitting crisscross applesauce because Kris Kross makes me want to jump jump.

I’m sorry, that was terrible!

Anyway, I’m not sure if it was the twisting while sitting in that position or the fact that my neck and back are not accustomed to those moves, but I hated it. I may try again later on but I needed to take a couple of days to recover.

I will say, I’m not THAT out of shape fitness-wise. I’ve just never done any type of yoga and wasn’t prepared for it. Now I know what to expect.

Daily Breakdown of Weight and Caloric Intake

Date	Pounds	Kilograms	Caloric Intake
10 July 2016	216.8 lb	98.34 kg	1324 calories
11 July 2016	216.9 lb	98.38 kg	1265 calories
12 July 2016	215.7 lb	97.84 kg	1282 calories
13 July 2016	215.6 lb	97.79 kg	1394 calories
14 July 2016	215.6 lb	97.79 kg	1205 calories
15 July 2016	215.3 lb	97.66 kg	925 calories
16 July 2016	214.4 lb	97.25 kg	1590 calories
17 July 2016	213.7 lb	96.93 kg	1333 calories
18 July 2016	213.4 lb	96.80 kg	1320 calories
19 July 2016	213.3 lb	96.75 kg	1348 calories
20 July 2016	213.5 lb	96.84 kg	1230 calories
21 July 2016	212.9 lb	96.57 kg	1275 calories
22 July 2016	212.9 lb	96.57 kg	1407 calories
23 July 2016	212.9 lb	96.57 kg	1159 calories
24 July 2016	213.4 lb	96.80 kg	---

Notes about the 15th and 23rd:

I wasn’t feeling well on the 15th, so I wasn’t up to eating much and ended up going to bed early. The next day, I was wide awake before 4:00am. I ate more calories before 11am than I did the entire previous day. So. . . yeah. Not recommended, but I was hungry.

On the 23rd, I was more focused on a health problem I have been having (not diet related) that I’ve been freaked out about, and I wasn’t up to eating a snack after dinner like I usually try to do.

Plateau

It seems that I’ve hit a bit of a plateau with my weight loss. I haven’t lost anything in one week. The accepted definition of a plateau is no weight loss for two to three weeks, but I’m going with one in this case.

This is completely normal, and can occur several times during a person’s weight loss journey. Your body adapts to the changes in your diet and metabolism can slow. Despite it being a regularly documented occurrence, it’s not any less disheartening.

I add up every single calorie and carefully measure everything I eat. When doing so results in no change whatsoever, it is a bit upsetting.

It can be easy to give up, but obviously I’m not going to do that. I’ll continue to do what I have been doing and hopefully overcome this plateau.

Have I started doing anything differently recently?

As a matter of fact, I have!

Until I began restricting my caloric intake, I NEVER ate breakfast. But I forced myself to start eating something small every morning shortly after I woke up.

My sleep schedule has changed a bit over the last week or so (not that I’ve ever slept regularly), and I stopped eating breakfast. That usually results in my eating a larger lunch than normal, which in turn makes me full until closer to dinner, where I overeat again.

The calorie intake is the same, but I’m not eating multiple small meals/snacks that I have done since beginning this diet. Today, I started doing so again. I’m hoping that the result of the plateau was due to not being able to digest my food as adequately.

I have also noticed more muscle than before, but I seriously doubt I have gained more muscle than I have lost fat. That would be awesome, but I’m not that muscular.

Also, I have been out of tzatziki for over a week. Hmmmm. . . .

As much as I would love it if eating tzatziki daily causes weight loss, it’s highly unlikely. Greek yogurt and cucumbers are great for health, but it makes no sense that cutting those out of a diet would change weight loss patterns, unless I was substituting it with something higher in fat/calories, which I haven’t.

I made more tzatziki today, but not because I think it will help get me over this hurdle. Rather, I just miss eating it!

Realistically, spacing out meals should help me get back on track and I’m hoping to be over this stall before my next health journal entry.

Conclusion

Thanks for following along! I hope that you are all well and inspired.

I think I was incorrect last week. I assumed that would be the only lengthy health journal, but this is just as long. I'm sorry about that!

I'll see you in two weeks!