Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Review of First Principles

I spent some time today re-reading this blog from the beginning. I really wanted to see if I could nail what's so different now from 5 years ago, that's putting me more into a weight-gain mode than a weight-loss mode. As in, maybe it isn't just stress and menopause; maybe I've changed some key bits of how I eat since then.

Bingo. Some observations:
  • Nearly the entire year of weight-loss was done on turkey bacon, not bacon bacon. Really.
  • I ate breakfast and dinner, but nothing between, when things were going well.
  • Much less cheese - at least to start with.
  • I didn't introduce heavy cream into the mix until about 4 months after starting.
  • If I wanted something sweet, I had ONE dark chocolate almond, not 4 or 5.
  • In general, it seems really to have been meat-and-leaves. A lot.
  • The High-Fat thing didn't show up until late in the game in general. I'm guessing I was low-fat, low-carb, sort of - and was definitely in calorie deficit for much of the time - the times I checked, I was consuming less than 1000 calories.
These days, I've been snacking a lot more. I don't eat "lunch" every day, but I have been eating "cheese" or "nuts". So I need to get that to dwindle a good bit. In the past week or so, I have reduced evening snacking, and will hope to keep that up. And the "much less cheese" thing will contribute to my reduction (to elimination) of dairy.

I know I can eat like that. I already have. It's just a return to the proper - cleaner - pattern. We need to clean out the freezer, anyway, so starting to return to meat-and-leaves at dinner should be a no-brainer. And I will reduce the level of blue cheese dressing I consume - once this batch is gone, I'll make a vinaigrette - probably balsamic - and just use blue cheese crumbles on the salad (or the meat). I don't know if I'll return to turkey bacon, though. But I might. Maybe.

Some other things I need to do - affirmative statements:
  • I do NOT eat sugar, flour, or processed carbs/starch
  • I do NOT eat junk food
  • I do NOT eat a lot of cheese
  • I do NOT snack
Probably need to have those tattooed on the back of my right hand or something.

Because what I've been seeing is different from that initial year. A lot of snacking, vice eating meals. Mindless food intake. Cheese on top of cheese on top of cheese - I didn't use to have those blocks of Cheddar that I cut up; that's been an introduction since that first year.

Okay. Going to let this stew a bit. I think it's time to revert for a while, with the intention that better eating will improve my stress reactions anyway.

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