Never waste a calorie, the diary.

mrxian

mrxian

New member
Lectori Salutem.
(That's Latin for 'reader, be greeted.')

A new year warrants a new diary, and this time I'm gonna do it right.
I'm a Dutch guy who wants to lose lots of weight - when I started my diet I was probably over 140 kg, the exact amount is unknown due to the unreliable scales I used to weigh myself at the time. Right now I'm at 132.6(292 lbs), and I would love to get down to 95kg (209 lbs) or so. If those numbers seem high to you, remember that I'm 1.97 meters tall (six foot six). I'm not sure how long it will take to lose the weight - my initial goal was to lose about a kilo (two pounds) per week, but I've been losing slightly more. Not so much that I worry for my health, though, so it's all good.
My main method of weight loss is counting calories. I use a calorie counter app that a friend recommended me, and try to live as healthy as possible while doing it, so I eat generous amounts of vegetables and lots of food, try to drink enough water, and exercise regularly. I've been doing it for about seven weeks now, and it's going reasonably well. Some days I get this overwhelming urge to eat, but usually, I can suppress it (sometimes by eating an apple).
One of the main obstacles I have is my love of good food. I love cooking and eating nice foods, and sadly the vast majority of recipes out there are filled with sticks of butter, generous helpings of olive oil, sugar and other fattening products. I've been managing this, but sometimes it's really hard. The two main ways I use for managing it is adapting recipes so they use less of the high-calorie ingredients, and by having my dad over for dinner, so I can share the foods with my dad. If I only eat half, I only get half the calories, after all. I'm planning on starting to bake more as well, and I'll probably give most of what I make away - most of the fun of baking is having other people enjoy the foods, after all.
The title of my diary comes from one of Larry Niven's "laws." Larry Niven is a science fiction writer, and he wrote a number of laws about writing, specifically about writing science fiction. One of the laws sticks out for not being about writing at all, though, and that's 'never waste a calorie.' The concept of the law is that you should strive to enjoy the calories you eat as much as possible. So if you eat candy, make sure you eat delicious and good dessert, not some cheap pudding that barely qualifies as a dessert. I decided that I better live my life according to this rule.

Well, see you all here in the future!
 
Hi MrXian,

I am totally with you on making sure that my bad calories are quality foods :)

I love good food too, but naughty food better haha. I was on here a while ago, and I managed to basically save all my day time calories for dinner (Only had a small serving of porridge for brunch), so I could cook what I wanted. I used to do a different nations cuisine every week. It is possible to eat a variety of nice recipes and still lose weight.

I think your appetite will naturally decrease the further along your journey you get.

How much weight have you lost so far?
 
I've probably lost about 8kg (17 lbs) so far, but that's a rough estimate, I really don't know the weight I had when I started. For dieting for eight weeks, that's not bad at all, I think.

Yesterday was a good day for me. I stupidly skipped breakfast, then went to the gym and had a good workout (where I felt the skipped breakfast - I better not do that again). After the gym I had a nice lunch and half day at work, and when I got home I ate some soup. A few hours later I felt crazy tired so I went to bed nice and early, and woke up invigorated this morning.
I started my daily pushups regimen yesterday as well. It's slow going (my arms aren't that strong yet), but I'll get better. I also tacked on some situps, so I get a head start at building the six pack I'll eventually want to have.
Today, I have lots of things to clean in the pigsty I call my home, so I better get to it.
 
Hey Mrxian, well done for the last 8 weeks - sounds like a really positive start to loosing weight. I find that once the weight starts coming off, the motivation to stick with it and see more results comes too....

Not wasting calories is a great approach - I sometimes stop halfway through eating something to think "I don't really like this that much, why am I wasting calories eating it when I could use them on something else>?"..it makes me rethink what I am eating and whether its really worth it.
 
Oh noes, 133 kg.

It's never a lot of fun to weigh more than the previous time you weighed yourself, but I honestly can't worry about a variation that's less than half a percent of my weight, I'm pretty sure that's completely normal. Still, I'll work out extra hard today, and that pound will fly off before you know it. But first, there's my morning coffee.
Thanks for all the replies guys and lasses!
 
I've been keeping a note of my daily weight and it really fluctuates heaps, you've got to keep your eye on the trend I think. Although I find it hard not to get down when my weight goes up again.

I bet that pound will be gone really soon.
 
Hello fellow Dutchy
We are originally from holland moved to Australia

Good luck and I look forward to reading about your progress, I could never miss breakfast most important meal of the day :)
 
I agree, skipping breakfast is an idiot thing to do. But sometimes I do idiot things, I'm afraid.

Yesterday, my dad gave me a nifty Senseo machine to support me wanting to drink less coffee, and I'm liking it quite a bit. I just ate breakfast, and I think I should go do my first set of pushups, I wanna manage more than three in a row today, and do several sets. Of course, my cat is laying on my lap and won't let me get up, but I'll wrestle him off me.
I got a nice long hike planned for today, with a visit to the library halfway through it, so a slow day for exercise.
Well, have a good day everyone, see y'all tomorrow.
 
Thanks for visiting my diary.

You are doing great with your project.

You neednt worry about fluctuations of a pound... That is so normal it is silly...

When I was here last time I used to post my weight daily in the "weigh every day club"... It was really nice to see how other people's weight fluctuates all the time... People who are not weighing themselves are never aware of all these fluctuations... they are caused by all sorts of things like the weight of the food and drink that you have had and how much water you are retaining (with all sorts of causes including how much sodium has been in the things that you have eaten)... When we get on the scales we do not weigh just the amount of fat in our bodies...

Of course sometimes we see a gain and it is fat - but we know whether we deserve a gain or not... It is best not to worry about a gain... just deal with it by drinking extra water or being extra good with the food or exercise if it is justified...
 
132.6 again.

I'll take it - if I compare it with last week, I'm at almost two pounds loss again, which is good, considering how I ate at new years eve.
I'm not sure what today holds, yet. There's a plan to go for another long walk, but we may decide that the weather isn't good enough to spend all day outside, so we'll have to see about it.
Tasha, it's nice to see some fellow Dutchies on the forum, that means at least one person will get it if I make obscure Dutch cultural references.
 
Hello Mrxian,
Welcome to the forum and thanks for stopping by my diary! You are right about not wasting a calorie...the trick is to find the foods with the least amount of calories that give you the biggest "full" factor and are satisfying. One podcast I found that really helpped me was "fat2fitradio.com" It's kind of old now, but it's 2 guys who worked together to lose/maintain weight and give some fantastic nutrition information along the way. You might check it out.
This forum is a great place to share your thoughts, frustrations, successes etc...I find that people don't judge me..and I can say what I think and not feel embarrassed. I look forward to keeping updated on your journey! Remember it is just that...it's a journey, not a race!
I wish you good choices...not luck...it's not about luck, it is all about choices! We are in control of what we put in our mouth!

Good choices to you,

Sarah
 
Ohh, today I've had two pieces of cake. I know I really should have said 'no' to one of them, but I just felt like eating something nice, so I just ate them.
Of course, I also worked out extra hard at the gym, so that should balance it out a little.

I've been thinking about starting to weigh myself every day, and combine the tracking with what I eat to see if there are any interesting immediate results. People have told me that it's not smart to weigh too often, though, so I'll have to think about it a little more. Anyone have any advice?
 
Well the big issue with weighing too often is that it mentally weighs on you if you're not careful. For example I climbed a mountain on Saturday and on Sunday morning I weighed half a pound more than I did on Saturday. Without the right mindset you could think "why the hell did I climb that damned mountain?" But I know the mountain climb was not so that I could weigh less the next day, it was to further build my physical condition and that was going to show real benefits to my long term weight (plus it was kinda fun).

I do weigh myself every day I spend at home. If I'm out of town or at the parents, then I don't bother. I built a little mathematical model that smooths out the daily weights into a curve, and I feel like that gives me a much better sense of both my current weight and the trend it is currently on. Helps me stay patient until I reach a point where I shouldn't stay patient (and that point hasn't happened yet in six months).

Whether you weigh every day, every week or every month, that weigh-in will always have some natural fluctuation due to water or whatever. So there's no real escaping that. So it's just a matter of picking out which method best suits your disposition and going with that.
 
I forgot to weigh myself this morning. I guess I'll do it tomorrow, then. Once the competition starts, I'll probably start weighing myself daily, and keep track of it combined with a rough listing of what I eat and how I exercise, and see what the effects are.

I went to the marketplace this morning, and had myself my favorite snack there as a breakfast/lunch combo. Freshly barbequed satay with spicy peanut sauce served on a bed of thai sticky rice. So delicious.

I'm not sure yet what today's exercise will be yet, I'm either gonna go on one of my speedwalking tours or I'm gonna start actual running. I'm a little anxious about starting running, though, since it's a big step forward. I guess I better do it today instead of postponing it even more - I'll need a lot of training if I ever want to run a marathon.
 
Hey MrXian - welcome !
~ so glad you found this lovely site - you'll find a lot of good support & sharing here & thanks for stopping by my diary - please visit anytime ... I really appreciate comments & support ...

~ 2lbs./week loss is a great rate... & your plan of calorie counting/lots veggies/water/healthy food choices /apples for the "hungrees"...& exercise all sounds very reasonable - healthy way to lose- keep it up . !

~ your kitty-kat sounds like a good-pal... my own pooch - Koko- is a great little friend- and she encourages me on the walks ( she actually sits by front-door & gives me a very serious look when we are over-due for a walk)... lol - pet's are a good inspiration for being healthy...

~ nice to hear that you like to cook - homemade food is so much healthier than restaurant/ processed stuff- if you are looking for inspiration - a couple web-sites for healthy recipes that' I've seen mentioned here on the site: Skinnytaste , and Pinterest ...
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~ keep up the good work -

cheers, Maryann C.
 
Mmmm I LOVE satay!!! Actually haven't had it in forever, maybe I should make some over the weekend. NOM!

If you're keen to start running why not get one of those nifty running apps (such as c25k) on a smart phone or Ipod so you have a beginner program to stick to? I loved c25k (though I can't actually physically run anymore).
 
Running went well. We started out very lightly, running about four periods of a little over a minute each. Tomorrow, I may run a little farther, since I did enjoy it a lot.
I would love to get one of those apps, but my phones is of the stupid variety. Nothing smart about it. I'm not gonna go overboard running, though. I'm starting in a beginners running group this february, there's a goal there to run first a three km race, and later a five km, so I'm gonna let that be the place to get a lot better at running, what I'm doing now is merely getting used to the movements and checking how well I can do.

I'm getting a little antsy about the upcoming weight loss competition, I'm really looking forward to it. I decided to weigh myself again when it starts, and after that I'm gonna try to weigh myself every day, collecting data and putting it all in a nice graph.
 
Hey, I enjoyed reading your diary!! :)

I wish i was built for running, maybe in my next life hahaha! I am glad you are enjoying it!!

Keep up the good job!
 
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