My monthly fatloss progress report....

Today's Post: Monday, 6-20-2011

Since last month, I gained a pound.

This past month I at least gained no more on my waist. So, some of my extra effort last month got results.

Since I reached my goal weight in December—5 months ago, I’ve now gained 5 pounds and about a full inch on my waist. (Ten of the pounds I lost and an inch and a half off my waist are still gone.)

So, I need to lose 5 pounds total for starters now. And, I still need to lose at least 4 inches off my waist.

According to pictures I’ve seen, I’m now at about 20 % bodyfat or a bit more, perhaps 22%. To remove my abdominal fat, according to those same pictures, I also need to add enough muscle to stay at or just slightly below my goal weight AND lose about 12% of my current bodyweight as fat.

Roughly, I need to lose 20 pounds of fat and gain 15 pounds of muscle to be at 8 to 10% fat and lose the 4 or more inches off my waist. (I’d also be at my goal weight.)

1. My drinks per week have gone up a bit since I was at my goal weight and I clearly have been eating far too much almond butter. So this past month, I had a plan to try to fix each of those problems.

I did manage to cut back half of what I intended last month on my alcoholic drinks. (I went from two a week over my goal to one drink a week over.)

For next month, I have a different new program to try to get my alcoholic drinks down again. (Since, decaf coffee was found to cut aggressive prostate cancer, last month I tried the decaf. But my reflux did NOT put up with the decaf.)

For the next month, I’ll drink a glass of low sodium V8 instead of a half glass or glass of wine. In fact, I’ve already started that.

2. And, instead of eating more than one serving of almond butter most nights a week, I tried only one serving every other day. (That was supposed to move me from 20 servings a week or 40 in two weeks to 7 in two weeks.)

I was pretty good about skipping the almond butter every other day. But I must have eaten more of something else or eaten too much more than one serving a day on the every other day I did eat the almond butter.

Next month, I’ll try just having the almond butter only one day a week. And, instead of cheese, I’ll try a few Brussels sprouts in place of the almond butter. (I found before that adding nonstarchy vegetables is effective. So THAT may help!)

3. I had read an analysis that suggested I might lose more fat if I switched from skim and 1% lowfat milk to 2% lowfat milk and nonfat cottage cheese. (The article in which I found it, has some studies suggesting it may work. It also had some convincing evidence that the nonfat dry milk added to the skim and 1% lowfat milk, increased heart disease risk by causing oxidation of LDL.)

I did make that switch last month. It may not have caused the one pound gain; but since the 2% did have more calories, it might have.

Since the added heart protection is important to me; and it simplified my life to get one kind of milk instead of two, I think I’ll keep that change.

4. I’m almost 100% recovered from my left arm injury and am close to adding some muscle and may have done so in the past month since I’ve been able to resume doing my kettlebell exercises.

My left arm is almost back to where I was before I injured it. It no longer “feels” funny or causes any pains – even mild ones when I do my exercises.

Since I was able to exercise my arm better, the pound I gained might have been muscle. (No increase in my waist size in the last month supports that a bit.)

But, the goal was to gain the muscle and lose a pound of fat too. In my case, the fat loss clearly didn’t show up.

Wish me luck for next month!