My monthly fatloss progress report....

Today's Post: Monday, 11-21-2011

Since last month, I lost pound. I’m now a pound lighter than I was a month ago and was three months ago.

But, on the two measures of my waist I take a bit tight and a bit relaxed, I gained a bit about a quarter of an inch.

The half inch losses were from my chest measurement and from my hip measurement.

(My main goal now that I’m close to my goal weight is to lose inches off my waist by adding muscle on my larger muscles like my chest and butt and legs and keep those two measures the same or increase them.

I would have been much happier to keep those the same and have lost the inches all on my waist.)

Also, I weighed half way through the month and lost the pound the first part of the month. That means that my partial fast did succeed in removing that pound and keep me from gaining it back.

But I still need something more to lose the several pounds of belly fat and small bit of weight on the scale I want to lose.

Oh well! Again this month, the results are not bad news; but they aren’t the good news I want either.

(Here’s how that relates to Thanksgiving coming up in a few days by the way.

Last Friday we posted on how to cook for Thanksgiving to still have the traditional favorites but cut the damage to your health and limit the fat gain.

And, tomorrow, we’ll post on ways to eat and enjoy the Thanksgiving day dinner that allow you to have your favorites but which also limit the damage.

To get permanent fat loss you need to keep track of how you are doing at least once a month and take corrective measures when indicated as I have with these monthly posts.

You also will do better if you employ the strategies in these two posts for holiday meals.

Thanksgiving and the other yearly holidays come every year.

By doing these few key things, including keeping up your monthly tracking you’ll not gain much when you enjoy the yearly holidays.

It’s even possible to gain Zero extra fat or pounds on the scale during the holiday season. I’ve done that before and expect to do so this year.

That means if you lose fat and weight and do likewise, the fat you lost will stay off permanently DESPITE enjoying Thanksgiving and other holidays.)

Back to my report for the last month.

I was under extra stress the past month from worry about losing a major tool to stay healthy due to the FDA threatening to remove it completely and a personal medical issue that was and is worrisome.

That tends to cause your appetite to increase and for any fat you do gain to go to your waist.

I found my control of eating almond butter only in small amounts and to eat broccoli each evening was very poor.

These things explain why I gained on my waist instead of losing and why I didn’t lose a second pound the second half of the month.

The good news is I’m still working at gaining leverage and effectiveness at ending the threat the FDA will remove virtually all supplements regardless of their protective value in preventing diseases and the avoiding the costs to treat them.

I made progress just this morning and have an idea of how get a much more powerful person than I to help.

I’m also working at gaining leverage and effectiveness at stopping and reversing the minor medical problem. On that I’ve even seen a bit of progress.

Next month, I will also make an enormous effort to be more controlled about eating less almond butter and always eating broccoli each evening.

For the month from last Saturday to a month from now, I’ll keep a log of those 2 things.

I’ve found that effective to do things new to me when I do it. And for some things, I’ve found if I don’t, nothing happens!

I now need to lose 5 pounds total to return to my goal weight. And, I still need to lose at least three to 6 inches off my waist.

According to pictures I’ve seen, I’m now at about 22 % bodyfat or a bit more, perhaps 25%. 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% to 15% of my current bodyweight as fat.

This translates into losing 20 to 25 pounds of fat while gaining 14 to 20 pounds of muscle.

My strength training has gone decently lately; but I’ll eventually need to add some heavier dumbbells and go the gym to use heavier weights as well to do that.

That’s mostly true for leg exercises since I’ve not done enough heavier or more challenging exercises for them.

THAT I’ve begun doing something about.

Last month I began doing a set of squats with one leg one for each leg two times a week. I’m only at 8 repetitions once for each leg. But I can clearly keep adding one each time for quite awhile. Eventually that will add some thigh and butt muscle and increase my pounds of muscle. In fact, I may be able to get a more solid balancing post and add a dumbbell of enough weight to make this more likely.

So far, that plan is working but is still at too early a stage to expect much on the scale or tape measure.

(Eventually I’ll also need to get a specialized minibike exerciser I can use while seated at my desk and another I can use while reading at home.

They don’t yet make those that I know of but most people today need them. Given the health harm of sitting too much and how many people do that, these minibikes and chairs that match them well are coming soon I think.

Walking burns about 300 calories an hour. (200 if you are skinny and walk slowly to over 500 if you walk really fast or walk somewhat fast but are much heavier.)

Using a seated minibike exerciser that you use much less effort on but keep moving slowly most of the time you sit can easily burn 50 calories an hour.

Then if like many people today you sit for 6 hours a day, you could easily add an extra 2100 calories a week by using a seated minibike exerciser most of the time you sit at home or at work. That would help people lose about 2 and a half pounds a month for a few months once they got into the habit of always using one.

If I’d used one of the seated minibikes since I began my current fatloss plan, I’d still need to add the extra muscle to be at my goal weight. But I’d be trying to add muscle weight to get back to my goal weight! That’s because I’d be 10 to 15 pounds less fat.)

I’ve also had a new idea. Before sewing machines had electric power, they had an under the work area treadle that was designed to be effective but avoid distracting the person sewing from their sewing.

It may be possible to find an antique sewing machine and find a manufacturer to make a design of that treadle mechanism that would do the same for people working at a desk.

It’s proven to do the job needed in actual use!

A. Last month, my two part plan to eat differently was a bit worse due to following it inconsistently.

1. My plan to eat less almond butter was a bit worse.

I did successfully use the smaller spoon and a bit smaller serving only. The problem was that I ate about four times too many servings!

2. I had also planned to eat a few thawed frozen, organic, broccoli sprouts in place of the almond butter. (I had found before that adding nonstarchy vegetables is effective.)

Likewise, my plan to eat thawed frozen, organic, broccoli sprouts still worked.

But last month, I put the frozen chunks in their container much LESS consistently and ate some of the thawed florets only on a few evenings compared to the months before that.

B. I still had the significant worry most of last month. But I have taken action to try to resolve it. And, I have worked on building a just in case strategy too since last month.

I’ll still worry for quite a while since it will take months to know if my efforts helped, but I’m somewhat calmer emotionally. That will help me avoid gaining fat from eating too many comfort foods.

C. The best good news is that most of what I did to lose the 15 pounds I wanted and 3 pounds extra I lost temporarily is still in place. I’m still doing those things. And, I am still 10 pounds lighter than I was when I started.

I’ll certainly keep doing those things!

D. But one of the better pieces of news is that I was able to sustain my new and added way to cut calories last month.

I read two separate reports on this. One said that fasting one day a week tended to cut pounds of fat without triggering the famine response and even had health benefits. The other said that eating your normal breakfast and then just that one day, skipping your lunch and dinner had the same effect.

I’m not convinced that’s really a benefit to your health when you already don’t pig out on tons of calories of harmful foods. Nor do I think I’m likely to be able to do it or keep doing it.

BUT, I’ve decided to try something along those lines last month.

For lunch on Thursdays, I’ve been eating walnuts, pecans, a half sandwich on whole grain bread, a serving of raw broccoli and baby food winter squash. And, I’ve been eating cooked pinto beans, parmesan cheese, extra virgin olive oil, spices, and nonfat cottage cheese plus pasta sauce for dinner.

Now, on Thursdays only, I’ll only eat the serving of raw broccoli for lunch.

And, I’ll delete the pinto beans and the nonfat cottage cheese and the parmesan cheese and half the extra virgin olive oil and pasta sauce and put the remaining pasta sauce and extra virgin olive oil the baby food winter squash only that I have been eating for lunch.

The calories not in those two meals are close to enough 825 calories to cause a one pound fat loss each month.

It did work the first part of last month. And, I found it surprisingly doable.

The key issue, of course, it will only be effective if I can do it without adding a larger snack or eating extra the following day – AND if I can do it on a permanent basis!

The early reading is that keeping it up is doable for me. But avoiding giving it back by eating extra at other times didn’t work well for the second half of last month.

If my fix by keeping a record of my evening snacks works next month and from then on, that will help!

It’s still possible that if it almost works and is stays doable, I may be able to make it work better by adding some non-caloric fiber so my tummy doesn’t get quite so empty.

(PGX from the kanjac root does work for some people for this purpose and to slow blood sugar rise for people who need that. But I’d prefer to do without the added expense; it may tend to plug me up too much; and it soaks up water enough it may tend to prevent uptake of water soluble vitamins.)

So, I’ll try doing without it first. Then I’ll try half the suggested amount of the PGX just at dinner. If I can do this strategy either of those two ways, this one strategy added to what I’m already doing will cause me to lose about 14 pounds of fat over a year or so.

At worst, I’ll lose back the 5 pounds of fat I’m now carrying above my goal weight and get me back down to my goal weight.

At best, I’ll lose the 14 pounds of fat or more and add 9 pounds or more of muscle from my other work and my waist will finally get noticeably smaller and still have me at my goal weight.

I’ll let you know how these changes work next month!