This week I gained a pound, so I had to do some research to see what happened. I know I ate small amounts of food not on the diet plan--more of the chocolate that was available--and fudged on measuring some foods. But those seem like relatively harmless transgressions. I decided I needed to "do the math" to see what's going on.
What I discovered is that my caloric intake (even when I'm going strictly by my menu plan) is very close to what I would need to maintain the weight I carry now. Moreover, it is exactly what I will need to maintain my goal weight of 135 pounds. The 1700 calories I'm allowing myself per day is designed to take off only 0.81 pounds per week. But my weight loss over the 45 weeks I've been on the program has averaged only 0.75 pounds per week. At this rate, I will not get to goal weight for another eight months. Suffice it to say that it wouldn't take much "fooling around" (as Shirley puts it) to slow my progress even more.
So, what to do to change this? Well, I have two choices: eat less or exercise more. My relatively high level of caloric intake is based on a fairly low level of activity. Changing one or both of the two factors should make a difference. But as it is, my current menu plan is barely adequate to keep me from being hungry, especially in the afternoon. I could tinker with my evening meal, though, or cut my evening snack to pare off some calories. I'm the least hungry at that time. Or I could delay breakfast and have it at work in place of my morning snack. Usually I'm not hungry early in the morning anyway.
Getting more exercise is also a challenge. I do a half hour of dancing in the morning, but then don't exercise much after that. I walk around the office some, but it doesn't amount to very many minutes, and the rest of the time I'm sitting. I could try to incorporate more activity into my day--walking every time I go to the bathroom, for instance, or moving my arms and legs as I'm working on the computer. Those are possibilities. Finding the time for additional workouts is a problem, though. I don't think I can stay later at work, since I have so little time at home as it is, and getting up earlier would mean going to bed earlier, which would cut into my time with my husband.
The third option is just to leave things as they are, and be content with the amount of time it will take to get to my goal. And if I can cut down on the excess, I will at least stay on target to make weight by mid-September. That's not a bad thing, because if I continue to eat 1700 calories a day for another eight months, I'll be used to it by the time it becomes my maintenance plan. By September, I will have learned how to eat like someone who weighs 135 pounds. And that's the ultimate goal, now, isn't it?
This week I'll do some experimenting with cutting calories and adding exercise and see how that works. I'll let you know the results in my next post.
Until then . . .
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