On Tuesday, August 9, I started double-tracking my foods - in Weight Watchers and in My Fitness Pal. Within the first couple of days, I realized a few things:
- I was overeating in fruit/veggies. How can one overeat in fruit/veggies? Well, it is actually pretty easy... If I was hungry (or thought I was hungry), I would go for fruit/veggies. Instead of being smart and eating 1 piece of fruit or a serving of veggies, I would go hog-wild (i.e., 5-6 clementines instead of 2-3). This adds up in a short period of time.
- I was overestimating my activity points and eating all of them. This has been a pitfall on Weight Watchers for me in the past. I guess that I feel like I earned every single one of my activity points, I should be able to eat every single one of them. Unfortunately, this isn't always true. Sometimes, it is good to leave a few extra points on the table.
- I was underestimating many of my foods, especially on the weekend. Weight Watchers gives you a lovely, wonderful little pot of weekly points (49 to be exact). Well, I was blowing the heck out of them on the weekends. I was definitely underestimating my serving sizes and points values because I would always say "I am using my weeklies for this..." I was very good about weighing my food before the half marathon and I am back to weighing again. It is amazing how deceptive your eyes can be with serving sizes!
I am 0.2 away from being out of the obese category for BMI. I would love to get down to 150, or a little less, so that I am closer to the healthy BMI category (147.6). I know that it isn't gonna be easy. I know that it is gonna be slow. But, I have worked hard and I will continue to do so until I reach my goal!
You can certainly overeat fruits. I have that problem sometimes. ;) But you really can't overeat veggies and I would hate to hear about anyone cutting back or restricting them. True, some veggies are starchier than others and carry more calories, but usually that means you really can't overeat them because they fill you up faster. But for the most part, leafy greens, mushrooms, sprouts, cucumbers, celery, etc can be eaten with total abandon...the more the better!
ReplyDeleteOh! And let me know if you'd like to get together to discuss meal ideas and such...it's much easier in person than via the interwebs. ;)
ReplyDeleteGreat job! Going back to the basics seems to work. :) I just busted a one-year plateau by going back to doing what I did to lose my first 65 pounds. Duh, right? Good luck! I hope to hear more about all of this!
ReplyDeleteIt's great that you were able to go back and trace the habits that kept you at your plateau. I've been at my plateau weight for almost 6 months and I'm so frustrated! I've changed things up but I haven't seen much difference on the scale yet, though I have been lifting a lot of weights so perhaps I've lost fat and gained muscle? Who knows? I'm going to get it checked out this coming week and hopefully that'll give me some peace of mind!
ReplyDeleteGood luck - I'm sure you're going to reach your goal! :)