Ok it's not really a secret... ;-)
Ok it's been way to long and I promise to blog more often. If anyone still reads it! Ha! Thanksgiving Day :)
After thanksgiving I was up to 187 again. Ugh. I was teeter tottering between what to do and how to lose weight. IIFYM is great, and I think I WILL be doing it consistently soon. But it's VERY time consuming at first. I was not wanting to weigh and measure everything so precisely and plan ahead to hit my macros. I really do think it works and it's great especially for gaining muscle and losing fat...or "getting lean" WHILE being able to eat A LOT!
So what I decided was I HAVE to do something. I didn't want to wait a whole month till my busy photography season was over. So I decided to go back to low carb. It's been great!!! It works! And it works fast. It just makes sense for me because I can't have bread and wheat and corn anyways so it's really not that hard for me and I don't have to weigh or plan or anything.
I'm back down to 183 in just a few days.
Which led me to write this post about "collecting the pounds". This is the "secret" (and it's not a secret nor is it new) on how I lost my weight and how I think about it....
I can be good for a few days and lose a pound or two, but if I decided to just give in the third or fourth day (or however long it's takes to lose a couple pounds!) and not eat low carb (or on whatever plan you are on) in one day I'll undo what I did in two-three days, and maybe even then some. So FOR ME, the key to success is **momentum.**
Collecting the pounds. So it's been a few days I've been eating back on low carb and I am down 4 lbs (a lot was water weight I'm sure). Instead of having a high carb day today because I feel like I deserve it and I want some ice cream (lol) I will wait until I lose another 3 lbs. Because if I'm down 7 lbs {from the start if this time!} and have a high carb day (which is important to me because knowing I can have chocolate or whatever on a certain day keeps me on track and not feeling like I'm on a "diet") then I won't gain 7 lbs back in one day. It's impossible. (Now the scale will be up a little after a high carb day but it's just bloating and water and will go away after a day or two, for me!).
I "collect" a 7 lbs. Loss, then I have a cheat day. So then maybe the start of that week I will be at a 5-6lb loss, but then after being consistent all week and drinking all my water I will lose another 3-4lbs that week. (Sounds like a lot but remember I didn't REALLY gain 1-2 pounds of fat from one day, so the bloating and water weight goes away then I lose another 2 lbs BUT ONLY IF I'm really consistent!!) so at the end of that week I'm at a 9 lb loss!
See the pounds collecting? But the trick FOR ME is not to have a cheat day (and by cheat day I don't mean an all out binge day! NO! I mean just have more than normal, some chips and Ice cream and some chocolate :) if I've only lost 2-4 lbs because then I feel like I haven't gotten anywhere.
Before anyone says anything, this is basically what Weight Watchers is, with eating activity and weekly points after your weigh in. So no it's not new, but maybe it will help someone to think about it like this. It works for ME.
This may not work for everyone but it REALLY helps me stay consistent. Summary: I have to----
1. Get momentum by seeing at least a 6-7 pound loss
2. Allow a cheat day after that once a week
3. It's not an all out binge day
4. Right back on plan the next day
