Back in the Game

OK, so I finally found my motivation, and it came in the form of sunshine and 70-degree temperatures.  Who knew?

I effectively just took a month off from the diet plan.  I have done only 4 workouts since April 25th, and barely counted calories the entire month of May.  I feel very, VERY fortunate that I only re-gained a few of the 19.5 pounds I had lost.  

Now I'm back at it.  I am newly-excited.  This is partly due to the fact that while I was on "hiatus," I did a bunch of good reading about diets and exercise.  I am a Yahoo News junkie; I read every article that comes through from diet writers of various magazines.  It's almost all great advice.  A few things really jumped out at me, and prompted more research.  I learned quite a bit the past month.  Specifically, I've been going about this ALL WRONG.

LOL.  I've been limiting myself to 1100 calories, because I had noticed that when I was eating 1200 or 1400, I couldn't lose any weight - I only maintained.  So 1100 became my magic number, and by sticking to that since February 7th, I did manage to lose 19.5 pounds.  

The problem I was having, however, was that I was very run-down.  When I get tired and listless, my motivation wavers.  And it was wavering so bad toward the end of April, that it wavered me right into a month of inactivity.  I couldn't keep it up.  I was wiped out from the effort of counting calories.  Or at least that's what it felt like.  So I read.  And read.  I printed out tons of articles about "The Biggest Dieting Myths" and the "Best Foods to Eat to Increase Energy" and the Best Ab Exercises" and the "Top 25 Super Foods," etc. etc. etc.  Probably 30 or 40 articles total!  And then I found a news story about Lady Gaga's trainer, who is named Harley Pasternak.  He used to be a pro hockey player, but now he's the Diet Guru to the stars.  He's trained and transformed a bunch of celebrities.  When you click on his website, it directs you to buy his book and his products, so I scoped out some other sites, which just talk about what his diet does, rather than try to sell it to you.  I've been following the main points of this eating plan for the past week, and I've lost 4 pounds.  It basically has you eat 5 times a day, making sure you include 5 components in each of those 5 mini-meals:  A lean protein, a healthy carb, some fiber, a healthy fat, and a calorie-free beverage, preferably water or green tea.

The crazy plan works.  The combining of foods/nutrients has restored my energy and my will to stick to it.  I'm not tired between meals, or in the middle of the day, or ever.  I have the energy to exercise again.  I love it!

Here's a link with some info. on the plan:

5-Factor Diet Secrets 

The other thing I did that helped me a lot was I used a calorie calculator to find out how many calories I really needed to eat to either maintain my current weight, lose fat at a normal rate, or lose fat at an extreme rate.  I, having just come off a month of being a slug, want to do the "Extreme Fat Loss" option for as long as I can, to make up some ground.  If I can't stick to that long-term, then I'll switch to the "Normal Fat Loss" option and go from there.  I want to hit my 40-pounds-lost goal by the end of July.  I have 22.5 pounds left to lose.  Here's the cool calorie calculator:

Cool Calorie Calculator

So that's my deal!  I'm back on-track here.  When I punch my info. into the calorie calculator, it says that my "Extreme Fat Loss" calorie number is 1200.  So now I take 1200 calories and divide that into 5 little "meals" that each consist of 240 calories.  It seems like hardly any food.  But when I make sure to include the right components...those measly little meals control my cravings all day.  

How's everyone else doing out there?  Is anyone checking in these days?  Would love to hear how y'all are doing with summer finally here!  Ciao!