I’ve Lost 20 Pounds!

Today was a good visit with the doctor. Usually I hate them and I started dreading this one as well, but I had a pleasant surprise.

I’ve lost 20 pounds and she was very happy with my progress. She’s actually concerned that I’m not getting enough calories in a day as several of the days I logged over the last two weeks were under 1,000 calories. The funny thing is, I didn’t feel deprived much at all. On days where ‘bad stuff’ was around, like Erin’s 20th birthday when we had cheesecake, I allowed myself a small portion.

The big difference in my diet is ‘NO BREAD’! The dinners have been more ‘back to basics’ stuff. My formula has been:

• 1 meat portion, marinated in flavored salad dressing and broiled or BBQ’d.
• 1 starch portion, like a potato, rice or pasta (once in a while I will have bread instead).
• 1 vegetable portion or mixed salad.

All of my dinner meals use these basic ingredients, but sometimes I’ll mix it up and make a stirfry to use up leftover rice or create a huge dinner salad with sliced leftover meat.

During the rest of my day, I eat cottage cheese with canned fruit in fruit juice, sugar free yogurt, and salad or raw vegetables.

My beverages include coffee with breakfast, decaffeinated coffee with dinner, and sugarless flavored bottled water, and plain water throughout the rest of the day.

For a treat once in a while, I’ll have a Praeventia chocolate cookie pouch (150 calories) or  a ThinAddictives Cranberry Almond cookie pouch (100 calories).

The most important tool to track and maintain is the My Fitness Pal website. Here I can track diet and exercise. Another pleasant surprise was discovering just how much exercise I actually do get. When the doctor asked me what I do to keep active I’d answer ‘nothing’, because I don’t make a conscious effort to exercise. However, I started tracking calories burned for EVERY activity, including daily chores like dishes, sweeping, mopping, cleaning bathrooms, climbing stairs and cooking. I also play with my dogs a few times a day. On average, 15% to 20% of my daily calorie intake is burned doing daily chores, etc. On days when I don’t do as much, I’ll spend a few minutes on the treadmill at about 2 miles per hour.

I’m very happy to have lost the 20 pounds and intend to continue.