Weight Loss and Balance
The theme I chose for this week is weight loss and balance. Many people I see have these, sometimes crazy, extremely strict diets. There is very little allowance for any type of ‘junk’ food. So they avoid going out for dinner or attending parties/ functions for fear of blowing out the diet. I have seen this having a negative impact on someone trying to lose weight. Their diet is so strict and when they go back to eating their ‘normal’ foods and enjoying going out for meals, functions or parties the weight creeps back again! At the start of the week I realised I am eating out a couple of times and going to a party. I thought this is a challenge to see if you can do all these things and still achieve my daily calorie goal. This week I had to take into account the following :
As you can see from the list of food above I really needed to pay attention to my diet these days to ensure I got my intake vs outtake balance right.
Wednesday
Today I enjoyed fish and chips. This time round though I cut out the prawn cutlets. Compared to a couple of week ago this reduced my calorie intake for this meal by 320 calories! It was still 1169 calories and my total daily intake for the day was 2263 calories. For dinner Wednesday night I made myself a ham and salad wrap. I found after my large lunch this was more than adequate to fulfill my hunger. I was able to get under my daily calorie goal for Wednesday because of my exercise.
Saturday
Saturday was a lunch with the family for an early Father’s Day followed by a bucks party that evening. I was somewhat nervous about this day as I could see the potential for having a massive blow out! Looking at the menu for lunch I scanned for what I thought would be the healthiest meal a grilled chicken burger with chips. When it come out I realised this is going to put a big dint in my daily calories allowance. Nearly 1200 calories later my delicious burger was gone leaving me full and satisfied.
I did not realise how full and satisfied my burger had left me until I got home from the bucks party. After entering the 5 beers, a handful of potato chips and a couple of party pies, into MyFitnessPal, it came to me I had not felt hungry all night. The combination of the 5 beers, chips and 2 party pies was 1407 calories. The thought that crossed my mind was ‘what would the intake if I had a huge night’. This was more calories than my fish chips from earlier in the week. I did make myself a ham and cheese sandwich when I got home after the party. The thing that saved my today was my usual Saturday morning bike ride which burnt 2246 calories.
Sunday
Watching the Gold Coast Suns play their last game of the season this afternoon. The game started just after lunch. I prepared by having a ham, egg and salad wrap before going to the game. Thinking this will get me through to dinner and I would not be tempted to buy food at the ground. I did not know then I would be getting a free meat pie at the game. I know I didn’t have to eat it! But I did anyway, just to see what impact it will have on my calorie intake! I just laughed when it came up that the meat pie was 400 calories. That soon subsided when I realised I could only consume 300 calories for dinner. So dinner was half a chicken breast, lettuce, tomato and balsamic vinegar in a salad. Not quiet the roast I had planned but I achieved my goal.
I would not say it was an easy week balancing out my calories. It was made a lot easier though using MyFitnessPal. This allowed me to see where my intake was and how much was left for the day. I think without that I would have easily blown out Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. My exercise this week was a huge advantage. Without exercising I would have undone my efforts of the last 2 weeks!
Only 1 week to go! I have had a few people ask if I have lost weight and I am sure I have. I will not know how much until after next week.
