May 12, 2019 I weighed 256.7 pounds. This was the most I've ever weighed. Today I'm down to 239.0 pounds. I'm pushing my way to -20 pounds, but as insulin resistant as I am, it's very hard to take off weight. Yesterday, I walked five miles on a river hike and then in the evening I did another three and a half miles on the treadmill. I ran half a mile of that.
I've read that you produce more HGH if you have intermittent high-intensity exercise, so I've been running for a tenth of a mile, walking two tenths of a mile, running a tenth of a mile, etc during my treadmill exercise. This gives me an hour or so of cardio. I'm actually just amazed at this stage that I'm able to run that much without passing out.
I've noticed a significant increase in my ability to do activities, especially cardio. I don't feel that walking a couple miles per day helps a lot, but I don't think it hurt either. So I'm upping my goals. My current step goal for a day is 12,500. That's around five or six miles. If I do intermittent running during that, I can burn around 3500 calories per day easy. I'm trying to up that number to 5000 calories per day.
I'm currently eating once per day. I would also refer to this as a 20/4 fast. I go twenty hours without eating and then allow myself to eat in a four hour window. This is usually pretty easy for me to do, since I spent three weeks of no carbs or sugar. Those three weeks reset a lot of things in my system, and one of the biggest things is that it lowered my hunger nearly to none at all.
Usually, I will get hungry about two times during my twenty hour fast. Yesterday, I had my ruck sack loaded with low carb/sugar snacks, but I didn't eat any of them. I was hungry at one point on the hike, but I consciously stopped myself from indulging. So I was able to wait till 5 o'clock in the evening before I had anything to eat. I hadn't had anything since around 9 pm the previous day so I had my twenty hours with no food.
My one meal per day is currently not the healthiest choices. Don't get me wrong, it's not terrible. I typically avoid high carbs though I probably need to roll it back a bit. I'm not trying to get myself into ketosis at that point so I'm not worried about following a Keto diet during my one-meal-a-day.
Yesterday my favorite diner was serving broccoli casserole, which I love. They only serve it one day per week so I had two sides of that. I had chicken fingers with honey mustard. I had mac & cheese. I had a roll. I had collard greens. Finally, I had half/half sweet/unsweet tea. So the mac & cheese, roll, and the tea were not the best of choices, but I only get to eat once per day so I try to enjoy it.
At that point in the day, I'd already reached my step goal for the day. Around 9pm I decided to try to get another few miles, so I jumped on the treadmill and stayed on it for just over an hour. When I was finished my hunger pains were getting strong, so I allowed myself to have a banana.
Let me step back and make an excuse for myself here. I'm not in a rush to lose weight. I'm currently experimenting with a lot of different diet ideas. However, the three weeks I spent without carbs and sugar corrected a major problem I had with eating certain foods.
The three foods that I couldn't eat prior to those three weeks were mushrooms, avocado, and bananas. Those three foods used to hurt my stomach horribly. A Claritin taken about an hour prior to eating would help me avoid this pain in the past, but I didn't like to risk it. Basically, I'd be doubled over for about three hours feeling like I was getting kicked in the stomach.
I love bananas, avocados, and mushrooms. Realizing that I could eat them again thrilled me. So I take every opportunity to indulge in those foods as I can at the moment. Last Sunday, for example, I ate a lot of fried mushrooms during my one-meal-a-day.
Should I be eating them? Probably not. I should go back to no carbs/sugars for a couple of weeks, but I'm hoping that intermittent fasting will be a better solution. The only thing I'm really concentrating on right now is the calorie in and calorie out aspect. When I eat 2000 calories in a day, I want to make sure I'm burning at least double that. It's a slow and steady race that I'm running. I don't care if it takes me six months or a year to get down to 170 lbs. The goal is to get down there, not race to it. I'd rather increase my activity to get faster results.
I should reiterate that DIET is the key to fat loss and changing yourself physically. Exercise is about twenty percent of the recipe. Diet is every bit of eighty percent of it. You absolutely have to set goals for yourself. For me, one of my goals is to enjoy foods when I get a chance, and to consciously limit myself every chance I can.
I don't alway do the right thing. I'm not perfect. I'm striving for perfection on my diet. I'm definitely not hitting it, but that's okay. I may spend a whole week fasting soon and take care of a lot of my weight in one go. Who knows. I just know that I need to enjoy my new lifestyle the best I can. If having a banana because I can eat them again after a decade of not being able to is a bad thing, then I screwed up. I just think it's reasonable to have the banana. Do I need the fructose? Definitely not! However, four months ago I was drinking about 90 ounces of Coke per day and eating whatever I wanted and not exercising at all. So, I think I'm on the right track and it's best not to get discouraged.
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