Food/Exercise log,11/23

I've been thinking again. Looking back on my weight loss over the past 3 years can be slightly depressing. The first year, I lost 26 lbs. The second, 6 lbs. That's a pretty drastic decline. This year, if I let things go on in their typical holiday way, my loss will be even less. It's a trend that I want to stop, as I mentioned in the last post.

In order to find out what works for me, I figure I need to review what worked in the past. I briefly considered doing a true analysis, charting weight trends and correlating them with whatever data I had recorded during that timeframe. Then I remembered that I am not a mathemetician, and in fact I failed college statistics that one semester because it was so insufferably tedious that I quit showing up for class. Anyway, point being that I have no clue how to create a reliable algorithm or logarithm or whatever sort of rithm to calculate which factors most affected my weight loss or lack thereof. So I decided that the best I can do is chart my losses from the weigh in posts, find the times I lost the most weight, and determine what I was doing then that I am not doing now. Essentially, go back to the beginning.

I have not done this yet, as it sounds like a lot of work, and anything that sounds like a lot of work is best put off until I have nothing better to do. However, one thing that I do know always makes me a better loser is to document my food and exercise. Because I have a tendency to lose interest in these logs about halfway through the week, I've decided it would be better to do daily log posts rather than one big weekly one. So, this is the first.

Oh, and in the spirit of audience participation...I encourage everyone to hound me in the comments on days when I don't post a log by noon, or if a log does not have a dinner entry by the next morning. The one exception to this is Saturdays, when I won't record anything and you can't make me. Girl's gotta have a free day, and anything I eat is counterbalanced by the long morning ride anyway.

Since I know that these things are generally boring to read, I've put it in the extended entry. I'm doing core, so points values are only included for non-core foods and those are bolded. Activity points are italicized.

Aaaand because I never follow any plan exactly to the letter, my core list includes low-fat dairy and flavored non-fat yogurt. Also, when I make a recipe that includes core and non-core items, I only count points on the meal for the non-core ingredients. And finally, I consider all meats core, so long as the fat is trimmed off or drained, and the skin is removed.

Food/exercise log for 11/23

Jimmy Dean skillet breakfast, 1/2 cup
2 egg whites
1 c. orange juice: 2

venti non-fat latte, w/2 splenda and cinnamon

walk: 3

caesar salad w/ff dressing & salmon: 2
bread: 4
diet coke

cheese & crackers: 5
almond granola bar: 3

rotisserie chicken

Total non-core points: 16
Total activity points: 3

Weekly point balance: 22

don't be too discouraged, Joy. it is normal for weight to come off easier in the beginning, when the changes to diet and lifestyle are the most drastic. take heart in knowing that the slower weight comes off, the more likely it is to stay off. of course, logging food doesn't hurt either :)

*nod* true. What I'm really looking for in doing the charting (eventually) are the good-results times after the initial 3-4 months in 2003. I totally agree that it was easier in the beginning, but it seems that lately I've lost sight of what worked at all, you know? I've been blundering around from one method to the next, and I think I really need to take a step back and collect myself a bit.

My thinking is that if I could just pinpoint, say, three things I did every time I had a good losing streak going, then I could develop a workable plan around those three things. Hell, I'd settle for ONE thing, really. And logging may be it, I don't know. Like you say...definitely doesn't hurt. :)