Old, Fat and Sick, pt 2

            Okay, that was awful. I kept a very complete calorie journal for a week. I did not alter my usual habits in an attempt to make myself look better, and we had two meals out during the week. The results are in, and they’re not pretty. First, a benchmark –

            Age: 64           Height: 5’ 8”      Current wgt: 240#        Activity lvl: moderate

            Daily calories to:         maintain wgt – 2,715              mild wgt loss – 2,465

            Weight loss – 2,215         extreme wgt loss – 1,715     (numbers per Calculator.com)

            Starting from there, I added up everything I ate and drank for 7 days: 22,051 cal. Divided by 7 = 3,150 cal per day, average. Yikes. That means I was 435 calories OVER maintenance level every day. Which means I should have put on at least one more pound this week. Ick.

            I have already generated a couple of sample meals for breakfast and lunch, all between 500 and 600 calories. This should leave me around 1000 calories for dinner. I mostly have to knock back on bread and sweets (surprise, surprise) and keep the scotch to a minimum. I am also going to cut out all the in-between snacks and restrict eating out to once a week. The trick is to make this kind of eating into a habit. If I simply try to restrict myself away from everything ‘bad’ for me, I will inevitably fail. I have a long track record of doing exactly that. But if I can create a series of ‘painless’ little habits – (and yes, I realize that calorie restriction is painful – more on that later), I run a good chance of being able to sustain these behaviors, then get comfortable doing things in the new way, and then finally accept the new habits as my normal M.O. I know that this format works for me, because this is how I learned to get to the gym regularly.

            I go to the gym about twice a week – to lift weights, to jog a mile and maybe hit the jacuzzi afterwards. We also try to play racquetball at least once a week. Another benchmark:

            Current walk/run time – 14:30 (not terrific for a mile)

            Bench press – 185#        Deadlift – 225#        Weighted squats – 135#

Those are just general indications of my level of fitness. I have been running on and off since 1982, ran one marathon in 2006. Otherwise, I’m pretty lazy.

            Additional note: I spent part of today cleaning out my closet and stuffing a 33 gal yard waste bag full of clothes I won’t wear anymore. I’ll take them by Goodwill sometime soon. My wife and I also played racquetball twice this week (unusual), three games instead of two each time (unheard-of) and pushed each other pretty hard. Now that I would consider a work-out.

            So saying, I am pursuing my stated goals of losing weight, getting in better shape and changing up my wardrobe. We’ll see how this goes.

bcd