Trying to Eat Better and Do Some Exercising … No, This Time I Mean It

I can’t believe it’s been more than a year since I wrote a post about how I was trying to eat better and do some exercising. Ironically, at that time, I was in better shape than I am today, at least as far as the scale is concerned. This time last year, I was 170 pounds. For reference, my goal weight is 160 pounds. That said, mentally, I’m in an improved place compared to last summer; I’ve been seeing a therapist and started on antidepressants these last six months. The other piece of that wellness puzzle? Eating better and freaking MOVING more often.

Here’s what I’ve done in the past two weeks:

• I’ve started counting my calories again via MyFitnessPal. This is the time-tested, most legitimate way I’ve experienced to drop pounds. Counting calories suck and quite frankly, it’s darn scary to see how many calories are in certain items. You learn real fast how often you’re over-indulging and ruining yourself because of a lack of portion control. Portion control is everything and counting calories helps keep me in check on that. As is stands, I keep myself under 2,330 calories per day. Most days, I’m well under that with 800-1,100 calories to spare.
• Even counting calories, one could “cheat,” as it were. I say this from experience. I could still eat bad, but as long as it doesn’t go over my calorie limit, then all is swell, right? Nah, I don’t want to be like that. So, I’ve been eating a lot of chicken (chicken thighs, chicken drumsticks, chicken breasts), fish (mostly swai, but I recently picked up tilapia) and eggs. The main thing I’m trying to cut-out is the extent to which I was relying on carbohydrates for seemingly every meal.
• I’ve largely kicked beer out of my intake. I’ve slipped up on a couple of occasions, but unlike my re-dedication last summer, it’s not a regular feature anymore. Given my propensity to drink heavy, calorie-loaded IPAs, that’s a definite positive.
• I’ve been adding more protein to my diet. Aside from the aforementioned sources of protein, I’m being more direct with it by drinking protein shakes. That is, I bought a blender and a big bottle of protein powder (organic vanilla bean) and mix it with banana, water, yogurt, frozen vegetables; whatever I find to be a tasty mix. So far, my favorite is the powder, yogurt, a little bit of water, a banana and frozen peaches. So good! The protein powder is not off-putting at all; it’s far better than Whey protein. Yuck. The only downside is how pricy it can be.
• I’m working out! In recent months, I’ve bought myself a simple stationary bike to get myself moving and get 15 to 20 minutes of cardio in, or if I’m feeling froggy, 30 minutes. Instead of sitting on the couch watching TV, I can bike. I’ve also bought a yoga mat and two smaller dumbells (five and eight pounders) and I also moved my 20-pound dumbells and my ab roller downstairs to put them in front of my dang eyeballs.
• What’s really helped me with the aforementioned is FitOn. It’s a free exercise app (and like any app, it has a premium service, if you so desire) with quite literally hundreds of exercises that vary across styles (yoga or Pilates, for example), intensity, time, and which body part (or the whole body) you want to work on, and there’s even meditation! Seriously, you’d be amazed at how 10 minutes with a professional working your abs will leave you sore the next day. And that’s the rub: It’s a professional guiding me instead of winging it myself. That’s why it works. The best part? I have a Roku TV and it has the FitOn app, so I don’t have to look at my smartphone to do it. I get addicted to knocking out a five minute workout here, a 10-minute workout here and so on.

And with barely two weeks dedicated to this new way of doing things, check out my progress from MyFitnessPal:

That’s 6.1 pounds in two weeks, which includes a Thursday-Saturday stretch in the first week where I was bad with my eating and drinking. As I said, that weigh-in is bittersweet. On one hand, I’m proud of myself, but also, it shows how much ground I have to re-make up to get back to where I was last summer at 170 pounds.

Anyhow, I thought I share with you all an update around the one-year mark on how things are going. Thank you for reading!