A Friendly Nudge - Keeping Track
...because we all could use a little encouragement!
I admit that I can be a little stubborn. Jude’s over here cracking up at my gift for understatement. OK, I can be a lot stubborn. I used to be able to lose weight without having to work at it too much. I’d just make up my mind that it was time to get serious and within a few days the pounds would start melting, or at least that’s how I remember it.
But context matters. The first time I got serious about losing weight was after finding out that I had heart disease. I didn’t know it at the time but I also was seriously insulin resistant. That provided ample motivation and when you cut out processed food and almost all sugar weight comes off pretty easily. But over the years I got comfortable and I learned that just because something is minimally processed you can still over eat it.
I think the next event was something more benign like a wedding or a funeral but I still remember staring in disbelief as it was like someone had played a joke on me by sneaking in a pair of pants that were 3 sizes too small from the suit pants that I’d worn a number of times before. I’d make a hasty trip to Men’s Warehouse since sweat pants weren’t going to be an appropriate option and another “larger version of Jim” wardrobe item would join the collection. Once the wedding or funeral was behind me, armed with my fresh resolve, I’d start paying attention to what I was eating and the weight would just start coming off. In a few months I’d be down 10 pounds or in a couple of cases 20 pounds and the old suit fit perfectly again.
This time it didn’t take a wedding or a funeral. I’d been seeing the weight on the scale creeping up prior to my shoulder replacement and it accelerated after the surgery. Plus, I didn’t like how I was feeling and I was ready to do something about it. So after the first of the year I made my declaration of intent and waited for the pounds to start dropping. But nothing happened. I’d probably still be waiting if I hadn’t faced facts and realized that my resolve needed to get matched up with a more consistent process for managing a caloric deficit. Guestimating wasn’t working for me this time.
I still had a caloric target waiting for me in an app that I had on my phone and I got serious about logging and tracking. I’ve used tracking apps and a food scale before, but never for more than a few days and then I’d quickly move back to guesstimating again. This time I decided to stick with weighing and tracking until I get a little below goal weight and then I’ll figure out what level of weighing and tracking maintenance is going to require.
At the beginning of the year, when my “best intentions” strategy wasn’t working, I gave some serious thought to asking my doc for a GLP-1 prescription. Initially I was a huge skeptic of those, but the more I read about them the less critical I got. I’ve known several people who have had tremendous success with them. One friend of mine was really deliberate about pairing his with resistance training avoiding virtually any muscle loss. But before I went down that path I felt like I needed to get serious about managing a caloric deficit on my own and see where that would take me.
I love food. I love cooking food, I love eating food and I even enjoy buying food and I don’t want to ever lose that affection. But I also love being able to get down on the floor and playing with my granddaughter and I’ve promised her that we’ll climb mountains together so Grandpa has to have a healthy, workable and sustainable relationship with food.
For me, and I’m not speaking for anyone but me, losing weight became a math exercise. I know there are people with a lot more complicated relationships with food than I have and I’m not going to insult you and say that this stuff is easy. My parameters were pretty simple. My calorie target was a little over 1800 calories, my protein target was 165 grams and my fiber target was 30 grams a day.
Packing for a trip when you’re checking a bag is a different exercise than packing for a trip when everything needs to fit in your carryon. Your choices are more deliberate. Making everything work in a caloric deficit has a similar feel. It’s not that I won’t have a cocktail or dessert, but I’m more mindful about my choices.
A tablespoon of olive oil has 119 calories and no protein or fiber. Fat free yogurt has 100 calories in ⅔ of a cup and it also has 18 grams of protein. My evening dessert is usually ⅔ cup of yogurt with a scoop of Legion whey isolate and some frozen blueberries or raspberries. Sometimes I’ll throw in some chia seeds. Without the chia seeds, that yogurt bowl is about 270 calories and 41 grams of protein. Between my evening yogurt bowl and my protein spiked morning coffee, I’m getting almost 60 grams of protein for under 400 calories.
I gravitate these days to leaner cuts of meat. Sirloin wins out over chuck roast, chicken thighs still get prepared but I’ve really upped my chicken breast game and can cook them so they’re not sad, overcooked, and taste like shoe leather.
These days my sauces are less fat forward and while this week’s sauce did have a half cup of peanuts it heavily leveraged the cilantro, jalapeno and lemon juice for flavor. My mid-day savory oatmeal is usually topped with salsa.
I understand that this approach isn’t going to appeal to everyone but it’s been eye opening for me. I don’t think that everything needs to be a grind and I’m a big fan of doing things that are fulfilling and that bring you satisfaction. But I’m also a firm believer that aging well isn’t passive. Entropy can be brutal and if we just kick back and let the good times always roll, we might have serious regrets about where we find ourselves. For me, it’s about finding a balance that works – something that pushes on me a little but doesn’t suck all of the joy out of the things that matter to me.
It also reminds me that we’re pretty resilient and once we embrace something we figure out how to navigate it. It’s also been a valuable lesson in the power of keeping track. It’s tough to learn much from what you never measure.
Now let’s make a sauce that was a Peanut Cilantro Sauce that was a pleasant surprise.
Yes, ½ cup of peanuts have over 400 calories but a little of this goes a long way. @Zmargotz on Instagram was the inspiration for this one. She showed the picture she took of a container of sauce that wowed her and then she made her version of it a year later. The peanuts make an interesting fat source instead of olive oil and they do have the advantage of adding a little protein. You could sub any other nut and it should still work.
Ingredients:
½ cup dry roasted peanuts
Large bunch of cilantro, stems included
1 large lemon, juiced
1 jalapeno, seeds removed
1-2 cloves of garlic
1-2 tbsp vinegar (I used the last of some white balsamic vinegar)
1 tsp brown or coconut sugar
Salt to taste
Water if needed to thin it out a little
Put everything in the blender and let it do the work.
So far we’ve had this on boiled shrimp and grilled chicken thighs and it paired perfectly.
Enjoy!
Now let’s give you some exercise options for the week.
You’re looking for an exertion level that’s challenging but manageable. If your form starts to deteriorate or the speed of your reps starts to noticeably slow, your set is over. Be sure and skip any exercises that you don’t feel ready for yet. You can do these exercises as a circuit or you can spread them out throughout the week.