Diet, exercise, and the freezer

30 pounds by Christmas?

Up until about two weeks ago I was trying to live a low-carb/low-sugar keto diet. I wasn’t happy. There were too many food tradeoffs for me, it’s not easy to maintain while traveling, and besides, I wasn’t seeing the kind of results compared to the last time I tried a similar diet in 2004 or so.

I switched to a Calories In Calories Out (CICO) eating plan, where I try to eat a few hundred fewer calories every day than I burn. The simplicity appeals to me, and I’m conscious of trying to also eat the right kind of calories and in a 40% carbs / 30% fat / 30% protein split — but I admit I’m not tracking that as closely as I should at this stage.

The goal is to go from ~200 pounds to ~170 by Christmas.

Poor eating choices can be driven by a lack of nutritious food in the house. It takes more planning to build menus. Fruits and vegetables go bad, whereas Ichiban noodles or Mac & Cheese or Doritos can sit for quite awhile. To help ensure there’s always appropriate food in the house we finally bought a garage freezer, and I’ve been cooking one or two recipes a day to fill it out:

It’s a process.

The other facet of weight loss I’m focusing on is exercise. I started seeing a personal trainer two weeks ago, twice a week for an hour. Not only will that help build muscle tone so that I feel… less old and rickety… but it should also help my chronic neck problems by strengthening my upper back. On the off days, I’m doing a better job of hopping on the Peloton bike and pushing myself to try to break previous personal records.

The upshot to exercise (besides the obvious) is it gives me extra calorie allowance for the day if I feel like I need it. But with the exception of yesterday (we had excellent pizza and I ate too much), I haven’t been left feeling hungry at the end of the day.

If you’re on MyFitnessPal, you can follow my food, exercise, and weigh-ins at bbhart on myfitnesspal. More data about my Peloton rides is on my Strava profile. To see what some of those recipes in the photo are, check out lasagna, Instant Pot shredded beef for tacos or fajitas, and teriyaki beef and broccoli.