Monday
Today was the day…
I have been on Chronometer for 4 months. It was around about the third week of November that I climbed on the scale and to my horror I was the heaviest weight I’ve ever been. 80kg! I was mortified! I contacted Stacey and asked her which calorie app she was using.
Chronometer.
I downloaded it from the app store and took the first step to gaining control of my weight.
Key 1: Own the number.
I put in 80kg and the rest of the numbers it asked for and I started logging all my calories. I very quickly learned where lots of calories lived and made changes in deciding what to eat.
Key 2: Honesty
I have been honest with myself. If I’ve had something with loads of calories that destroys my daily goal, I’ve put it in regardless. This is not a race – it’s a marathon. You’ll see in my graph, when I put in my weight after Christmas and New Year and after Mike and David’s birthdays, it was higher than before!
Key 3: Make allowances for special days.
I began on 22nd November and a month later it was Christmas time. All that yummy food. I waited until Christmas Eve and then I changed one of the settings on Chronometer so that I wouldn’t lose 0.9kg a week. I’d lose 0.2kg a week. As it turned out, I gained 2kg over Christmas! So, when New Year had passed, I went back to Key 1. I owned the number and I started the process again. I didn’t log calories at all on Mike’s birthday!
Key 4: Exercise
When I climbed on the scale and saw 80kg, part of my despair was a loss of hope of being able to lose the weight because by then we were in our new house and I had cancelled my gym membership. In years gone by, the only way I could control my weight was by exercising. Now not going to gym, how was I going to exercise with that level of intensity? I soon discovered that the high intensity workouts at the gym were not needed. I did need to exercise but it could be less vociferous. With Chronometer the number of calories is considered the budget in hand. When the budget is spent, you can’t eat any more, unless you exercise to get some more calories. I found it was more effective for me to exercise early so I had a bigger budget for the day ahead. I also found that little increments of exercise also helped. I didn’t need to walk 10km. I could walk 1km and it helped.
Key 5: Start strict
Chronometer gives you options. There are two main settings I manipulate depending on the day. I always start with the strictest settings. They are:
- Put my activity level as Sedentary – it gives me fewer calories to spend.
- Say I want to lose the maximum amount of weight it offers – 0.9kg a week.
That’s what I start off with each day. If I am eating more than usual, I will go to the activity level and move it to Lightly Active. It immediately adds a batch of calories. There have been busy days where I’ve overeaten and I’ve put it onto Moderately Active. I am pretty active and it should probably be on Moderately Active all the time, but I am still on a weight loss plan, so I leave it as Sedentary and work from there.
The strictest settings have given me the greatest success, but with the options and being able to manipulate them, if I find myself feeling like I’m starving, I go ahead and eat. Quite often with the sea swimming, I am rabidly hungry when I get home, but then I’ve also burned a lot of calories and usually I can end the day without changing settings.
Key 6: These Probiotics
I’m just throwing this out there, because I am not 100% sure it works, but it may do. I have been taking a new probiotic. My friend started it and with no changes to her diet, suddenly found herself losing a bit of weight. So I started the same ones. I had already been losing weight, but I broke through some barriers after I started taking it so I thought maybe there is something in it. Apparently it does have a strain that is associated with weight loss. Take it or leave it, whether it works for weight loss or not, it’s good for you. (You can get it at Dischem – it’s in the fridge and must be kept in the fridge).
The success I have had is I’m down 11kg. I now weigh 69kg. The last time I was below 70kg was probably when I was in my early 40s. I never knew it would be possible to get to this weight. My Graph.
This is me on 26th February. I was excited because it was nearly Mike’s birthday and my goal was to be 70 by the time he turned 70. I did it, but also gained 2kg with the birthday celebrations!! I’ve lost 3kg since then.
So that’s my weight loss journey and I’m feeling so much better for it. I’m more agile and have more energy. Crazy thing is I still don’t think I can keep up with Mike who is 13 years older than me!
As for today, we went down to the beach a little later than usual. The wind had not dropped and I ended up swimming in massive swell, which surprisingly I enjoyed. The water was still not too cold. Fish Hoek beach around 9am.
I worked for most of the day and we had sushi for dinner which was delish!
Psalm 4:7
You have given me greater joy than those who have abundant harvests of grain and new wine.
The best is yet to come – we are only passing through.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you.
In His Grip,
Helga xx 🙂