Weight Loss By Month: September 2020

August:       12 pounds

September:  7 pounds

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Let's back up a little. On Jan 1, 2020 I reached a new personal weight high. Over the next two months I lost a total of 19 pounds. Then a pandemic hit. From March through July, I gained 21 pounds. That's about a pound a week, just eating whatever I wanted. Lots of pepperoni and pepper jack sandwiches. Bagels and cream cheese. Nutter Butters. Things like that. More than the foods themselves, was the amount of food. Lots of snacks, big meals at every mealtime. Some people gain a Freshman 15. I gained a Corona 21. 

So if you're keeping track, by August 1, 2020 I reached a new personal weight high. And then over the next two months I've lost a total of 19 pounds.

This year I've gained 21 pounds and lost a total of 38 pounds. 

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I've had a couple of realizations. 

1. I need to let go of the idea that I can eat whatever I want. When I'm not losing weight, which tends to be about 8 or 9 months out of a typical year for me, I base every food decision on taste. Like, I got into this habit with a co-worker that for every day we would go out to lunch and pick something that's delicious. Go to a sandwich place and get a big Italian sub with chips, or go to Five Guys for a burger with fries, or Raising Cane's for chicken tenders and fries, etc. 

Well, I'm now classifying that thought process of I can choose everything on taste as a "thought process from my 20's." I can't do that anymore. It's helped to talk to friends (who else?) like Niraj and hear him say that he tries to eat healthy meals for about two-thirds of his meals in a week. 

2. My mom told me I better get to my goal weight by 40 because it gets a lot harder after that. I'm three years away from 40.

3. I've never been able to eat at maintenance. But I've realized that my "maintenance" is going to be the same as what I'm eating now to lose weight. It's likely that if I keep eating exactly what I'm eating right now, (say 1750 calories) that my body won't lose weight on that forever. It will get used to that and I'll settle at a healthy weight. 

So yeah, I basically need to stick to how I'm eating forever. I've figured out how to do without writing things down. I just need to train myself that this how I have to do things always, not a temporary thing I can switch off for months at a time.