Cutting The Thanksgiving Weight

Another Thanksgiving has come and gone. I spent it in the mountains of Tennessee with family and friends in Sevierville/Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area - the home of Dollywood. We did some brief hiking with the kids in the Great Smokey Mountains and I did squeek in a couple of very short bodyweight tabatas - a six minute one on Friday with nothing but burpees - and an eight minute one on Saturday mixing burpees with lunges and air squats.

I ate with reckless abandon during the 5 day trip and was not surprised that the hiking and tabatas did not do much to keep my weight at bay. When I weighed myself upon waking up yesterday (Monday) morning on my home scale I weighed 187.4 lbs. My Tanita scale gave me a 15.5 reading on bodyfat so I was not terribly alarmed. My weight has been creeping up since early last February. My diet has been less than stellar this year as I had my share of ice cream, cake and other indulgences and kept my portion sizes rather high. I also have not participated in any organized races since I ran a 9 mile trail race back in January at the US National Whitewater Center. I have been training consistently all year but not as hard as when I am training for events. When you put all these factors together, my weight has climbed from the mid-160s to the current 187.4 peak of yesterday morning.

I decided yesterday that the weight gain is now over and I am going to clean things up. This morning's visit to the scale was encouraging - My weight was down 3.4 pounds to 184.0. Yesterday I did not do a workout. I did walk briskly from my car to the office and back to my car - about a 1/2 mile each way - carrying my laptop but it wasn't what I call a workout.

The trick to the weight loss was my diet. I have found as I get deeper into my 40s that diet is more important than exercise when trying to lose weight. That is not to say that exercise is not important. As I mentioned, my diet has been less than perfect and I have been exercising consistently. I still gained weight but I have been able to maintain healthy bodyfat levels. Had I not been exercising the wieght gain would have been more profound. My biggest isue is that it is way too easy to overeat and it is too easy to eat bad foods.

Rather than a massive breakfast I ate:
A small bowl of raw almonds, walnuts, pecans, brazil nuts, hemp seed, chia seed, raisins, coconut flakes, maple syrup, cinnamon and unsweetened vanilla almond milk. The nuts were no more than a small handful and the hemp seed was two tablespoons. The chia was two scoops. I add a small amount of raisins, maple syrup, cinnamon and coconut flakes for flavor. Without these four items, the flavor is rather bland. I try to avoid sugar at all costs when trying to drop weight but will use small amounts just to stay sane.

For lunch I had a large salad from Blynk Organic. Their salads cost just over $10 when you include a protein - my choice is usually chicken. They have a great variety of veggies and fruit that you can put in your salad. My salad was topped with a tasty Raspberry Pomegranite Vinagrette dressing and had a colorful mixture of baby greens, spinach, pineapple, celery, almonds, onions, olives, grapes amongst other things.

I did not snack at all between breakfast and lunch or between lunch and dinner - nor did snack after dinner.

For dinner I had another salad at home topped with chunky mango salsa with a fairly large boneless chicken breast in some Gator hot sauce. I mixed up the greens and my usual assortment of nuts in black pepper infused olive oil and strawberry infused vinegar. I will have an upcoming post on infused oils and vinegars as that makes eating salads much more exciting.

The three square meals were it for the day. I do have to add I do take a tablespoon of Carlson's Cod liver oil and also take Magnesium and Vitamin D supplements after my breakfast and sip water throughout the day. I plan to eat similarly today. Thus far my breakfast today was identical to yesterday. For myself, salads are definitely the key to keeping my weight in check. I recommend keeping the salads clean and don't add cheese, processed bacon bits or thick processed dressings that contain questionable oils - just add a lean protein.

I will post my weight tomorrow with an update.