Going Off the Reservation (Round 2, Phase 2, Day 11)

I think I've really gone off the reservation now.

Sunday was another day of cheating in the lamest, most unsatisfying and unfulfilling way you can imagine. Cheats from Sunday:

• a cup of store-bought chicken broth sipped from a mug, because I was so hungry and so cold (ran out of heating oil, no heat for three days til delivery on Monday, the bastards). I looked at the ingredients, which were all P2-approved foods (chicken, celery, water, spices) except for the very last ingredient: honey. The broth was 25 calories a cup, so any sugar was minimal, but it was there, and I ate it knowing it was there.
• at a Super Bowl party Sunday night, I had about 10 steamed shrimp with salsa in addition to all my regular food for the day. I thought maybe it would be okay because it's a protein, which helps prevent water retention. The salsa was sugar-free, but included off-protocol veggies in the ingredient list (like green peppers), and of course it was mixed vegetables, which is not allowed. But MAN was it good. It was so flavorful and delicious.

Today my weight was up a bit, I guess because of the "cheating," but it just seems so insignificant compared to eating a pan of brownies. And before Kristi chimes in to talk about scale margins of error, even if you look at a longer period of time, I'm down about a half a pound in four days this week. Almost every day, I've had an extra half portion of fruit or protein or an extra tablespoon of milk. I don't think this is self-sabotage; I really don't. I'm worried that I just don't care enough this time.

As I've mentioned, I've been training for this 10k. The last two times that I've had long runs while on the VLCD, I have been miserable the rest of the day--low energy, starving, and grumpy, and no accelerated weight loss to show for it. This morning, I knew I had a long run, so I ate scrambled eggs before I went running: one whole egg + 3 eggwhites, which should be less than 100 calories. According to the treadmill, I burned over 500 calories today, so I figured the extra 100 calories would be harmless. But I guess I'll see tomorrow. The good news is, I felt wonderful the rest of the day. Very proud and accomplished.

According to this website, you can't train intensely while on the VLCD. It says:

Please remember that the combination of the low calorie diet and the exercise could cause the body to go into starvation mode; holding onto the weight you’re trying to lose. It has a negative impact by lowering your stamina and many then lose their commitment to the diet plan.

So is it a combination of the minor cheats and the exercise that is stalling me on this round?

If I have to choose between exercise and finishing this round, I will choose exercise for now and give this thing another shot in a few months. I am six weeks into a training program that has already been really hard. I'm not going to just stop, especially since physical fitness and health is more the ultimate goal than a certain number on the scale. So I figured this week, I'll try eating the egg whites on running days and see if that helps with energy and weight loss. At the end of week 2, we'll see where things stand.

Math time.

I currently have a BMR of 1650 and based on that, my daily calorie needs should be about 2200 calories a day (I think that's conservative, it's probably more based on activity). If I'm eating, let's say 600 calories a day (which I'm not, I'm still under 500 most days, but have been up to 600 on a few days). That's a daily deficit of 1600 calories and a weekly deficit of 11,200 calories. A pound is 3500 calories, so  that mean I should lose 3.2 lbs a week easily, no matter whether I eat vegetables in combination or turkey or salsa or any of the other things you're not supposed to do on this diet. If I lose 3.2 lbs a week for the whole 6 weeks, that will be 19 pounds. This feels hard to do for 19 pounds, even though that's a lot and would bring me within striking distance of my fairly arbitrary goal weight of 169!

Gosh, I don't know. I keep saying I won't decide now what I'm doing more than a day in the future, and then I keep trying to decide now anyway. That's kind of what I do, have you met me?

Day	Date	Weight	Daily Change	Total Loss: Round 2	Total Loss: Cumulative
LD 1	1/26/2011	199.6	-
LD 2	1/27/2011	203	3.4
1	1/28/2011	204.6	1.6
2	1/29/2011	200.2	-4.4
3	1/30/2011	198.8	-1.4	-1.4	30.8
4	1/31/2011	198.2	-0.6	-1.6	31.4
5	2/1/2011	197	-1.2	-2.4	32.6
6	2/2/2011	195.6	-1.4	-4.0	34
7	2/3/2011	194.2	-1.4	-5.4	35.4
Week 1: down 5.4 for the week (not counting load weight), 35.4 total
8	2/4/2011	193.6	-0.6	-6.0	-36
9	2/5/2011	193.2	-0.4	-6.4	-36.4
10	2/6/2011	192.6	-0.6	-7.0	-37
11	2/7/2011	193	0.4	-6.6	-36.6
12	2/8/2011
13	2/9/2011
14	2/10/2011