So now I'm looking at about week 3. Two and a half, kind of, since I got the macros on a Monday and it wasn't until mid-week that I was actually getting anywhere close to hitting the right proportions. But it's been a couple of full weeks now, and the numbers, logic, and intuition are getting easier and easier.
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| A sampling of macros from the last week. Mon-Thurs |
Progress
My goal was to stay around 183 lbs and work towards recomposition. We all know that calories in and and calories out is the main key to weight changes, but to get started she put me on a maintenance diet to get me used to following rules. Since I would just eat when I was hungry, and therefore usually make not the best choices, this part was all about getting my habits to line up with my goals.
What surprised me was that things seemed to be changing even though I'm on a maintenance level diet. This is around 2650 calories divided up to 45% carbs, 35% fat, and 25% protein. My scale weight hasn't budged, which was expected, but my waist is down 2 inches, my thigh down 1 inch, and my butt and chest/back haven't changed.
It's like my body is thanking me for the surge of carbs.
Changes I've Had to Make
Protein
This one wasn't hard. At 166 g a day (0.9 g/lb body weight), I was already getting about that much anyway. Eggs, chicken, fish, milk, protein powder to fill it in. The hard part was how much of my preferred protein sources (salmon, steak, eggs) also come attached to significant quantities of fat....
Fat
This is where I had to make some changes I never thought I'd make. For instance, I drink a lot of coffee. And in every cup of coffee I usually put in about 2 tablespoons of heavy cream. THAT ADDS UP TO A LOT OF FAT! So now I use a fat free half and half. It's not quite as tasty, but I'm not cutting back my morning coffee runs. After all, I'm stopping at noon.
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| Out of the question. |
- Skim milk instead of whole milk
- Low fat cheese
- Removed nightly avocado
- Using a combo of whole eggs and egg whites for quiche
Carbs
This one was a big change, too. Since I was told to put the bulk of my carbs in the evening, I was trying to shove something around 250 grams of carbs into my facehole before bed. This didn't work. I decided to add potato to my morning quiche to make the number a little more attainable.
Even still, I'm having about 1.5 cups of white rice with my dinner, then finishing the night off with 2 cups of blueberry frosted mini wheats with skim milk for dessert. Dessert. I'm eating "dessert" of sorts!
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| A BIG part of my diet right now! |
The hardest part of all this is that you don't really get any one macro in isolation of another. My cereal has a little protein and fat in it. My protein powder has a little fat. My skim milk is carbs and protein. So I have to really plan my day out ahead of time and fiddle with the proportions to get it as close as I can. Then I have to commit to eating both ALL of this and ONLY this.
I had one off binge, and that was last night.
After a particularly heavy session at strongman training that both went really well and felt really really draining. I had other things I had to do on Saturday so I still had to cook on Sunday. ManFriend comes home and I get him to help me out with the food prep, but still. I'm exhausted and want to bask on the couch in my happy exhaustion.
So I think... "I've barely had any drink since I started this meal plan, I'm having a freakin' glass of wine as I cook!"
Which led to.... "WINE IS DELICIOUS! I'M DRINKING ALL THE WINE!"
Which then led to... "I'M DRINKING THE WHOLE BOTTLE OF WINE AND EATING THIS HANDFUL OF CHEESE!"
Classic story of feeling deserving of a "treat" and then things snowballing from there.
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