Today went a lot better overall, at least from the standpoint that I felt more energetic than I did yesterday. Once again, I started off the day with 2 cups of coffee. I was then in meetings all morning, right through lunch. For lunch, I decided to hit St. Louis Bread Company again. Once again, I decided on the Chicken Caesar Salad, this time with a whole grain baguette and large iced tea. Before ordering my salad, I sat in amazement and awe for a few minutes – the Affton location has the new menu boards with calories listed right next to each of the items (including both whole and half portions). Once again, I want to applaud Panera for going in this direction, and I really hope other national chains follow their lead. I actually looked around for other ideas with comparable calorie counts to my salad, but in the end, decided I was really in the mood for my salad moreso than soup or sandwich. Tomorrow perhaps?
The rest of the afternoon was pretty uneventful. Didn’t really start getting hungry until just before 5PM. That was good, as it allowed me to go home and fix dinner without starving myself. For dinner, I fixed 2 grilled chicken breasts (about 10oz total) and a can of spinach. Afterwards, I was still hungry, but I gave myself about an hour to make sure it wasn’t my brain waiting to catch up with my stomach. After an hour, I was still looking for SOMETHING to eat – wonder if it might be my sitting here watching food-filled commercials, so I decided to have an orange. After consuming the orange, I was on cloud nine. Delicious and juicy! I decided to have another; I mean, what can it hurt? Absolutely amazing!! I’d gone this far, I wanted at least one more. Besides, I only had one left. So, in all, I had 3 “after dinner” oranges. I’m sure it’s better than most of the snacks I could have chosen, but it did add a few calories to my daily total.
Almost forgot, my official weigh in was this morning. Came in at 332.2lbs. Not as bad as I was last night, but still not good at all! I’ve got a lot of catching up to do before I get back to my lowest weight of 283, and even farther to go before my goal weight of 180. The scale was still having troubles reading my body fat percentage, so until I get that number down, I’ll just go with weight as my main progress tracking method.
One of the concerns that I had the last time I did the diet, and even moreso now, is the idea of loose skin. What’s the point of losing the weight if I can’t be comfortable without my shirt on? (Besides prolonging my life, and being healthier overall 
) This scares me even more now, since I’m aiming for rapid weightloss, unlike the previous time when I was happy with 1-2lbs/week. Most of what I’m reading says it’s not the speed that you lose, but the fact that you’ve lost a LOT of muscle along with the fat. So, now I’m looking for ways to either protect my muscle mass, or gain additional muscle mass. I’ll do a post this weekend with all of my findings and how it works, but so far, it’s the best information I’ve seen on the subject. Nonetheless, I’m looking for ways to protect muscle mass during rapid weight loss. So far, a friend of mine has recommended the one thing I did know, weight training, followed by a heavy dose of protein. If I’m going to get into the weight training again, I’ll have to get some more ready made protein shakes, specifically the low calorie / low carb kind I used in the past. Another friend of mine, however, said that he found information on the internet stating that there’s no point in weight training when you’ve got over 30% body fat, and that burning down the fat should be the primary goal. I’ve tried to get him to send me the link where he found this information, but I’ve had no success on that front.
So, the biggest questions I’ve got so far, besides protecting muscle, is how safe a low calorie diet is? I’ve heard that hovering in the ranges that I’m aiming for is dangerous, since that level is more-or-less just the amount needed to maintain brain activity. Most recommendations are for me to have at least 2100-2300 calories in a day – and I’m aiming between 700-900 LESS than that amount. So, am I doing the right thing for me and my health? Honestly, I see gastric bypass surgery as cutting out MUCH more than I’m doing, and yet that’s proven to be safe. However, that’s usually done under a doctor’s supervision. So many ways this can go.
Anyway, I need to head to bed, it’s getting late. I just wanted to get the post in before going to sleep, while it was still fresh on my mind. Lots to think about and ponder. I just hope tomorrow goes as well as the last two days have gone. It’ll be a farewell lunch for a coworker – so we’ll be going wherever he wants to go for lunch. Unfortunately, that means I’ll have less control over my menu, and will have to be more careful what I order, and what I eventually eat. Even if it’s something “bad”, I might be able to just eat a smaller portion and cut back that way, saving the rest for dinner later tomorrow night. I’ll have to let you all know how that goes tomorrow night.
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