Commitment week 2

77.5kg, lowest weight in 7 months, 9 days

Last week went well, I went for some walks, and ran a bit as well. I'm still not what I would call fit, I can only run for 10 minutes at a time, but I can do multiple runs a day if I have the opportunity. Eating has been near perfect. I only had one splurge and that involved using up my birthday ice cream. That's all gone now, ice cream is my favourite junk food, I'm not sure when to buy it next. I could go without it like I'm doing for pizza (I haven't had pizza since late August 2009) or I could treat myself to a container say 5kg above goal. I'll think about it.

I have decided to go low carb again. I thought that since I could theoretically reach goal in less than 3 months (reality says otherwise - but anyway...) I can do without fruit for 3 months. It really is easier that way, but the trade off is that I never feel full and food is boring. We'll see. That explains my large drop in weight this week, when you go low carb your body loses a lot of water in your muscles. Of course when you go back to normal eating, the water weight comes back on.

I'm travelling to Dunedin again today, I tend to eat poorly on trips and also when I'm there, hopefully going low carb will help with that. I will post a food dairy from the trip (shudder!).

I should ask myself the same question each week: have I made a commitment to weight loss this week? Definitely.

I'm the lowest weight in about seven months. Only a few kilograms more and it's back to lowest weight in over seven years.

Enough crawling: the final push to goal - Commitment week 1

78.8kg

My weight loss has been extremely slow recently, I guess I am just freewheeling, and not really putting much effort into things. This has got to stop. I want to go overseas. What's that got to do with things? About 4 years ago, when I decided to go overseas for a holiday as a reward at goal weight I also made a promise to myself. The promise was that I wouldn't go unless I was at goal weight. Then six months ago I became single and had the opportunity to live overseas for a year if I wanted to. I gave myself a year to get used to the idea first (I've never been overseas before) so in 6 months, I want to be jetting off into the sun, heat, humidity that is called The Philippines. A place where people point with their lips, white people pay a "skin tax" and security guards are armed (I haven't seen a gun in at least 20 years).

How do I get there? I lose weight. Starting today I really make a effort towards it. Weekly posting. Seeing how much exercise I can do, without being exhausted all of the time. Eating properly. I've had my birthday (yesterday) so there is no reason to delay or lose track.

I have a rate of weight loss that I'm aiming for. I'm wary of posting it here because I've failed so many personal challenges before. However, it's not impossible if I apply myself. This goes back to the fundamental reason why so many people fail in losing weight. The "C" word. You need Commitment. Some people just don't have it, and for me it has waxed and waned over the years since I've started this blog, nearly two and a half years ago.

I'm going to make a commitment for healthy eating and reasonable amounts of exercise. Let's see what happens!

There are at least 6 different types of hunger

Current weight: 78.7kg

Hunger. Everyone experiences it, just like everyone experiences pain, tiredness or unhappiness. But I think it's useful to distinguish the different types of hunger. They are not all the same. It is possible to feel full and hungry at the same time. Knowing the cause of why you feel hungry can help with deciding whether to eat or not. Here's my list:

1. An empty stomach: your stomach contains sensors that knows how full it is. This signal is sent to the brain, and you can easily feel that your stomach is empty. Or when it's full. I try to ignore this feeling, when it's empty. It really doesn't mean anything. Having a full stomach is a nice feeling, though. It's a major reason why I gave up on a low carb diet, as I wasn't eating any fruit and I missed that full stomach feeling.
2. Tiredness. I am tired 99.9 percent of the time. I've been this way for nearly 20 years now, and I attribute my weight issues to tiredness (when I'm not watching my weight, I put on about 1 kilogram a month, about an extra apple a day). The more tired I am, the hungrier I am. I can be ravenous when I'm exhausted. This is caused by hormones making you hungry. I guess it's a short-term mechanism to give you a spurt of energy to keep going. When I have a nap, and I'm not (or less) tired, what happens? I'm not hungry.
3. Your body is lacking in food. This is the only reason why I should eat. When I have my "perfect" eating days, this is why I eat. Ideally, you try to not get really hungry and over eat. It is also possible to feel full (having just eaten a few apples a minute or two ago) and still be hungry, as your body hasn't digested the apples yet.
4. A stimulating environment. Have a filling meal and then walk into a supermarket. Feel hungry? This is probably just psychological (ie it all takes place in your brain) but it is hard to resist. This is the reason why I try to not go to the supermarket too often. I have to go roughly every 5 days (most of my food can last a week, the exception is bananas) which is bad enough as it is.
5. Unknown reasons. Pain, tiredness and sadness can happen for unknown reasons, and the same happens with hunger. Who knows what the cause is. Does it matter? If I am eating consistantly, I know that it shouldn't be there, and will probably go away soon.
6. Food anxiety. This was discovered recently, I drove to work, and 3 blocks away from home, I realised that I'd forgotten to take my food. I could turn around and get it but I absolutely hate being late for work. Anyway, there is a food vending machine at work. Yes, a very dangerous thing. I knew that I could buy a cookie for lunch, and if I was hungry at the end of my shift, maybe something else. I start work. What happens? I'm hungry for 3 hours. I'd just eaten before leaving work, so my body didn't need food. I was just anxious, either eating too much or too little. Ironically, about half an hour before I was about to eat the cookie, my hunger went away.

That's my list. I guess there might be a few different ways that I haven't discovered yet, or different ways of interpreting things.