After my naturopathy treatment, I tried sticking to their diet plan but it was difficult to sustain schedule of lunch at 11 am and dinner by 6 pm. Slowly some of the old habits came back, for instance, weekend cosmopolitans or late dinners due to work pressure.
However since I could exercise more, I didn't gain weight…instead I lost about 5-6 pounds. But that wasn't enough...I still had 30+ pounds to shed. I stayed on this track for a year - still marginally in obese category, but eating healthier than before and exercising more. I did make another farm visit in between for a week, lost no weight but could exercise even more, though still could not jog/run.
I wasn't getting results at the pace I would have liked but I was not ready to give up. I would work out religiously, stay away from high calorie stuff like pizza or ice-creams but something was not working. I was stuck at this weight.
Then came time for my annual vacation at a beach resort. Earlier vacation for me meant eating and I would usually end up gaining 5-6 pounds in 5 days. So this year I was determined not to gain weight. I went to gym in morning, swam for an hour in evening. I kept my drinks to maximum 2 a day; stuck to 2 meals a day – late breakfast and early dinner; didn't eat ice-creams or chocolates and yet I gained a pound a day. 5 days and 5 pounds later I was devastated…where did I go wrong? I worked out (as best as I could with the pain), I ate sensibly and yet I ended up gaining weight!!!
I knew I had to get to the root of this problem and for that I needed data (those who know me are probably smiling right now :) ) I knew I have to now start calculating how many calories I am eating, how much I am burning and then find out where the problem lies.
Last time when I had started calorie counting it was a pretty painful exercise, I had no tool, no database and everything was manual. But this time I remembered someone who had lost about 60 pounds, a couple of years ago, by using a calorie counting app. So I went ahead and downloaded the app on my smartphone, created my profile, entered my weight loss goals and got back the net calorie goal. Now I was ready to start logging in.
As I started logging in my food entries, I found that while my main meals were not an issue in terms of calories, it was the so called healthy snacks (sugar free biscuits for instance) that were adding to my calorie count. I also learnt that walking doesn't burn as many calories as I had thought. In summary my intake was same as spend and hence I wasn't losing weight. The first step to get moving from this plateau was to create a calorie deficit through lower calorie diet and more exercise.
For diet correction, I went back to drawing board - this time a virtual one and designed a 1200 calorie diet for me. I created recipes on this app, using actual quantities of raw ingredients being used in my kitchen, and computed calories of each serving of daily food that I was consuming. Soon I realized that I needed to cut down on the second helping of "healthy" vegetables because while we may all curse potato, a big chunk of healthy vegetables are also calorie rich. Yes they provide additional micro-nutrients that a potato doesn't but that doesn't mean we should consume them as much as we want to. While the app in itself wasn't the solution, but it was instrumental in educating me about making better food choices. I could no longer tell myself that since I have walked for 30 minutes, I have earned that slice of pizza.
Next step was upping my calorie burn - this was a tougher variable to solve for considering I was still in pain and still in need of daily physical therapy sessions. In addition, Praveen had left Bangalore and since them I had been through a series of therapists - all of them were good but none could provide me lasting relief.
By this point, I had been in pain for 4.5 years and 3.5 years since the diagnosis of fibromyalgia. For last 3.5 years I was using therapy as an alternative to consuming pain killers as the latter is toxic (though much cheaper). While I was aware that physiotherapy is not going to cure me, I just didn't know what truly will. In summary, this plateau was something I hadn't figured out a way, yet, to move from.
However since I could exercise more, I didn't gain weight…instead I lost about 5-6 pounds. But that wasn't enough...I still had 30+ pounds to shed. I stayed on this track for a year - still marginally in obese category, but eating healthier than before and exercising more. I did make another farm visit in between for a week, lost no weight but could exercise even more, though still could not jog/run.
I wasn't getting results at the pace I would have liked but I was not ready to give up. I would work out religiously, stay away from high calorie stuff like pizza or ice-creams but something was not working. I was stuck at this weight.
Then came time for my annual vacation at a beach resort. Earlier vacation for me meant eating and I would usually end up gaining 5-6 pounds in 5 days. So this year I was determined not to gain weight. I went to gym in morning, swam for an hour in evening. I kept my drinks to maximum 2 a day; stuck to 2 meals a day – late breakfast and early dinner; didn't eat ice-creams or chocolates and yet I gained a pound a day. 5 days and 5 pounds later I was devastated…where did I go wrong? I worked out (as best as I could with the pain), I ate sensibly and yet I ended up gaining weight!!!
I knew I had to get to the root of this problem and for that I needed data (those who know me are probably smiling right now :) ) I knew I have to now start calculating how many calories I am eating, how much I am burning and then find out where the problem lies.
Last time when I had started calorie counting it was a pretty painful exercise, I had no tool, no database and everything was manual. But this time I remembered someone who had lost about 60 pounds, a couple of years ago, by using a calorie counting app. So I went ahead and downloaded the app on my smartphone, created my profile, entered my weight loss goals and got back the net calorie goal. Now I was ready to start logging in.
As I started logging in my food entries, I found that while my main meals were not an issue in terms of calories, it was the so called healthy snacks (sugar free biscuits for instance) that were adding to my calorie count. I also learnt that walking doesn't burn as many calories as I had thought. In summary my intake was same as spend and hence I wasn't losing weight. The first step to get moving from this plateau was to create a calorie deficit through lower calorie diet and more exercise.
For diet correction, I went back to drawing board - this time a virtual one and designed a 1200 calorie diet for me. I created recipes on this app, using actual quantities of raw ingredients being used in my kitchen, and computed calories of each serving of daily food that I was consuming. Soon I realized that I needed to cut down on the second helping of "healthy" vegetables because while we may all curse potato, a big chunk of healthy vegetables are also calorie rich. Yes they provide additional micro-nutrients that a potato doesn't but that doesn't mean we should consume them as much as we want to. While the app in itself wasn't the solution, but it was instrumental in educating me about making better food choices. I could no longer tell myself that since I have walked for 30 minutes, I have earned that slice of pizza.
Next step was upping my calorie burn - this was a tougher variable to solve for considering I was still in pain and still in need of daily physical therapy sessions. In addition, Praveen had left Bangalore and since them I had been through a series of therapists - all of them were good but none could provide me lasting relief.
By this point, I had been in pain for 4.5 years and 3.5 years since the diagnosis of fibromyalgia. For last 3.5 years I was using therapy as an alternative to consuming pain killers as the latter is toxic (though much cheaper). While I was aware that physiotherapy is not going to cure me, I just didn't know what truly will. In summary, this plateau was something I hadn't figured out a way, yet, to move from.
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