At Home on this Mountain

Monday, March 24, 2008

Playing catch-up


I haven't been overly inclined to blog lately and that's just as well because I have been as busy as a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest.  The last week of February I spent all of my spare time (and a good bit of my other time) working on a dress shirt for a friend of Honey.  It ended up being a second muslin because a few of the changes I made after the original muslin did not correspond to the needed size.  I think the next one should be just right.  For future reference- when I take an inch off the length of each shoulder seam I need to make sure the length of the yoke is still sufficient and that the sleeves are still long enough.  The mistakes were slight and not necessarily noticable to everyone but I knew what was wrong and the wearer could feel that some things were not quite right.  Besides, the fabric I used did not hold up well to even the two washings it received and one seam has already started to fail (and definitely not seamstress or machine error there)

Anyway....I have told Shan over at Honey Hill Farm that I would talk about my weight loss.  There's not really a whole lot to talk about- no top secret methods or anything.  I have lost about 20 pounds since RK was born at the end of July although I didn't really start trying until Halloween.  Thankfully we don't celebrate Halloween so I didn't have 84 pounds of HFCS in a pillowcase to resist for the month of November.


DISCLAIMER-  I am NOT a doctor or weight-loss professional nor did I ever aspire to be one (despite my stellar grades in biology and chemistry; I just got stellar grades in everything)  Please do whatever it is you're supposed to do with your doctor before attempting any weight loss program of your own. 


The first 15 pounds came off really easily and I was thrilled.  To start I multiplied my then-current weight by 15 (which is not just a random number; it has something to do with my activity level.  If I was more active I'd use a higher number like 16) to determine the number of calories I needed to consume each day in order to maintain that weight.  Then I added 500 calories to compensate for my exclusive breastfeeding status.  Then I subtracted 1000 calories from that number in order to find out how much I could eat each day in order to lose 2 pounds per week.    So my numbers in the beginning were:

180 lbs times 15= 2700

2700 cal plus 500 for nursing= 3300

3300 minus 1000=  2300 calories per day maximum intake in order to lose 2 pounds per week. 

You see, a pound of fat equals 3500 calories.  So in order to lose a pound I need to eat 3500 fewer calories than I burn.  I can do that by eating whatever I want and spending 24 hours a day on my treadmill set at the steepest incline and running at top speed.  Or I can eat less food and stay moderately active.  3500 calories divided by 7 days in a week equals a 500 calorie per day deficit.  Multiply that by 2 and you get 1000 fewer per day to lose 2 pounds in a week.  That is pretty much the most I can safely afford to lose and not let my baby feel any effects.  She still seems to be blooming so I guess we're doing all right. 

I do not like to exercise.  I enjoy a nice pilates workout now and then but I haven't done any in months.  I really need to do some for the toning (four babies will leave a bit of flab behind when they leave the mothership) but I am not depending on exercise to burn a lot of calories.  I hang all my laundry out to dry so that's how I get my fresh air.  I have 4 children under the age of 7; that's how I get in my running.

When I am really serious about counting calories I write down everything I eat and calculate the number of calories it contains.  When I am up to my current number I stop eating (in theory anyway)  I haven't done that regularly for a while now and I really need to get back on it.  I started out in November with 2300 calories a day to budget.  Now that I am down to 155 pounds I should be eating no more than 1825 to lose my 2 pounds per week.  I am thinking of stepping it down to 1 pound per week which would give me 2300 calories to work with again.  I will have to be careful not to let it go to my head and to keep really good track or I'll overspend my calories and end up flat broke and gaining weight.

I try not to restrict myself too much.  That is what I have done in the past- made all sorts of rules for myself about food and drink.  I have eliminated all sugar completely (I did lose about 10 pounds in just a few weeks that way).  I have not eaten anything after 7pm.  I have refused to drink anything but water.  I even used to be a vegetarian.  *gasp*  Every time I have ended up feeling deprived and not losing much weight before giving up (or getting pregnant).  Nowadays I try to just avoid eating much in the way of non-food (white flour and sugar, bad fats, fast food, etc) but I eat everything that my family does, including desserts and my morning coffee.  During the holidays I tried not to totally gorge on good things but I ate what sounded good and even had seconds at the big holiday dinners.  I didn't gain any weight between Thanksgiving and New Year's although I didn't lose any either.  The hardest thing was getting back to actually losing after Honey went back to work.  I am still working on that, 2 months later.

One thing to remember is that after every 5 pounds or so I have had to recalculate my calorie budget to accomodate my new weight.  The heavier a person is, the more calories he expends doing nothing.  So as he loses weight he needs to reduce the calories he's taking in because he is naturally burning fewer just by existing.  It's not a lot but it might explain some of that "plateau" phenomenon that so many people experience after a few weeks or a month of successful dieting.

One thing I like about this method is that I can also (in theory anyway) use the same type of calculation to keep weight gain under control during pregnancy.  I imagine (again, this is just a theory) that it's a lot easier to reach a normal weight after birth if one does not gain 50 or more pounds during the pregnancy.  That's a theory because I have never managed to gain less than 45 pounds during a pregnancy.  So should we be blessed again (and I am already getting baby fever and my almost-8 month-old hasn't even started solids yet!) I hope to have a leg up on the whole out of control weight gain thing. 

I am tired of this post now (I started it on March 6th!) so I am going to stop editing and publish.  Hopefully there are no crazy-bad errors and I haven't told anyone to jump off a bridge or anything. 
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Monday, March 24, 2008 - Untitled Comment


Posted by Jamie
Thank you for the laughs! I needed them. :-)
I'm right there with you on the out-of-control-weight-gain-during-pregnancies--this last one was (drum roll) 70 lbs!!!!!! eeeek!


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Preserving the Harvest 2008


~June 22nd~
*11 half-pints
honey-sweetened peach-strawberry jam
~June 27th~
*7 half-pints and 2 pints
honey-sweetened peach jam
~June 28th~
*24 home-grown chickens in the freezer
(7 whole, 17 cut up
plus feet and backs for stock!!)
~July 6th~
*8 pints and 14 half-pints
honey-sweetened peach jam
~July 16th~
*18 cups fresh green beans,
blanched and frozen
*12 pounds ripe bananas,
cut into 1 inch chunks and frozen for smoothies
~July 22nd~
*32 ears corn, blanched and frozen in meal-sized packages

What I'm reading

The Bible- currently in the book of Acts

The Last Battle by C.S.Lewis

Home Comforts by Cheryl Mendelson



What I've Read Recently

At Large and At Small by Anne Fadiman

How To Be Good by Nick Hornby

The Book of Joby by Mark Ferrari

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

World Without End by Ken Follett

Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery (for the 12th time or so)



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The Office

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Doctor Who

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Eureka

Scrubs


2008 Crafty Stats


Yardage In:

13.5 yards

Yardage Out:

3 yards

Items Made:

Money Spent:

$58.06

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