Winter Season Adjustment
This blog never was about being on a diet to lose weight; it is about my attempt to return to fitness with My Fitness Triangle, Food plan-Exercise plan-Peaceful spirit. I am restating that because I am stuck. After my weight dropped to 225 pounds and I was feeling good about the progress, everything came to a standstill. The pounds stopped dropping off and my back went out.
The Plateau
It took me about 3 years to make the psychological and physiologic adjustment to living in the Great Northwest, a place with winter. I grew up in Southern California and that is how my head and body worked. In the rustic outback of Oregon, I learned there are jobs and tasks to go with each season. As the weather and temperature change, your mind and body go through changes too. I believe something similar is happening to me now, an adaptation period. The Mayo Clinic defines a weight-loss-plateau: “Muscle helps keep the rate at which you burn calories (metabolism) up. So as you lose weight, your metabolism declines causing you to burn fewer calories than you did at your heavier weight”. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/in-depth/weight-loss-plateau/art-20044615.
Here are 4 things they say to do. 1). Reassess your habits. Research suggests that off and on loosening of rules contribute to plateaus. 2). Cut more calories. Further cut your daily calories. 3). Rev up your workout. Increase time and intensity plus add weight training to increase muscle mass which will help burn more calories. 4). Pack more activity into the day. Think outside the gym. Walk more, use the car less, do more to burn calories. This all fits for me.
Basal Metabolic Rate
I used to work with a guy who looked really lean. His name was Cleary. He would park his car about 3 blocks from our work front door. I asked him why? Cleary said he used to weigh over 300 pounds and now was 187. I was amazed, so I ask what diet he had used. He said he had not used a diet but rather had used portion control and walking to lose the weight over a 3 year period. He said he parked his car each day farther and farther from where he was headed to get more activity until it was now his healthy habit. He had the answer for him.
WebMD on weight loss plateau says the #1 tool is “Imagine you healthy and vibrant”. This is from Katherine Tallmadge, MA, RD, author of Diet Simple, “The mind is a strong tool__use it to achieve what you want. Have a vision of success”. I like that and I can meditate on My Fitness Triangle.
If I stick with my plan it will all work out. BMR is on my side. Basal Metabolic Rate is the minimum number of calories your body organs need to function while you perform no activity. I think of it as the amount of energy I’d burn if I stayed in bed all day. I used an online BMR calculator to find that my body uses 1806 calories a day on that. I am doing a 2030 calorie a day plan, at some point, my weight has to come down.
In the spirit-Dave
HEALTHY AT 120 