I’ll start out with observations I noted each week since starting this ridiculous journey.  I wrote these as I went along.  I only edited it for formatting, grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.  You may see an evolution of thoughts and lessons.  I’ll end with the performance outcome from the first month.

WEEK 1

- Don’t try to get calories perfect.  Expect calories to be approximate.  Aim for perfect, be content with +/- 20%.

- It is very hard to get an accurate accounting of calories, let alone an accounting of all them.  If you try to be "perfect" about it, it would be very easy to get discouraged and to allow the discouragement to become self-defeating.  Keep in mind, it’s all data, and we’re looking for trends, correlation and causalities.  If it could be perfect, this exercise would not have become (or would ever be) necessary.

- Be careful with food labels.  The total calories FREQUENTLY doesn’t add up from the sum of the parts.  Typically, the total on the label is LESS than if you calculate

Calories = Fat[g]*9[cal/g] + Carb[g]*4[cal/g] + Protein[g}*4[cal/g] based on the individual parts.

- Weigh as often as you can (thanks @erwilleke).  At one point this week I was down more than 4lbs, but at the prescribed weighing, I was only down 1lb.  I know that at the prescribed weigh-in time, I was still carrying a number of days of b/m.  Had it not been for the earlier mid-week weigh-ins, I might’ve been discouraged even knowing that I was heavier than I would have been had I expelled my waste.  I must get to "regularity" — need to drink more of things that aren’t dehydrating me.

 

- Make friends with various nutrition/energy bar supplements.  Chosen wisely, they’re great for energy, fiber, and a sweet-tooth or dessert.  Also, properly selected, they’re great to keep the metabolism going between main meals as well as to stave off being too hungry at meals.  (You don’t want to ever be ’starving’ at a meal.  bad idea.  In case you were wondering, I’ve learned you want to be eating at least 200-300 calories every 2-3 hours.  If you find yourself ’starving’, you’re better off eating something "bad" (like a small candy-bar or other snack) for 100-200 calories to prevent being ravenous at a meal.)

WEEK 2

- Try even less to get the calories perfect.  Seriously, it’s not going to happen, and it turns out, it’s not the point really.

- Good solid healthy meals don’t have to have a lot of calories, but you’re probably going to have to make them yourself. 
Ex: eggs/omelettes for breakfast, without lots (or any) cheese, low-fat wraps, load-up with vegetables.

- Keep salad around A LOT and make your own dressing.

- You can probably walk on a treadmill every day and not hurt yourself.  In fact, you’ll probably benefit from doing so as your body gets used to it and doesn’t stiffen back up.  Recent studies are even showing that, for example, 3 intense 10 minute work-outs spread out along a day are probably as good (or better) for you as one 30-minute work out.  I haven’t tried that approach yet.  Not sure I’ll get to it.

- Drink a lot.  Especially things that don’t have much caffeine.  Keep water around.  Don’t let yourself get too thirsty or you’ll drink whatever’s within reach and that can also end up being garbage for you.  Otherwise, you’ll (a) think you’re hungry, and (b) get ’stopped up’ — if you know what I mean.

- This week included/ended with Thanksgiving weekend and the start of week 3 included a trip to the Raven’s game (i.e., Tailgating)

- Weight drop from week 1 returned (mostly) and working it off wasn’t working.  Very bummed but surprisingly determined nonetheless.  Re-thinking my strategy.

- I perceive that my b/m aren’t regular and that I may be quartering excess unevacuated waste — leading to weight gain/plain this week.

WEEK 3

- Despite a tailgate and several unaccounted meals all weekend since Thanksgiving, Monday AM weigh-in was more than Sunday but still under the starting weight.

- Dropping target caloric intake to 2000 calories starting Monday had an immediate effect.  Started losing 1+#/day immediately.
- Keeping to 2000 cal/day seems easier than 2400 for some reason.  Suspect the increased calories further increases appetite.  Thinking there’s a metabolic tipping point for me somewhere between 2000 and 2400 calories.

- Finding a number of high-ROC (return on calories) meals.  Most of which include Amylou’s chicken sausages, Morningstar Farms breakfast patties or "Egg Beaters".  Filling, satisfying and YUMM!

- Have generally not been counting slow carbs from vegis in my caloric calculations, or skim milk in my coffee.  Do count dressing, fatty additives and cream if used.

- When calorie counting is impractical, I’m using the "3 hand plate" rule, aka, the "Fat Loss Plate".  I’m also keen to avoid obvious starches when not able to account for calories.

- I honestly don’t feel deprived despite several days of significantly low caloric consumption.

WEEK 4

- 2000 cal/day FTW!  Weight moving nicely in the right direction.

- Tracking calories has made it easy to associate meals, dishes, and portion sizes to their respective caloric impact.  Just goes to show you how measures have a benefit beyond what the data tells you, but that you can make associations with measures to other (performance) parameters to help guide decision-making even in the absence of precise data.

- Worry *EVEN LESS* about calories being perfectly counted.  Shooting for 80% weekly.  With the observations on caloric impact of various dishes, meals, and portion sizes, it’s actually becoming easier to worry less about the science and more about observation.

- Caloric impact observations together with tracking the calories have also made it FAR easier to take note of how much food is necessary before being full — this makes it easier to stop eating when no longer hungry, to allow tempting foods to just sit there, to be satisfied with less than what might otherwise seem like a reasonable portion, and to be more attentive to when I’m truly hungry, and what I’m hungry for.  Ex: If I know that a meal made from veggie breakfast patties, sliced veggies and hearty bread is filling, satisfying for H hours and consumes C calories, not only have I learned what a satisfying meal looks like, but also what it does/doesn’t have to include in order to be satisfying as well as the calories involved.

- I’ve gone through the spreadsheet and started (where possible) to calculate daily % of Fat, Carbs, and Protein.  NOT EASY to keep to a 40/30/30 balance.

The benefit (and importance) of being regular
(I’m talking about process stability what were you thinking about?):

Without it you have no idea WHAT you’re capable of.  It would have been nearly impossible for me to get any idea whatsoever of my caloric profile without the several weeks of mostly uniform and nearly ideal conditions I’m experiencing in which to collect measures that I can use when things aren’t uniform, ideal, or stable. 
This point can’t be over-emphasized. 

Had I been on travel these last 5 weeks, this entire venture would have likely been a frustrating exercise.  Without the ability to measure most of my meals, with the ability to pay close attention to my appetite, or to exercise regularly, or have any idea/control over what’s in what I eat, I’d NEVER be able to get to a point where I can be comfortable not measuring, not worrying, not bouncing from extreme to extreme — unknowingly.

With just a few weeks of data I am confident I can enjoy treats and snacks without dumping all my work down the toilet.  Does this mean I can wantonly, indiscriminately eat junk all the time?  No.  There’s never a time when anyone can do that and not pay for it some how.  But it does mean that I can go to a wine tasting and enjoy wines and cheese and snacks and desserts and not worry about it.  Why not?  Because by the time I attended the wine tasting, I had weeks of data to train me in how much I need to eat to be satisfied, how much I can eat before over-eating, and how many calories are in certain foods as a function of food type and visual size.  And, that doesn’t even account for the fact that prior to attending the event, I knew how many calories I’d eaten and how many more calories I could still consume and still be in my target range for best results.  In other words, I could operate without the constant data gathering and now use the data I gathered to quantitatively manage my efforts.

Your processes must be clearly understood.  You must be able to operate them while accounting for the variables that affect them.  Merely measuring results (weight, for example) without the underlying processes is what you’re doing when you measure the performance side only and don’t know the variables going into that performance.

The performance of my bottom (line)

Here’s what I said I’d do when I started a month ago, alongside what I actually did…

Planned:  I plan to eat no more than 2400 calories/day, up to 6 "meals" or snacks per day.
Actual:  I started out at 2400 and dropped to 2000 after 2 weeks.  After changing to 2000 calories max, I wasn’t as good at eating 6 meals/day because I didn’t want to exceed the upper limit.  Interestingly, I wasn’t as hungry on fewer calories.  But 6 meals/day is something I want to do, so I’ll be working on it going forward.

Planned:  I plan to exercise a minimum of 5 days/week.
Actual: During this reporting period I worked out at least 6 days/week.

Planned:  I plan to weigh myself once/week.
Actual:  As noted earlier, I’m weighing-in more often.

Planned: I plan to measure my clothes size measurements once/month.
Actual: Did that.  Summary below.

So, how’d I do?

In the first sixth of my effort, I’ve lost about 25% of my goal weight.  I don’t expect this pace to continue much longer, but it’s nice anyway.

I’ve lost a surprising 0.5" in neck size, and 1"+ in chest, waist, and hips each.  Also a surprise was losing over an inch in my thigh.  I’m not sure whether that might be a function of where I measured, so I took more specific note of where I measured to make sure I’ll measure there again next month.

Overall, I’m very pleased.

See you next month.