STRATEGERY (part 1)

First order of business. I would like to acknowledge the talented Will Ferrell and James Downey (Saturday Night Live) as inspiration for the title of this post.

Sometimes, when we start a plan to lose weight, we set our expectations too high, or we put too much pressure on ourselves to accomplish too much too soon. Then, when we don't meet those expectations, we get discouraged and we quit the plan hoping for something new and improved to come along. I've been there and done it many times. But this time is different. I found away around this problem and it has been working for me. I hope it works for you too.

When I started out, I did the research I told you about in the Searching For Clues post and I determined how many calories I would need to eat per day to lose weight. But what I did instead of being strict about eating exactly that many calories per day, I thought about the bigger picture. Normally, what we try to do is create a calorie deficit each day to lose weight. I broadened out my scope to creating a calorie deficit for the month. It was an epiphany for me. Being older and wiser now, I know that our bodies fluctuate. Example: Some days we are hungrier than others and some days we crave certain foods over others. In other words, we have biorhythms. So I came up with a flexible plan that would accommodate our biorhythms . What I did was,  instead of limiting myself to 1800 calories a day with a risk of getting discouraged and quitting if I went over that 1800 calories, I  set  my goal to "average 1800 calories per day" for a month (you can use a week or whatever time frame works for you). So some days when I'm not that hungry I'll eat less than 1800 calories a day. On weekends we usually have a movie night, so I'll have my popcorn with butter and a coke (Classic Coke not diet) and I'll come in well over 1800 calories for that day. Some days  I'll crave some carbs, so I'll bake a potato, cut it in half and have that with a pat of butter on it. I might go over 1800 calories for those days too. But as long as I average 1800 a day for the month, I'll still have created that deficit and I'll lose weight. I've been on this plan for 4 months now and this strategy has worked to perfection. I usually come in well under my desired goal for the month and  I'm not deprived. Note:  1800 calories is just an example,  your calorie amount will probably be different.

I'll touch more on strategy in  tomorrow's post.