Chinese leftovers that disappeared

Last Friday there was a year end party for one of the groups on campus and by paying $10 we could partake in a Chinese buffet. The food was delicious with Singaporean noodles, fried rice and fried chicken and tofu and string beans. Even after taking seconds there were plenty of left overs. One of my colleagues and me decided to take some leftovers and filled up two salad containers with food. I had filled up enough for several lunches and was happy that I would not need to have carry lunch from home. And yet I knew that this was something not conducive to my weight loss plans! As it usually happens I find ways to rationalize my decisions in such moments, in this case it was, this food is going waste - eating a little of it everyday would distribute the calories!

So on Monday I don't carry my usual backpack when I walk to work since there was no need to carry lunch. At lunch time I go to the fridge to heat some of that delicious food and to my utter dismay - the entire container was gone - poof!
I had not expected anyone to steal food from the fridge in the common room - help themselves to a little of the food maybe buy WHY take the entire container? I was disappointed by the whole experience and then it struck me the whole universe is conspiring in helping me attain my weight loss goals! It was a divine intervention of sorts.

This has happened many times to me when I show up for free food placed in the common area and it is all gone. This is usually calorie dense food not in line with my plans and goals for the day and I get there to get some by rationalizing my choice. This is really some divine force working for me.

But in the case of my lunch missing - it was highly disappointing at first but then I thought about it and hoped that the person who stole the food was actually in need of it. It was something I freely received and in some sense it is good that someone in dire need used it.

In the future - I need to be more mindful of how I rationalize and stick to my goals.

First of many posts - my journey begins!

For a long time (the earliest I can find is from 2009) now I have been writing post-its with my weight loss goals and putting them on my bathroom sink, near the kitchen sink, on the fridge, by my night stand with the goal of a having a constant reminder. The idea is that I would see it everytime and remind myself of my goal and work towards it.

I recently came accross one of these post-its from 2010 that had a weight loss goal of 140 pounds. Last year my weight loss goal was 160 pounds. Evidently I have grown heavier and the start of 2016 I promised myself that this was the year when I finally achieve my goals.

Things seem to have progressed well for a month and when I began to lose a few pounds, I would revert back to my former eating habits. I have gone through feelings of disgust, despair, fear, hate, jealousy, rage, self-defeat and a ton of similar set of negative feelings with varying degrees of intensity. Somehow, through my faith in God (mostly) I have managed to stay positive. But everytime I resume with a "fresh start" the finish line seems to have moved further away.

This year in 2016, I was warned by my GP that my blood sugar levels were boderline diabetic. Actually I was told about this in 2014 too but I did nothing about it. But in June this year, I was told that I would have to begin medical intervention if the levels are not in the normal range. I promised myself that I would work towards getting a healthy weight but did not stick with it and feel miserable about it now. My GP told me that we would re-test in three months and I have not visited her since then because my weight has not reduced as yet. Last week I had a frozen should, a second recurrence in the same month which I found odd. When I researched online, I found that being diabetic is one of the risk factors for frozen shoulders.

This morning I was drawn into reading about the link between cancer and obesity and it is not very good news. I am really motivated to lose these extra pounds. So the research paper in JCO, Management of Obesity, by Naji Alamuddin, Zayna Bakizada, and Thomas A. Wadden mentioned some pretty good ideas that I knew off that have proven to be effective in weight loss.

Diet, physical activity and behaviour therapy are the three-fold approach suggested by the authors. This approach produces a mean weight loss of 6-8% in 6-12months!

So based on this article I haev found a renewed sense of purpose to lose my excess weight.
My current statistics are as follows:
Height - 5'7"
Weight 180 pounds
Waist circumference (around the belly button) - 42.5"
Hips (just below the butt) - 43"
BMI - 28.2 overweight

The upper limit of the normal BMI is 24.9 and corresponds to a weight of 159 pounds.
My waist circumference should be less than 35 inches.

So working backwards, if I were 159lb, I would need 1600 calories per day.

By the end of this year 2016, I want to be at 175 pounds. Realistically speaking I should aim for one pound per week, but I want to do two per week at first. A deficit of 1000 calories per day. This seems a little too harsh! Anyways, I read somewhere on the flat belly diet book, that a 120 pound woman would need about 1200 calories and since I am aiming for 1500 calories, I should stick to 1500 calories or less per day. This is a doable goal, since I walk and do other physical activities atleast one every day I could create this calorie deficit.

So my plans are 1) Keep a food diary for every day - will use this blog to keep track of what I ate everyday
2) Exercise for atleast 60mins everyday - walking to work counts!
3)Stick to a 1500 calorie diet.

I am all pumped up to do this - am hoping that I will achieve my goals this year.