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The healthiest thing to do that day probably would have been to ease back in, but that’s just not my way. I made bagels so that I could break my carb fast with something extraordinary and worthwhile. Then that night, at my daughter’s birthday party, I had pizza and cupcakes. Nope, no easing-in here.
I was warned by a few people that I would get sick that way, but I didn’t. My body knows what to do with carbs.
So, the grand total for the six-week low-carb experiment was 11.8 pounds lost, an average of about two pounds a week. Now, on one hand, that’s not bad. That’s a healthy amount to lose.
But to me, it wasn’t worth it. The missed lunches with friends, the things I wasn’t inspired to bake, starting to hate things I’d formerly loved, like eggs and avocados…nope, not worth it. And I didn’t get the any of the benefits that other people talk about, like more energy, or more even energy levels all day. I felt the same. I didn’t get sugar highs and lows before the low-carb thing – there was nothing to fix!
There was one very good thing to come out of the experiment though. For almost the entire six weeks, I was eating only when I was hungry, and stopping when I was full. That’s something that I need to keep doing as much as possible. I’ve always said that if I only ate when I was hungry I would weigh practically nothing.
I eat because I like food. I eat because I love the way food tastes. I eat because I love feeling stuffed and happy. And I especially love to eat when faced with free food. But I was at a fancy cocktail party with tons of hors d’oeuvres staring at me last night, and I wasn’t hungry, so I didn’t eat.
But I caught myself doing it twice today, with some Doritos and then some Chex Mix. So yeah, I need to work on that. Maybe I could get an implant that would give me an electric shock every time I took a bite of food without being hungry. Is that possible?
The Next Experiment
My goal for the next two weeks is to not gain back what I lost. I’ll be eating my way through Disney World for five days, so gaining a hefty amount back is likely than you think. But I’ll do my best.
Then, I’m going to embark on another six-week experiment. Spring is here, and I need to get out and move more, shake off the cobwebs from the long winter. I’ve been averaging 1,750 calories burned a day, according to my Microsoft Band. So I’m going to see how effective it is to use simple math and the concept of calories in, calories out.
My goal for this second weight-loss experiment, which I’m going to call #MoveToEat2015, is to lose at least one pound a week. One pound equals 3,500 calories. Each day, I will be allowed to eat 500 calories fewer than what I burned the day before. Each week, I should be burning 3,500 calories more than I’m eating.
So, for example, let’s say that on Monday I burn 2,200 calories. On Tuesday, I will be allowed to eat 1,700 calories worth of food. (However, I won’t go below 1,200 calories per day of food, no matter how few calories I’ve burned.)
And as a special incentive, any day I manage to burn 3,500 calories, the next day I don’t have to count calories at all! I’ve only burned that much once in the past month though, so unless I really get off of my ass, I don’t expect that to happen too often. [Edited to add: I’ve decided to change that to 3,000 calories, which seems a little more reasonable while still being difficult to achieve.]
I’ll be starting this new experiment on Monday, May 18th. Until, I’m just going to try not to go crazy and eat all of the carbs in the entire world.