Muke's growing journey

Gaining week ended early due to having to leave for Denver for the weekend. Came out with a bit of a loss, but I kind of expected it; will be eating more reasonably next week… I’m not gonna wait till 195 like I said last post to up my gain rate. Next weekend is an extra-long weekend for me as well, and I’ll be home with time to myself… think I’ll try and stuff myself pretty good then. I wanna be at a good respectable weight by MFF at November’s end!

The gain plan goes rather well:  I don’t bother counting calories on days off, and I stick to the DP calorie budgets during the week.  Regaining has been surprisingly easy, and my allotment of calories is getting to be so low it’s almost comical—not that I mind, of course.  I don’t feel too much bigger yet, though; after I reach my current short goal of 195 I’ll try ramping it up a little.   (Oh, and I’ll put up a video then, too.)

The eating was easier to manage this week, chiefly because the goal wasn’t as high, me trying to reach 190 by the end of the month and being already halfway there.  Still, lots of snacks involved, getting hungrier than usual, and felt good and big and round all week.

The DP calorie budgets are lower than usual, for whatever reason; usually I have to eat so much even for a small amount of progress.   Possibly eating more often in the day helps—lately it’s been breakfast (bagels), lunch (usually rice and vegetables), snack (popcorn), dinner (this week it was tacos and mashed potatoes), and another snack (yogurt).   Gonna try making a lasagna next week.

I did hit 190 on the scale about midweek, so I’ve reset my goal to 195 by this time next month.  (For reference, 190 on the new scale is the same as where I weigh 200 on the old scale I used to report by, so I’m nearly back to my best weight.)  A pound a week gain doesn’t sound impressive—it’s a fragile gain, easy to lose—but aiming too high is an easy way to get discouraged, and it’s still fifty pounds a year if you can keep it up.  In a perfect world, though, I’d like to hit 225 at least by MFF time; maybe I can, if I get to running ahead of schedule, but I won’t push for it.

Pics at 190 were promised…

More at BF.

Stuck to the diet reasonably well this week, and last night measured in at four pounds heavier than the week before. That may sound like a lot, but big changes like that usually happen when I’m starting out my efforts; which I suppose is just the change from running on half empty to running on a full tank; after this it usually gets harder to progress.

But, of course, I’m sticking to it. I use DietPower to keep track of weight and calories and calculate my “metabolism” (I do so despise that word). I’ve mentioned before that entering all those individual foods daily is tedious and unrewarding, which is still to an extent true; what I’ve been doing for the past couple of weeks, which I think I can sustain better, is just putting my whole meal plan for the week in at once: while I’m filling out my grocery order, I just take what I plan to eat and put it down for the day I plan to eat it on. Then everything’s accounted for so long as I eat everything I bought, and I only have to go in at the end of the week to put in my weight. The program’s pretty good, so long as you stick to its calorie budget—and planning while buying the groceries helps keep me from falling short and having nothing in the house to eat.

Anyway, that’s my plan. Enough rambling for now. Pics when I get to 190.