Ninety Days - No Cheat

In my last Tale of the Scale post, I lamented that I "am eating right" and expressed surprise that I wasn't losing weight to my satisfaction. Then I read a comment on Art Devany's blog that served as a wake up call of sorts. Yes, I eat right most of the time; however, more and more lately I have had these little excursions back into the land of excess carbs. I've been sloughing them off as "no big deal" but the facts don't support that. Here's what I know is true. During the first three months of my fitness journey, I did not "cheat!" I didn't take a single Hershey's Kiss from the jar on the secretary's desk, or a scoop of ice cream, or anything else that didn't fall in Mark Sisson's "Primal Nutrition" plan. The results were pretty dramatic--30 pounds lost in three months. Then I had a double whammy. An injury curbed my exercise, and I started giving in to an indulgence here and there. The injury is pretty much healed but I've fallen into this cycle where I do great during the week, but tend to take a hard fall off the wagon on weekends.

Many years ago I was a sysop on the old GEnie service as well as a frequent poster on the Prodigy cycling boards. My sig then included the phrase "In the field of human performance, we are each an experiment of one." I've seen similar wording used concerning nutrition, health, etc. The last few months have convinced me that the process described by Taubes whereby excess carbs are converted to fat, definitely applies in my case. If I want to remain a fat-burning machine, I have to stop the carb binging.

The Plan

Since I did so well those first ninety days, I am going to repeat them. I'm going to do these next 90 days like I did those. The only thing I will eat to placate the sweet tooth is a piece of fruit. I'm not going to buy anymore of the sugar-free popsicles because they only serve to fuel my desire for sweet deserts. I'm going to do a couple of kick-ass kettlebell workouts a week in addition to a couple of racquetball matches, and some easy recovery walks. I'm still going to get some work in at the gym--pull ups, thrusters, some ab work--but I'm not going to worry about those as much for now. I know the formula that worked before--I'm going to see if it will work again.