I've tried this DietBet thing once before. In the fall I did a DB4, and I failed miserably. I put on five pounds. It wasn't a good thing.
See, in early 2014 I'd lost about 17lbs, I was looking pretty good, feeling healthy, and thought I knew where my life was going. Then my fella and I (together 3.5 years) took a three month break from our relationship. I spent a lot of time drinking in pubs with my friends, eating whatever I wanted to, and generally making poor food choices. In late summer I bought a car, and suddenly put on nearly ten pounds as I cut a lot of the walking and cycling out of my life. Yikes! When M and I got back together in September I thought I'd go back to my healthy ways, but it turned out it was more fun for us to eat comfort food and sit on the couch together. Things have gotten worse, and I returned to my all-time high weight over just over 170lbs.
So it's time for a change. My brother is getting married on July 25th, and I want to be at my first goal weight (140lbs) by then. That's a 30lb difference, and even with six months to get there it's going to be hard work. Being committed to DietBet will help with that, not to mention the awesome supportive group of friends online and in real life who are fantastic examples and motivators. Wow! Even my fella (we got back together in September) is keen to get moving, as he's getting a little softer around the middle than he'd like to be.
Here's my long-term plan. I want to make this a habit, so that I don't find myself sliding to the upper end of the scale again. This needs to be a new Elisabeth -- one who can afford to have the bad food sometimes because she sticks to her movement and fitness goals. The lowest I've been in the last five years is 145lbs, and that felt great! I liked how energized and confident I felt, and I want to make that my norm.
The Plan:
Swimming: minimum 3x/week (MWF), at least 30 min each time, but 40 min at least once. This level suits my endurance and skill level right now, but my hope is to bump this up as I get in better shape, to the point where I could do a swimmer's mile (1500m) each time I go out.
Hockey: Saturday nights. I'm not very good at it, but the other girls on the pick-up team are incredibly good about it, and fortunately there are also other learners, so we can support and encourage each other.
Cycling: On hiatus while the bike is in storage for the winter. Those winter cyclists are braver than me!
Skating: As often as the weather permits, I plan to go skate on the Oval, a free open-air rink quite near my work.
Walking: I'm committed to walking at least 7,000 steps a day, ideally 10,000 per day. To keep track of this, I'm using a FitBit One, and I've found it enormously motivating.
Food:
I'm using MyFitnessPal to track my food intake. It has me set at 1200 calories, and I will eat back my exercise calories (except for the odd days when I feel full without doing so. Those days are great!)
I know that extreme deprivation is a bad idea. I have used it in the past, to temporarily great effect, but the instant I go back to "normal" I eat terribly. I need to build new habits about what I put in my body, and these need to be life-long.