Week 7 So Far...

It's been quite a tough week so far, but I'm still seeing good results in spite of it.

I got a bit concerned mid-week, as I looked at what I was eating, and realised that I was regularly consuming no more than 500 calories a day. I'd have a 3-egg ham omelette for breakfast, and then say a chicken breast for lunch, and nothing in the evening. I didn't even feel especially hungry, but I definitely want to be eating more than that. I want this weight loss to remain as healthy and maintainable as possible, and a calorie intake as low as that puts the protein in my muscles at risk - there's a chance my weight loss will start coming from loss of muscle, rather than loss of fat.

I've tried to up my calorie intake, and I've also been taking in more carbs. Its hard though - the more carbs I eat, the hungrier I get. It's like pushing one foot out over a precipice, and trying to counter the pull of gravity to keep myself on balance. I thought I might have overdone it, especially after I had a mini-celebration on reaching the 260's (a special target of mine), consisting of chicken kievs, onion rings, and then ice-cream for dessert. But the weight has certainly still been shifting, and as long as nothing drastic happens these next two days, I should have a good loss to report on Monday.

I've come down with a bit of a cough too, which is having an impact. It makes running harder, which is frustrating, as I've really started to enjoy it again. It's also impacting on my sleep, and when I'm tired during the day, I'm more likely to a) shirk on exercising, and b) have some coffee or a Red Bull. I'm still running several pounds/weeks ahead of my weight-loss schedule, so I can afford to take some time out if need be, but there are two problems with that. The first is that I don't want to jeopardise my commitment or enthusiasm by seeing the pounds slowly eke back on over the weeks. The second is that I've become quite greedy for the loss of pounds - I'm getting fairly obsessive about recording a loss every week, and that might be why my calorie-intake dropped so low.

My regularly scheduled lectures end soon, and then I'm more or less house-bound revising. That change in routine will surely have an impact on my diet-exercise dynamic, so I'm going to have to keep a weather eye on that. None of my colleagues have noticed my weight loss so far (or at least, they haven't said so to me), so I want to make good progress over the months of not seeing them - come next year, they won't even recognise me!