My Set Point is Set

I believe my set point is set.

It has been well over a month since my lips have touched walnut oil. During that time, I've hardly held back at all on my eating.

A typical day of eating now goes like this:

I still don't eat breakfast. Since the weather has been so cold, I usually start my day off with a cup of water and then a cup of hot chocolate. That keeps me content until lunchtime. For lunch, I usually have been eating a cup of yogurt, some fruit, some crackers and then either pudding or ginger snap cookies. Then in the afternoon between 3 and 3:30pm, I get hungry again. Sometimes I raid the vending machine. Sometimes I just drink lots of water. When I get home from work, I will head straight for the pantry and eat whatever is in there ... chips, ginger snaps, crackers ... whatever. Then my dear wife will cook dinner and I'll have at least a helping. After the kids are in bed, if there is ice cream in the freezer, I'll have a bowl.

Just this Friday night, we went to On the Border. We ordered an appetizer and then shared a full plate of fajitas. Then we shared a cream cheese desert. I was so full afterwards. That dinner didn't slow me down though. I still pigged out on Saturday and Sunday. I'd eat my own breakfast and lunch and then I'd eat whatever the kids didn't eat (I hate wasting food!)

Last night I decided that I need to stop this binge. Now that we're settled in our new home, life should be returning to normal and this week looks like the first full week of normality.

This morning I got up at 4:50am to go to the gym. I only managed to get in 20 minutes on the treadmill and 500 jumps on the jump-rope before I had to get ready to go to work. After showering, I faced the impartial judge ... the gym scale.

I fully expected to see my weight up in the 190s or even at 200. I stepped on ...

WEIGHT: 188.1
Difference: 1.9 lbs. since January 1, 2007

In my opinion, even though I seemed to be pigging out, I think I (unconciously) stopped when I was satisfied.

My wife and I had this conversation earlier this weekend. She's been diligent about the SLD and weighing in regularly. She keeps shedding pounds. She keeps expecting to see her weight bounce back up too, but as I told her, her set point is being lowered and she is eating less even though she doesn't think so.

Anyway ... I think the diet still works. I've been at 188 for the last month despite my non-chalant attitude about eating. To my credit, I am still working out. Last week I managed to play basketball 3 times. This week I'm determined to get in at least 4 workouts.

Today I'm going to start getting back in the habit of taking the WO in the afternoon during that stretch when I feel hungry again.

One last comment ... I don't think the cold weather helps with cutting back on food. Whenever it is cold, I tend to eat/snack a lot more. I'm sure that once the warm weather arrives, shedding pounds for both my wife and me will be a lot easier. We'll eat less and be more active.