When I was overweight, I kept telling myself that I needed to lose weight. But for the longest time, I didn’t make an effort to do so. My body was primed and ready to go, but just like the Space Shuttle before a lift off, it just sat there on the launch pad, doing nothing.
3…2…1…Blast Off!
Finally, I found a reason to lose the weight. Just like the space shuttle firing its engines, I gained some momentum. With this momentum, a funny thing happened. I found that the more weight I lost, the easier it was to lose weight. And finally, after a long launch sequence, I reached my desired weight—my weight loss orbit.
It takes a lot of work to get that space shuttle into orbit. But after liftoff, that crazy roll over thing it does, the separation of the solid rocket boosters and the external fuel tank, the shuttle effortlessly stays in orbit around the Earth. Well, maybe not effortlessly, but you know what I mean.
Orbiting is the Easy Part?
Many people think that losing the weight is the hard part. And yeah, weight loss IS hard; I’ve done it. But let me tell you, I think maintaining your weight loss is even harder. It takes persistence, diligence, and dedication just to keep your weight the same.
Every so often, objects in orbit need a little extra lift so that they don’t start falling back to Earth. The shuttle needs to fire its thrusters to stay aloft and satellites need to be pushed into a higher orbit to avoid a fiery plunge back to earth.
We are Go For Corrective Burn
It’s time for me to readjust my weight loss orbit. Throughout the summer, my weight has been slowly creeping up—even WITH all the exercise I’ve been getting. I’m still below my weight loss goal, but my orbit has been slowly declining and I’m getting a little too close to my maximum acceptable weight.
So, to get back on track, here are the plans for my corrective burn:
- Reduce my non fruit/vegetable carbohydrate intake to one serving per day.
- Drink more water.
- Cross train on my non running days.
Hopefully, by making these few simple tweaks, I’ll have more energy and get a bit stronger and get back to that stable weight loss orbit.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I like where your head is — theplan definitely seems doable and I hope it works!
I like number 1, maybe try giving up gluten for a week (or a month). See how you feel.
Nice post – I love it when you get all geeky!
Drinking more water is an excellent idea. Not only does it make you feel fuller and keep things moving on through your body, it also helps keep your energy level up.
I’m still getting to my goal. I’ve been successful so far, losing 65+ lbs in the last 11 months. I’ve got about 15 more to go. Once I get there, I know that I’ll need to remain diligent in order to stay at my goal. But, man, I don’t want to have to cut even more out and add even more exercise just to maintain! Cutting out non fruit/vegetable carbs sounds like you’re going to eat turkey sandwiches for lunch sans bread.
Please tell me you started eating poorly, and what you’re cutting out is a bit of excess that crept back into your diet!
Phil
Phil—to say that I’ve let a little bit of excess creep back into my diet would be an understatement. That’s why I’m just going to get back to basics and count my calories and limit my processed carbs. My lunch actually does consist of a turkey sandwich. And if I had carbs at breakfast, then the sandwich becomes a salad
Man, I’ve let so much processed crap back into my diet. I need to kickstart things again as well!
Especially now that you’re at maintaining you should track yourself using bodyfat % rather than weight. If you’re doing a lot of p90x and/or weights, you could be building muscle. If that’s so, you’ll be gaining weight but not gaining too much bodyfat.
I really don’t care how much I weigh as long as it involves having a good muscle base and a low bodyfat %.