I mentioned last week that I had begun counting calories and measuring my food this week to try to break through this darned month long plateau. So drum roll...........................
It worked!!! After one week, I ended up with a loss of two pounds (exactly what I lost in the entire month of February!) Hooray! I'm so happy.
I haven't felt restricted this week. I averaged about 1360 over the course of the entire week, figuring in my off-plan meal as well. This coming week I'm going to bump it up about 100 calories a day. I want to experiment and see what my maximum intake can be while continuing losing at a rate of two pounds per week.
Today marks another milestone!
I've lost 20 pounds!
One more and I have hit the magic 10% that experts say marks a health improvement. I;m darned happy to get over this plateau and hopefully I can go another 20 pounds before hitting another one!
What have I learned from this? Clean eating, while it works, will not necessarily result in consistent weight loss without other checks and balances in place. All by itself, changing my eating habits to clean ones allowed me to lose the first 16 pounds with little real effort. Now, however, I have discovered, consistent results require more than just passively eating clean. I still strongly promote eating clean for all of the health benefits a chemical-free life can provide, and once I am at a maintenance weight, eating clean for the rest of my life will allow me to be fit and healthy with little dietary effort. I believe clean is the only way to eat. But for weight loss, weighing, measuring, and counting calories all seem to be a necessity for me.
Have a great weekend!
20 pounds is fantastic! I love your noting that clean eating by itself is not guarantee of weight loss results. The calorie count is important, as well as weighing and measuring. When I do these things, I get results. When I don't, what happens with the scale is very haphazard.
ReplyDeleteThis is my first visit to your blog. We have the same template - so I feel at home. I'll be back to watch you succeed!
I didn't realize this - CONGRATULATIONS!
ReplyDeleteWhat you are doing and what you hope to do with it (to help others) is inspiring, Daisy.
Is this the Red I think it is? =) Regardless, thank you very much for the kind words!
ReplyDeleteLeslie ~ Although I really love the basis of the clean eating plan, it just isn't sufficient for me to reach my goals in and of itself. Perhaps if I was a more patient person? Thank you for stopping by!