Kicking ass, taking names...

Sometimes I write post titles that have very little to do with what I intend to say.  This is one of those times.  Sadly, I have done no ass kicking, nor name taking.

But I do feel like I have taken steps to get back to where I want to be.  To re-cap, I had surgery last February and was very sick for several weeks.  During that time, I lost 20 lbs.  I didn't need to lose the weight, but I wasn't sad about it.  I maintained the loss after I recovered for about six months, but in about August I started re-gaining.

I didn't really change anything that I was doing.  Maybe it just took that long for my body to heal completely.  Between August and a couple of weeks ago, I gained about 16 lbs. 

More than five years ago, I lost 110 lbs.  I have maintained that loss for that long, but my weight has fluctuated some in those years.  Back when I was obese, I thought that once I got to my goal weight I wouldn't have to worry about my weight again.  Since then I have learned that it is something I have to work on every day and I will have to continue to do so for the rest of life. 

The thing that I find especially frustrating is that I have experienced weight gains even though I am doing all the right things.  I make good food choices.  I use MFP to track my food.  I exercise like a mo fo.  I drink water.  I weigh myself regularly.  Back in my obesity days, I would either be following some really rigid diet or I would be eating whatever I wanted without regard for calories, fat, protein, etc.  When I went on a diet, it would be easy to make changes because there were lots of things I was doing wrong.  But now the tweaks I make are much more subtle.

I have been eating dessert pretty much every night.  I've also been drinking (relatively) high-calorie coffee drinks every work day.  My meals have been very good and healthy, but those two areas were clearly becoming a problem.  In the last two weeks I have been eating a lower calorie dessert most nights (a tablespoon of cookie butter on a rice cake).  I've also been having a protein drink for lunch on the days I'm having coffee so I'm ending the day at 1,200 - 1,300 calories or so.  I've lost three pounds.  I think I would like to lose three more so that I weigh 160.  I've had a few days where I ate more than that (including today), but I am mostly staying around those numbers.