Still Shrinking

329 pounds.

That's down 2.4 pounds since last week, and a total of 31.2 pounds lost since February 1.

I've gotten some emails inquiring as to what diet I'm on, and the answer is, it's not a diet at all. It's simply better eating and lifestyle habits. One lady in Connecticut was astonished at my daily calorie limit, convinced that I'm going to shift my body into "starvation mode," where it will store every available calorie. I assured her that was not the case, and that I've had a great deal of success with this approach before.

In case any of you are burning with curiosity about what exactly the plan entails, here it is in a nutshell:

1. 1500 calories a day. Some days I exceed that by a couple hundred calories, but most days I come in at 1250 calories or so.
2. Six meals a day. The three main meals of breakfast, lunch and dinner are 350 calories, and in-between snacks are 150 calories or so. It's not specifically low carb or low fat or low sodium, but the eating choices I make pretty much make eating fried foods and anything with processed sugar or processed flour a thing of the past. I get lots of protein by way of fish and chicken. I eat red meat when I want it, but I make sure to stay under my calories limit for that meal. This keeps my metabolism running at high rpm.
3. I cheat. I mean that in all seriousness. My self-image isn't tied up in my looks, but I would like to be able to get off the floor without my knees protesting, and I'd like to take back up some of the athletic pursuits i used to enjoy. Bottom line is, I'm not punishing mysellf for being a fatass. I'm just trying to be healthier overall. So when I'm hungry, I eat something. When I want to treat myself, I treat myself. The difference is, now I have a slice of pizza instead of the whole damned pie.
4. I listen to my body. One of the hidden advantages of such a low calorie intake is that you become intimately re-acquainted with what hunger feels like. The good news is, after three weeks or so, the serious hunger pangs pretty much disappear, and my body stops screaming, "Feed me, Seymour!'" So now, when I'm hungry, I eat. The good news is, now I can tell the difference between hunger pangs and my psyche telling me, "You're bored. Shovel something into your face." I listen to the former, and I ignore the latter.
5. Exercise.

That last one is the hardest. I'm not exercising enough, which is the main reason I'm not shedding the pounds at the rate I was last time. When I was working days at PGHNSTRACH, I walked to work every day, a 3.5 mile round trip. Most my shift was spent on my feet as well.

Working nights on a SSM ambulance is another situation entirely. It's largely a sedentary job, interspersed with occasional moments of extreme exertion. I sit in an ambulance all night running calls, and then I come home in the morning and collapse into bed, mentally drained. I'm in no mood at all to exercise during my off-duty hours.

That looks to change soon, now that the weather is warming up. My days will soon be spent mowing grass, on the lake swimming and skiing, or chasing an 8-year-old through the woods. Summers hold the potential for plenty of the kind of physical exertion I enjoy. By the time EMS Expo rolls around in late August, I'm going to be a radically different looking and feeling dude. 

I'm looking forward to it.