5 Things That I did to Lose 29 pounds in 12 weeks during COVID19 Quarantine

On April 8, 2020, I started my weight loss / lifelong weight management journey.

I weighed 230.6 pounds.

Today, Day 84, Tuesday, June 30, 2020, I weigh 201.0

My goal weight is 180 pounds. I have 21 more pounds to lose.

Darn it, why did weight loss become so difficult around age 45, which was more than 6 years ago. I will turn 52 in August. Yes, I am a Leo. And yes I am perimenopausal which is why it has been so hard these last 6 years to lose this weight.

Speaking of my awesome upcoming 52nd birthday, my original goal was to lose 50 pounds by my 52nd birthday. I named my plan of attack “50 x 52”. Isnt’ that cute? I like naming things. Don’t judge me.

So yeah. I no longer have a goal date. I will get there when I get there. I am doing everything I know in order to lose this weight for good and to keep it off. No rush.

Here’s what I did before April 8, 2020 that I feel contributed to my 29.6 pound weight loss. I love writing that…”29.6 weight loss”

1. In January 2019, I stopped adding sweeteners to my morning coffee (no sugar and no artificial sweetners) and I stopped using artificial sweeteners altogether. Goobye Stevia, now that we’ve broken up I can tell you the truth; you taste horrible. And Goodbye Splenda — great name. And Goodbye Equal — we were such good friend throughout the 90’s — good times!).
2. In December 2019, I became a pescatarian. The only meat that I eat is seafood. I eat a lot of wild caught, cold water, fatty fish: salmon, mackerel, sardines, herring and anchovies. I eat a lot of shrimp. I do not eat any of these: pork, beef, poultry, eggs, or milk from animals.
3. In January 2020, I adopted the guiding principle that my weight loss journey would be PRACTICE for what I would do to maintain my weight once I got to my goal weight. So I was careful not to get desperate and do anything on a temporary basis.

Here’s the ACTIONS that I took between April 8th and June 30th, 2020, to lose 29.6 pounds and that I plan to continue FOREVER:

1. I became an intermittent faster (new lifestyle). I do early day intermittent fasting, which means that my eating window is from 7 am to 2 pm to align to my circadian rhythm. When I first started my eating window was Noon to 6pm, but I missed my morning coffee too much. I find that the weight comes off if I stop eating before 4pm each day. For fasting advise, I follow Dr. Mindy Pelz. I have taken her advice by trying different types of fasting. Extended water fasts, dry fasts, alternate day fast, one-meal-a-day. I try to shake things up so that my body doesn’t get too used to things. The only negative about my early day intermittent fasting schedule is that my hubby misses eating dinner with me. I still cook for him and family — I just don’t eat. He understands that I have to stick with this way of eating most of the time, but as a compromise I told him that I would be willing to push my Friday and Saturday eating window back to as late as 7pm to eat with him, but I can’t go past 7pm. Because the few times I did, the scale did not go do
2. I weigh myself each and every day. I do this because I am a very analytical person by nature (which explains why I make my living as a business analyst). I want to know if my efforts on Monday will lead to weight loss when I weight in Tuesday morning. Because I weigh myself daily, I know that eating at 9pm will not help my weight go down the next day, but when I stop eating at 2pm, my weight does go down the next day. Because I weight myself each day, I know that 5 hours of sleep will not help the scale go down, but 8 hours of sleep will. Because I weigh in every day, I know that my 6am is not my lowest weight of the day — 7:30 am is mu lowest weight of the day. I track things in a journal and/apps. I like to track information. I track my water, my food, my calories, my moods, my dreams, my plan of attack, my goals, my process, my weigh in, what if analysis of what I would weight on my 52 birthday if I lost 1 pound a week, 2 pounds a week, or 3 pounds a week. I just like to write things down. I like to create step by step instructions, process diagrams, lists and matrices. My teenage daughter has been telling me years to get on Instagram because I like to share information, inspirations, details and photos. So I created an Instagram just to track my weight loss. The Instagram is named…you guessed it — “Kimosphere”. I have had the Instagram for less than 12 weeks and I already have 370 posts. I have a compulsion to share information and details.
3. I eat within a daily calorie limit. I used an app to determine how many calories that I need to maintain and how many I should eat to lose 2 pounds a week, which is about 1400. I tracked my calories to make sure that I stayed within my calories.
4. I take sleep seriously and work to get 7+ hours sleep every night. An important note is that I got diagnosed with sleep apnea in March 2020. I was prescribed a sleep therapy machine, which I used every night for about a month. I stopped using the machine once my hubby and I realized that my sleep apnea. Weight gain caused it. Weight loss cured it. Yay!
5. I take movement seriously. I did a variety of exercises: Fitness Marshall You Tube dance videos with my daughters, Les Mills Body Pump, Les Mills Body Attack, Les Mills Body Combat, Barre, walks in the park and in the neighborhood, Pilates. I did not actually do the Chloe Ting ab challenge, but I watched my teenage daughter do it every day; so yeah, I am counting that too.

Here’s what I did NOT do between April 8th and June 30th, 2020 to lose 29.6 pounds.

I did not do keto. Though I am working hard to get sugar/fructose 80% out of my diet. I am not keto. I eat fruit and beans to remind myself that I can watch my sugar intake without being keto. I will write about my strong opinions on why keto is not a food fit for me in a future post.