My mother the engineer taught me the value of mistakes (also the value of avoiding them, but since she was bringing up someone with WriterBrain, not EngineerBrain, she finally realized that more mistakes would be part of my life than hers.)\u00a0\u00a0 “You have to notice a mistake before you can fix it,” she said.\u00a0 “Admit it, fix it, then look for a way to prevent it happening again.”<\/p>\n
About two weeks ago, I was reviewing progress in the weight-loss\/health improvement program, and decided that I could *just* get enough protein with fewer calories and then would have some calories to use for more variety.\u00a0 That’s because the weight I’d lost now meant the minimum protein requirement was lower, so my “overage” of protein was more.\u00a0 So I cut back on the high-protein, specifically cutting the meat component from 4 oz\/day to 3, but did carefully calculate the grams of protein every day to be sure I wasn’t running short.\u00a0\u00a0 (Animal-derived protein has the highest complete protein to calories ratio.)\u00a0 I allowed a ten day test period to see how it went.\u00a0 Protein dropped, but not below the minimum every day, and I felt well for the first week.\u00a0 However, at the same time I was increasing outdoor walking time…I didn’t think I was increasing it enough to impact the protein need.\u00a0\u00a0 Classic experimental error–changing two variables at once rather than just one without\u00a0 having the relationship between them well defined.\u00a0 DUH.<\/p>\n
Week one went well, and though I had some muscle soreness as the walks lengthened, I attributed that to the usual exercise effect of increasing fitness.\u00a0 I continued to walk longer or faster (sometimes both) every day, and held to the lower protein content without considering that the muscle soreness might be (as it had been earlier, before I knew I *needed* more protein) the result of trying to build muscle while not providing it with the protein it needed for repair and increasing.\u00a0 This week gave me a head-slap in that regard.\u00a0 The slow increase of soreness didn’t do it (thinking “I’m pushing on this walking thing so of course I’m getting a little sorer each day.”)\u00a0\u00a0 Energy began to lag more, I was tireder overall.\u00a0 Again, blamed it on the weather (hot and muggy) and the increased exercise.\u00a0 Tuesday this week, I did a slightly longer, much faster, walk to get back to the house before R- left to take the car in for service.\u00a0 Felt really wiped out even though it wasn’t that hot while I was out.\u00a0 Took a caffeine pill to perk up.<\/p>\n
And Wednesday I woke up feeling crappy all over.\u00a0 Muscles hurt, joints hurt, head hurt…had little appetite and no strength–legs felt shaky as well as painful.\u00a0 Didn’t go for a walk; all I wanted to do was fall into bed. \u00a0 Didn’t want to eat any lunch (and didn’t.) \u00a0 Slept most of the afternoon, got up and fed horses…and thought “maybe it’s the protein thing.”\u00a0 I had been running right at, or just below, the 1g\/kg for almost a week.\u00a0 So I added back in the former ounce of meat.\u00a0 By bedtime I was more alert, but still sore.\u00a0 This morning…MUCH better.\u00a0\u00a0 Minimal soreness, no shakiness, no headache either.\u00a0 So, OK, difficult as it is to get much variety, back on 4 oz for awhile–total protein intake more than 85g\/day, which is 10g more than “minimum requirement.\u00a0 85g is still less than 1.2g\/kg,\u00a0 and we tottering ancients can go well beyond 1.2 especially if really exercising, under some other stress, including illness.\u00a0\u00a0 If my calorie limit was higher, it would be easier to get more lower-protein variety in there, but I’m only now getting the body into shape to burn enough to hold the same rate of loss so I could increase the intake.<\/p>\n
So\u00a0 intake stays at <1000cal, protein stays at >85g,\u00a0 or (as weight drops) at least 10 g above the g\/kg\u00a0 amount, and I’ll continue to record daily intake of calories & protein, with a weather eye on calcium and other nutrients, and recalibrate weekly.\u00a0\u00a0 I will consider that increase in exercise means an increase in protein needs (and more for me, at my age, than when I was younger.)<\/p>\n
Having said which, I did weigh this morning (not the regular Monday morning) to check on what the “bad day” Wednesday did to me,\u00a0 and have now confirmed 25 pounds down from May 17, thanks to that initial week’s 5.4 pound loss.\u00a0 I’m sure it will be higher by the end of the day, and maybe tomorrow up and down again.\u00a0\u00a0 But I had expected to get to the 25 pounds sometime this week (week 14 overall.)\u00a0 I’d love to be under 160 by Monday (presently 160.4). \u00a0 Being that weight on the scale means when I ride,\u00a0 the load on Rags will be well under what’s healthy for him to carry.\u00a0 (It varies with horses’ fitness, the heat, the kind of work they’re asked to do: speed, distance, duration, terrain, ground conditions.)\u00a0 For Rags, my being under 160 will mean a total burden that needs no adjustment to a standard conditioning schedule for him.\u00a0\u00a0 We’ll still start in walk for some weeks, but the progression in time and distance will be “normal,” as will the progression in speed once we’ve done the initial walking stuff.\u00a0\u00a0 So by the time the weather’s cool enough to ride him for a solid hour with several periods of trot,\u00a0 I should be down in the 140s, and by the time he’s in condition to do longer trots and some loping\/cantering, I should be under 140.\u00a0 He will also lose weight with work, but we’ll stay in good balance.\u00a0 The average weekly loss, not counting that first week, has been 1.6, right in my target zone, a safe rate.\u00a0 And yes, not counting the few “not so good” days, I’m definitely feeling better than before I started.<\/p>\n
A gentle reminder that this is not a “plan” for others to follow–we’re all individuals, we have different bodies,\u00a0 different sensitivities to foods, different preferences, etc, etc.\u00a0 This is a record of what’s working *for me*.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s not what worked for me on previous reconditioning projects, when I could either ride a horse or a bicycle…those were based more heavily on exercise with much less dietary restriction.\u00a0 But impaired balance got in the way of riding my bike, so…this is what’s working (for me!) now.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My mother the engineer taught me the value of mistakes (also the value of avoiding them, but since she was bringing up someone with WriterBrain, not EngineerBrain, she finally realized that more mistakes would be part of my life than hers.)\u00a0\u00a0 “You have to notice a mistake before you can fix it,” she said.\u00a0 “Admit Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-beyond-writing","tag-life-beyond-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":830,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829\/revisions\/830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}