Does Knowing the Pattern Change It?

I've been stuck in a weight pattern for more than two years now.  Here we go again:

After a few weeks of what my friend so aptly calls suckitude, interrupted with a little actual fun, do I want to take the time and make the effort to lose weight?  Look at this pattern - I knew it going into it that the odds were this would be how I'd end up. I can lose for a bit on a blitz, then my body stubbornly wants to drift back up in weight. As soon as I lose focus it happens - the weight creeps up (or, shoots up). And I do lose focus.

I have all this data: my weight, my exercise levels, my food logs, this blog. Can I mine it, get my mind around it, turn it into useful information, some magic code that will explain why I can lose weight for about a month about once a year?  Is it just motivation, or is there something physical that happens to derail me? I collected a bunch of data, and spent some time paging back through my food logs. What do I actually eat? How does it make me feel?

It is a freakin' lot of work to lose weight. It is clear to me that the secret to keeping my calorie count low, without feeling deprived all the time, requires many cooked vegetables. I can make myself eat salads, and I even enjoy salads, but nothing satisfies me so much as a nice warm full stomach. And the only way to fill my stomach without shooting the blood sugar into a frenzy craving more is to eat rich cooked vegetables, with lots of flavor. Meat too, for sure, but to lose weight I need the vegetables. This weekend, I made spinach ricotta pie (no crust), my secret to a satisfying breakfast. I cooked some asparagus, served with balsamic vinegar, and I mushed well-steamed broccoli with creme fraiche and asiago cheese.I roasted a cauliflower in pieces.  I made enough of everything to have leftovers for during the week.

I want treats. My go-to treat is blueberries and creme fraiche, which I fancy up with mini chocolate chips and  slivered almonds. A small serving is just fine. If I pig out on this, it's not the end of the world. So far, I haven't tired of it. My backup is mascarpone or ricotta with something pleasant mixed in, cinamon or cocoa. I have to be really careful to not overdo it with the sugar.

(Aside: I've wanted to post more extensively about my recent reading on food and nutrition, but I'll share one insight. How is it that eating low carb, and eating vegan, BOTH can lead to weight loss and good health? The secret is to do one-or-the-other. Eating low-carb, one learns not to be afraid of fat. Because the blood sugar is tamed, when I eat very low carb I eat fewer calories, and I will lose weight. My body is burning fat as fuel because it doesn't have new sugar coming in.  However, when I start to add back carbs, I have to cut back on the fat, because my body will burn the carbs and store the fat. It's really easy to let the total calorie count shoot through the roof as soon as the carbs come back in, as my blood sugar demands to be fed more often, and I casually add butter to everything just as I did when I was low-carb. So for me, finding treats that don't bring a lot of sugar or simple starches to the table is the trick.)

My activity levels are really down. I've really fallen into a cave at work and home, and I sit in a chair and burn no calories. Except for my quick vacation my activity level has plunged.  I broke my streak on my daily mile. I woke up one morning and realized I had simply forgotten to walk. I kept going back over the day, and my silly rules about the streak, and I realized there was no wiggle room. I had failed. So did I start over to build a new streak? No I did not. I gratefully sat down, and stayed sitting down.

At work, the pace is incredibly intense. One of my keys to success is to bring my lunch, but that also means I do not have to leave the building, or sometimes even my area. My work evenings, I make dinner - or dial it in - and then sit to read a book. Or surf on the interwebs, which sometimes leads to serendipity and more often leaves me feeling unsatisfied but wanting more, as if I had been eating cotton candy.

The past two weekends have been more active. The weather is getting nicer,and I hope my cooking this weekend will help - I know I've got spinach breakfasts for the whole week.  I want to bump my activity levels while focusing on eating more plants. This is my plan, and I think there is a good chance I can stick to it for -- a week? Maybe a month?  We'll see.

One possible bump in the road - a spectacular gelato place opened up in town. It's half an hour's walk away - which I know since I walked it last night. A small serving of gelato just about equals an hour's worth of walking, so if I keep myself from driving there I might be ok.  But it's a sugary treat, and it can't be a daily habit, even if I walk it off, because sugar leads to needing more sugar...

My goal is to create a new, lower, set point to maintain. But first I have to get there.