I’ve already written about my word count goals, as well as the movement changes I’m making for 2025.
Now, I’m going to write about the diet and other changes I’m making.
I need to lose weight. I’m a little below the heaviest I’ve ever been, but not by much. However, I tried not to stress about it over the holidays. There was too much good food around, and I didn’t feel the need to be compliant with my diet.
But it’s the new year, and that has to change.
Low Carb
I need to stay low carb. That is a big requirement of my diet, probably for the rest of my life. There will be times (like the holidays!) when I’m not compliant. That’s okay. I just need to generally be compliant. I figure I should aim for 90-10, that is, compliant 90% of the time, and 10% of the time, not so much. 80-20 isn’t cutting it for me.
I’m still mostly carnivore, but I’m trying to add in a few more veggies. I still miss them, still miss my big ass salads. However, every time I try adding in more leafy greens, I end up with serious gastral issues. Green beans, asparagus, carrots, and veggies like cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, and brussle sprouts, all do well with my system.
My goal is to have two servings of veggies every week. That’s enough for now.
Restricted Eating Window (Intermittent Fasting)
FOR ME, the best, most consistent path to weight loss is to restrict my eating window. That means only eating from morning, around 8 AM, until about 2 PM in the afternoon. Some days, it means 4 PM, as I can’t get in the calories I need during the time I’ve allotted.
Am I going to do that all the time? NO. I go out to dinner with friends on a regular basis. Those days, I need to not eat lunch, but instead, just try to maintain my caloric intake to something reasonable.
Part of my problem is that I’ve found it difficult to be satiated after I eat. I was reminded of something I already knew recently, but had forgotten about—namely, that estrogen interacts with the hormones that produce satiation.
Less estrogen means more hunger.
I use bio-identical hormones on a regular basis. I recently changed the timing of my estrogen, not the total amount. I now take more estrogen in the morning, and even less in the evening. After a week, I noticed a definite difference in how hungry I felt. I figure this is going to be very useful going forward.
Weighing Things Out and Reporting
I’ve gotten back into the habit of weighing out my food. This is the best way for me to track my intake. I’ve also started reporting everything I am eating in the CarbManager app.
I won’t stick with the reporting for very long. Maybe just until the end of January or so. It’s a good accountability partner, though. It gets me to think before I stick something in my mouth, knowing that it’s going to be a pain to record it. Using the CarbManager app means that I don’t snack, and that’s always been a problem for me.
I will continue to weigh at least some of my meals. I don’t find that to be onerous, at least not at this time.
Less Light Consumption at Night
Moving past food, there are a few other things I’m trying.
My sleep still isn’t consistently good. I do have some good nights, now. Really good nights now and again. However, I have many more bad nights than I’d like.
So I’ve been switching up my nightly routine. I’ve changed to a different lamp in TH2, so I have a lot less light at night after 7 PM. I have a hard cut-off of electronic light at 8 PM, so no phone or computer after then. I sometimes still read my kindle after 8, but that generally gets shut off by 8:30, so about an hour before I go to bed.
What am I doing instead? I’m doing watercolor painting. Or I’m knitting. Something that I can do in low light without feeling as though I’m straining my eyes.
I will continue to try different things until I finally find that magic handshake, as it were, that lets me get good sleep on a regular basis.
Smoking Meats
Something I just thought I’d mention. I’ve had Bobby, my pellet grill, for about one and a half years. I recently made a change that’s been great in terms of the taste of the meat I cook.
I now start all my long cooks with the grill set to smoke, generally for an hour. After that, I change the temperature to the regular cooking temp that I want. Since I always cook based on internal temperature of the meat and not according to some sort of time limit, this hasn’t been a pain in terms of figuring out when the meat is done.
I was afraid that extra hour of low temps might dry out the meat, but it hasn’t at all.
I am also doing what’s called a dry brine on all the meats I’m cooking. I coat the meat in whatever spice rub I’m going to use, wrap it in plastic wrap, then let it sit at least overnight, or sometimes as long as 24 hours. This has given me amazing taste to the outside edge, and again, the meat is so tender and juicy by the time it’s done.
##
So those are some of the changes I’ve made or am making for 2025. How about you? What else are you doing more of, or less of, this year?