34 days down, and the scale finally started to reward me in the last couple of days. I would not say that I am safely below 200, but I think the range ceiling is a lot closer to 200 than it was a week ago.

Been keeping on plan, bacon/eggs breakfast, protein/salad lunch, protein/salad dinner, snacks of cheese and almonds. Drinking lots of water, to include 1/2 lemon in my water daily. My only indulgence is a shot or so of Gentlemen Jack on ice in the evening.

Still working out with my son, and got in my first 2 mile run in a while yesterday (since my hip bursitis). It went pretty well...was a little stiff the next day, but not bad. So thought I would throw in a picture...kinda a summer's here picture. I am not where I was in my previous 'at goal' picture in the success gallery, but moving that direction (I am on the right )

37 days down. Looks like I may have seen 200 for the last time...at least I hope so. I am just going along, eating my fill of protein and salad, snacking on nuts and cheese, and having a shot of good whiskey as dessert.

Only issue I have been having lately is that I have been getting seriously light headed when I stand up quickly. Not all the time, and not just after my shot of whiskey . But to the point where I must steady myself with both hands for a second until it passes..it has occasionally been so severe I was unsure if I was going to stay upright. I have been drinking plenty of water, at least 1/2 gallon daily, and often more. I have also been getting adequate salt in my food. I do have a low heart rate, so wondering if it is related. Guess it is something I will just be aware of for the moment.

I continue to work out. Mostly I have been feeling good, but I think that losing the weight is starting to impact my strength, as my bench has been pretty poor lately. Oh well...with my shoulder weakness I am eventually going to be forced to go lighter anyway.

In did treat myself to some low carb beer...Corona Premier...2.6 grams per bottle. It is not a Sam Adams, but it is good none the less. 1 a day will do me good. I have allowed myself a few other indulgences, such a some ribs with sauce for lunch today...but I am not sweating a spare carb or 2 as I have and continue to stay on plan.

Now my son's birthday is on Tuesday. and my wife made some chocolate cupcakes...debating whether to make an exception.....

Happy birthday to your boy, Sniggle. Stay away from those cupcakes, if you can

41 days down..1st full month down. I lost 5 lbs in the 1st 10 days, and then 5 lbs in the last 31 days. Reasonable for my approach to low carb, which is big salads, protein, eggs, cheese and nuts. I have not allowed myself any deviation since April 20 (yes, Chef Ron, I resisted the chocolate cupcakes, although that was a struggle).

What have I changed over the 40 days...I have added in low carb beer, 1 a day (2.6 grams carbs). That's pretty much it. I keep meat in the fridge to cook up, and heads of iceberg lettuce to quarter, and I add whatever else is available to enhance the salad (cucumbers, olives, avocado, red onion, mushroom, an occasional cherry tomato, walnuts, cheese ). Breakfast is almost always 2 eggs and 3 pieces of bacon, but I have been adding a cheese stick lately. Dinner is what the wife prepares, or meat for me if she is having pasta. I snack some, but not a lot. I could probably graze on nuts to excess, but I always just grab 5-8 nuts and move on to avoid that.

Still working out with my son....still realizing that I am not 21 any more:-)

There are some challenges coming up. The 1st is that I love blueberries, and I have 10 blueberry bushes that are going to be getting ripe soon (I found 3 blueberries ripe enough last night). I will have to control myself. 2nd is that I have a guys weekend coming up, and I may stray off plan for the 1.5 days, but I will try to not stray too far.

My goal is to lose another 5 lbs in June. That will put me at 193, and within striking distance of the weight range that I think is right for me (180 - 190). Below 190 36 pants fit really easy, and 34 pants are in the realm of possibility. The love handles are essentially gone, and I feel that I look fit in my work clothes.

Haven't posted here in a while.

A couple realizations I have come to:
- I need to keep my weight below 200, and probably below 195, but unless and until I start to give up muscle mass I am happy below 200 and look pretty good, body wise, for a 55 year old guy...atleast that is what the DW says and that is all that matters.
- I need to work in more cardio into my routine. Cardio is not only good for me, but it has always helped me keep weight off.
- It's OK to, in moderation, add back in some things that are higher carbs. Blueberries, for instance, which I grow in the back yard. I have eaten them off the bush after dinner quite often, and it may have slowed my weight loss but it did not reverse it, which is the most important. Low carb beer is another thing I added in,, with no substantial ill effect.

I just finished a 2-day. 25 mile backpacking trip with my son, and on it I abandoned my low carb ways and indulged. I had Reeses peanut butter cups, chocolate pudding n(MREs), pasta(MREs), a burger with fries(Five Guys), all over 2 days. Now I busted my ass and have the soreness now to prove it, so I am confident I burned off all those calories and many more. Although I enjoyed tasting the 'forbidden fruit' again, I am back in the low carb mindset and really good with it. Looking forward a salad for lunch.

P.S. Just weighed myself, and even after carb consumption and getting re-hydrated I was down to 195.6..not surprising because we hiked hard. So now I know I just need to backpack 25 miles in 2 days with about 40 lbs on my back, and I can earn a cheeseburger:-)

Dear diary:-)

The low carb journey continues, and it is going well. I have been allowing myself some treats as of late, to include:
- Low carb beer. Michelob Ultra has only 2.6 g carbs, and tastes pretty good. I usually have 1 a night, and thoroughly enjoy it.
- 90% chocolate. I got a dozen bars off Amazon, and have a few squares a day. Only a few carbs, and when you are not eating sweets, they actually taste faintly sweet.
- Fruit. The blueberry season (homegrown) is almost over, but I have also had a few homegrown peaches, as well as watermelon and cantaloupe. I see no harm in some fruit now and again.
- Tomatoes (Homegrown). The tomatoes are starting to ripen, and I will not be denied. Grape, cherry, medium and large. Yes, they have more carbs than greens, but they also have good fiber....and they taste great.

Besides my 2-day lapse around my backpacking trip, no rice, bread, potatoes, pasta, chips or sweets have passed my lips since April 20.

The weight continues to slowly ease down, and it looks like I have cleared 195. I have given more thought to my goal, and adjusted it up from 180 to 185....I got down to 185 last time, and I have more muscle mass now, so 180 , although doable if I wanted to push my BMI below 15, is not worth it nor, I think, sustainable. If I can get to 185 and then stay below 190 for the duration, both I and my wife would be happy:-)

Love handles - Really, at this point, the only noticeable fat I have is found in relatively small love handles. I do not know if I ever can totally get rid of them....nor do I really need to. Doing some reading indicates that to eliminate them I would need to get my BMI below 15, which might be cool if I was going to the beach but for practical purposes is too low. I figure my love handles, as well as a thin layer of fat over my stomach, probably accounts for 10 lbs, so at 185 (new goal) I will be approaching the point eliminating them, but probably not all the way. As of right now, in the morning I can often faintly see a 6-pack....I consider that OK for a 55 year old dude.

The plan is to continue, and to accept that some foods will not be in my diet ever again (goodbye nacho chips). I do have a CA trip planned to visit my mother in early August, so I may have to expand my diet a bit more than I want to, but that is life.

Bottom line, I like not having a middle-age gut, for me and for me wife (who has always kept herself in good shape).

Well, I have decided that 190 is a good weight for me, or there abouts. At that weight I look good in work clothes, all my pants fit and, although I still have small love handles, they are really insignificant for a 55 year old guy.

So I am easing into maintenance, staying mostly strictly low carb, but adding in a few fruits and a few meals on the boundary. For example, tonight I had beef tacos. The shells (6) were only 38 grams of carbs, and everything else I ate today was either plant, eggs or meat. They were good, and I was actually surprised that the shells did not have more carbs.

So now comes weighing myself and seeing if I can stay around 190 while adding in a few carbs. Time will tell.

This is a fantastic result, Sniggle. Congrats on dodging those cupcakes!

Maintenance is a tricky part because it is far more individual than the 20 carb limit of Atkins Induction. As you continue exploring this new land of food, you are also developing good feedback in understanding what our bodies are telling us.

Like me, learning real hunger: "Do you want a steak? No? Then you aren't really hungry."

For me, it is really hard to stick with low carb when vacationing. I just got back from a 5 days (on the ground trip) to CA to visit relatives, and I just made the decision to let the low carb go for that period. Now, I did lots of walking/hiking, including doing the Half Dome trail in Yosemite (17 miles, 5500 foot elevation), 2 hours on Point Lobos, and a walk in the hills of Napa Valley, but I was definitely not eating low carb.

Now I am back (got back Tuesday evening), and I am back low carbing it. I am not sure what my deviation did to the scale, but I will wait a couple of weeks to check and by that time any damage should have been undone. I have been experiencing a little more hunger and carb cravings the last 1.5 days, but I can deal with it and it will pass quickly.

Looking forward to hitting the weights again this afternoon, as I get back into my routine (I like routine:-)

(BTW, the Half Dome hike at Yosemite is amazing, and well worth the effort)

Good work, Sniggle.

So, after waiting a little more than 2 weeks to get on the scale after my CA trip (in which I temporarily abandoned low carb and ate like my 17 year old son), the scale said....189.8 ...Lowest weight and below my 'ceiling' weight goal.

What does this tell me...Hiking 17+ miles and 5800 elevation in a day burns calories like a bad boy....As long as I return to low carb eating immediately following a deviation I am good...my approach to eating and daily exercise (try to break a good sweat every day) works for my body.

I will admit that I did struggle somewhat with cravings on my return from CA. I felt much hungrier, and had to work not to give in to the carb cravings. I did, in a moment of weakness (actually 2), consume 2 recess peanut butter cubs that were left over from the hike snack food over a day.

I am coming to the conclusion that I can raise my carbs somewhat and still be in the zone. I have been eating watermelon this past week, and have eaten other fruits over this months and the weight still creeps down. I have one or 2 low carb beers most nights (2.6 carbs each). I have been eating tomatoes a lot, as the tomatoes in my garden are awesome this year. I did sneak a square or 2 of dove chocolate over the last couple of weeks.

So as is well on the weight front. I plan to continue on with my approach to low carb, keep hammering the weights for an hour a day ( and hopefully add in some more cardio), and not sweat the little stuff.

Now off to make the diet breakfast of 2 eggs and 3 strips bacon...yum.

Do cardio for fun, and not much of it. Mark's Daily Apple advises.

Got on the scale again today after a couple of weeks, generally being good but allowing myself a few more deviations (went to a Mexican restaurant and just ate, had some banana bread made by a friend, ate Chinese, etc.)....and the survey says..........188.2.

Still drifting lower, even while taking a few liberties along the path. I would say that 95% of everything I eat is purposefully low carb, with breakfast and lunch almost always on plan. I am still working out consistently.

I am pleased with the above, because I am starting to prove my thesis that if I stay away from the every day carby foods (chips, sweets, bread, rice, potatoes, pasta), I can afford to eat a range of foods on occasion (out at a restaurant, at a fair, etc.).

On a somewhat related note my son joined the Army last week, delayed entry until next July (after he graduates). He signed up for an opportunity to get into the Ranger Bat, if he passes a brutal qual course. This is related because I am going to do my damnedest to get him in awesome shape, which means I will need to step up my cardio as well to set an example. I am going to sign us up for a GORUCK Heavy in Pittsburgh in early June, as a proving ground for him. It may kill me as I doubt many 56 year old guys do them, but it will be my last major fatherly gift to him before he departs, so I will train like hell to see him to the end of the 24 hour gauntlet. That all being said, all that training may yet get me down to 180ish:-)

That’s the best incentive I ever heard. DO IT!

Congrats- you must be very proud of him!