Operation Be Less of a Fatass, Take 2

My last run was November 3 but you wouldn’t know it by the way I’ve been eating. My chondral fissure prevents me from running, biking anything harder than super easy, and kicking while swimming, but I am still eating all the potatoes and sweets.

I took a serious look at my eating habits a couple weeks ago, inspired by how my work pants were getting tighter and tighter, and decided to make a few small changes. When I was at my highest weight about two and a half years ago I called my effort to lose a few pounds Operation Be Less of a Fatass, so this is Operation Be Less of a Fatass, Take 2.

Last week I cut out the potatoes I was eating every weekday for breakfast; I now have pork patties and sautéed spinach. I do get hungry for lunch earlier now, but not THAT much. Bonus: Not making a big batch of roasted potatoes saves me time food prepping on Sundays.

Last week I also forced myself to come out of denial about how even moderate training rides were still hurting my knee, and took it down a notch to easy rides of no longer than 5 fake trainer miles. This works out to about 35 minutes in the second-to-easiest gear. I’m still doing some easy activity and it doesn’t hurt my knee too much, and 5 is a nice, round number that makes it feel like it’s worth putting on my bike shorts.

And because my trainer rides are shorter, I tried splitting up my at-home weights workout during the week, instead of doing everything on Saturday. Last week I did upper body on Monday, abs on Tuesday, and a barre class on Friday. This week I’m on track to do the same. I don’t think one way is better than the other, but hopefully changing it up a bit will keep it exciting.

I also wanted physical therapy and my PT homework to be a priority last week and it definitely was; I did my homework FIVE days and had one appointment at the clinic. I let myself have Sunday off from PT.

I have been doing a LOT of this.

So, I am calling the first week of Operation Be Less of a Fatass, Take 2 a success! I did weigh myself on Sunday (not going to lie, I was a bit scared to do so beforehand) and while the number was a little high, it wasn’t TOO far off from my lowest in recent memory, when I was riding and running regularly last summer. My first goal will be to get it below last year’s low.

I have the same goals for Operation Be Less of a Fatass, Take 2 this week, plus I added a few more:

Drink your water: I drink a lot of coffee in the mornings. I’m pretty good with my water intake after I stop coffee around noon, but I need to be better at drinking water earlier.

Box once, swim once, yoga at least once: I had fun boxing as cross training last week and I want to do it again. I am nervous about swimming again since I had trouble breathing last time, but I will try to give it another go. And I need to carve out time for yoga.

Fish for dinner twice: I usually make meat and a veggie or two for dinner, and I want to get something lighter in the rotation. (I prep chicken for lunch almost every day, so we don’t usually eat it for dinner.) We already had pan-fried cod last night, so one down.

NO POTATO CHIPS: I never met a potato chip I didn’t like and I regularly demolish full-sized bags, by myself, in one sitting. As of today I am 17 days without a potato chip binge! I have walked by the potato chip aisle multiple times and I am very proud of myself. I can’t say the same for French fries, as I did order some in one night, but that was a contained amount so I was ok with that. Another bonus: Not eating potatoes for breakfast every day means I’ll feel less guilty if I make my own fries for dinner once in a while.

So that’s my battle plan for the next few weeks. I’m hoping these small changes will be less overwhelming so I won’t give up hope. Of course, I’d much rather wake up tomorrow with my knee magically healed, but I have to be realistic about the situation I’m in. Until then, I’ll continue to drink my water, do my PT, and avoid the potato chip aisle.

But they taste so delicious!