Weight Loss Update

It's been 54 days since I've blogged about weight. Here's a brief update. I'm smaller. Specifically, I'm 16 pounds smaller. I seem to have plateaued out at that level for a week or so, so it's time to up the pace. That means more exercise. I've been walking at least two miles every other day; I have to increase both the distance and the pace of those walks and I have to start doing some resistance work. We've got some Bell Flexbands and I'll start with those. I'm certainly not going to reduce my caloric intake, which is already under 1700 kCal/day. My diet can best be described as "don't eat much crap, and don't eat too much non-crap." I've cut way down on cheap carbs like crackers and bread, on excess sugar, on alcohol, and that sort of thing. I think I'll have to make my diet plans more formal to get to the next level, but with the coming increased exercise we'll see. I was hoping not to have to do that until I lost 40 pounds or so. With spring finally springing I imagine my diet will naturally improve some anyway because of all the great stuff at the farmer's markets. The main difficulty I've had as far as eating is learning what's good and what's not good. There is just an overwhelming amount of bad science and old mythology out there regarding nutrition that it's nearly impossible to find the kernels (heh) of good advice. I'm pretty confident about cutting down on refined sugar being a good idea, but I've cut down on all sugars which means I'm getting less fruits than I wish I were. Some camps say that sugar is sugar, others that sugars are sugars but if they're combined with most fruits the overall benefits outweigh the bad effects of sugar, still others say that sucrose != fructose != glucose != other sugars and that I should dedicate hours of my life to distinguishing among different sugars. The same story applies to cheap flour carbs. I've cut down on them because I've cut total caloric intake and that's a place where I was eating too much; I didn't want to cut out foods with other strong benefits like iron and calcium. The science of how far I should go is all over the place, from a kCal is a kCal to "wheat is poison." (I'm pretty confident that last assertion is garbage.) Finally, I'd like to cut down on fat but I need more protein and I'm not willing to live on beans and boneless, skinless chicken breast forever, nor am I willing to choke down flavorless fat-free yogurt. So there we go. I hope I'm able to update again in a couple months with news that I've lost another 16ish pounds. But I'm not going to be miserable to do it.