Richard Ha writes:

This is the first week of my revised weight loss program.

My plan is to lose 1/2 pound per week. If, during any week, I instead gain more than a half pound, my strategy is to fast from 3 p.m. the next day to 10 a.m. the following day, and then continue with my eating program as detailed here.

My plan is to eat three normal meals per day and two planned calorie snacks, one at 10 a.m. and the second at about 3 p.m. Each snack will consist of around 110 calories.

I find I’m more conscious of keeping to this meal schedule now that I’ve added the “skip an evening meal whenever I’m more than a half pound behind schedule” component. I don’t only think about the current day, but I find myself doing contingency planning–in case I need to skip a meal, what will my meals consist of prior to and after skipping the meal? This is helping me be more conscious of my calorie intake.

I plan to continue with my exercise program, where the goal is to lower my resting heart rate to below 50 beats per minute. Three times a week,B my plan is to do 30 minutes of aerobic exercise at 130 heartbeats per minute. Twice a week I will do 40 minutes at 120 beats per minute. On one day, I will exercise for 90 minutes in the 120 -125 beats per minute range. And one day I will do three intervals hitting 150 beats per minute or higher in a 30-minute period. Mountain bike riding will generally fulfill this requirement.

Weight on Jan. 7, 2007: 204.5
Weight today, Jan. 15, 2007: 202.7
I lost 1.8 pounds since last week.

Scheduled weight: 204
I am 1.3 pounds ahead of schedule.

Resting heart rate today: 54 beats per minute.