The Poker Chip Diet After Year One

One year into the Poker Chip Diet and I think it’s going pretty well. I lost 25.4 pounds this year, which represents a little less than 10% of my January 1, 2021 bodyweight. My goal was 25 pounds, with 35 pounds as a stretch goal:

It’s really nice having lost some extra weight. My joints and back feel better. I don’t snore as much, or grunt when I bend over anymore. I’m sure there are other internal parts of my body that are happier with less fat around too.

I’ve moved enough of the chips to the right that I think I’m feeling too much sense of accomplishment and too little motivation, so I’m going to reset the chips:

The new goal is 10 more pounds, with 15 pounds as the stretch goal. Even 10 pounds would put me at a reasonable and healthy sustainable weight that ideally I could maintain into old age.

The other new goal for 2022 is to try to go for a walk at least 4 days per week. Walking works well for me because I can’t get halfway through the exercise and then quit for the day. At that point I still have to walk home. I began 2021 by going for walks daily, then things happened and for a while walking was no longer a priority, and I never restarted the walks. I think getting in at least some walking will improve my muscle tone and hopefully make me less likely to get injured doing routine things around the house. It should make my joints feel better too.

For me the weight loss has been about food discipline — portion control and monitoring my total daily calorie intake. I’ve been weighing in at least weekly — if I’ve been slack the scale doesn’t lie about it. If I feel like I’ve leveled out then getting on the scale daily helps, too many cheat days become very obvious very fast.

So there’s that. At least one more update to come in the future.

Happy Holidays