Change in Habits - Update

So it's been about a month since I stated I was changing my habits.  Results so far?  Down 18.5 pounds.  I suspect I'm actually down 20, but I forgot to weigh myself the first few days after starting.  I know 18.5 pounds in a month isn't exactly healthy, but the truth is that's the easy weight - what I usually fluctuate by in the summers doing casual bicycling.  So I'm not too worried about it.  According to my iPad app, I took in 56,410 calories in the last 34 days.  I exercised, burned 110,293 calories.  That's a net of -53,883 calories, or 15.4 pounds.  So the counter is running reasonably close to reality.  So what have I changed?

• Bike 2-3x a week, generally for an hour each time.
• Lots of fish.
• Lots of vegetables (cauliflower/green beans)
• Take my lunch to work 95% of the time to control what I'm eating.
• Healthy snacks (generally almonds or a dried fruit/nut mixture and oranges and apples).
• Always breakfast.
• Track it via the iPad.

You'll note that I didn't include "gave up alcohol" or "gave up sweets".  I'm careful about how much of those things I'm imbibing, but I haven't given them up.  This did lead to at least one embarrassing day where I think my alcohol-related calories were higher than my other calories for the day.  That's possible with beer.  Less likely if I drink whiskey (and I'm careful with Scotch as it tends to have an impact on my mood which is more obvious if I'm not eating as much).

On an amusing note, I've found that I can't really eat a full restaurant meal anymore, so I tend to haul home half of my food.  That's resulted in twice as much mileage from my eating out, and leftovers for lunch or dinner for myself or my wife.  Who, I should mention, is benefiting from my healthier lifestyle.  If your husband is cooking wasabi salmon, bison stew, or pecan-crusted tilapia, green beans, and baked curry cauliflower, you're naturally going to eat better.  If for no other reason than you don't have to cook dinner.