Week 1 Progress

TLDR: I'm down 9 lbs. from 316 to 307 in the first week!

They always say, "The first week is the worst!"  I have to be completely honest... this first week wasn't that bad.  I tried to keep changes small so they'd be barely noticeable, and I think that approach paid off.  Here's what I did:

• Stopped putting flavored creamer in my coffee 
• To be 100% transparent, the previous week before "officially starting", I was weening myself off of an average of 3 cups of coffee per day with flavored creamer down to 2 cups with flavored creamer just to prevent headaches.  Some might call that week-1, but I wasn't tracking progress between then and last week.  Also, I'm not trying to be crazy-strict at the moment.
• I had between 1 and 1.5 cups of black coffee when I woke up every morning
• Started intermittent fasting
• I began last Monday (February 14) with a 16:8 goal, only eating between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.  The rest of the time, I was only either drinking water or black coffee.  Side note: I read that it's not considered fasting if you put cream or sugar in your coffee.  Bummer.
• As the week went on, I've kept the 16:8 ratio as a minimum goal.  Most days I could go to 10:30 or 11:00 a.m. without eating anything and hardly even notice it.  Today, as I'm writing this paragraph, it's 11:40 a.m. and I'm feeling content still.  I'm not sure if that has a more dramatic effect on weight loss, but I figure if I shoot for an 17:7 (11am - 6pm) or a 18:6 (11am - 5pm), and it's not very noticeable, I'll give it a shot.  I'm sure there will be days/weeks where I'll need to adjust based on how I'm feeling though, and I'll keep the 16:8 ratio as a minimum.
• Started CICO (calories in, calories out) - basically, just counting calories
• I tracked everything I put in my mouth on My Fitness Pal and set up goals using my estimated TDEE.  I set macro goals based on a "cutting" percentage recommended by the website that calculated the TDEE
• I'm not altering my diet at all right now except to make sure I don't exceed my caloric intake limit for the day (at a 500 calorie deficit per day)
• I'm also not making any attempt at budgeting my food choices to meet recommendations for macros right now either, but I am just looking at them to see where my current diet might need adjustment
• I've managed to exceed the recommended amount of carbs on two days and the recommended amount of sodium on most days (while still maintaining a calorie deficit) 
• I still ate fast-food twice and made sure to look up the calories before actually eating the entire servings
• Most days, I managed to not feel hungry while still having 700 - 1,000 calories available before I hit my maximum

All that said, I started one week ago weighing 316 lbs, and when I stepped on the scale this morning, I was down 9 lbs at 307 lbs.  To me, that's crazy-insane!  I expected to lose maybe 2 or 3 lbs. but I'm really happy with those results.

I was planning on making a few additions to my routine based on results, but I'm not so sure I want to change anything up at the moment.  Past attempts at weight loss have included some drastic changes that obviously weren't sustainable, so I also want to be mindful about what kinds of changes I'm making and when.  Given the success of this past week, I think I'll hold off for the moment.

It's always good to have an idea of what changes I want to make ahead of time though, so here are my thoughts on options (obviously, I wouldn't do them all at the same time).  In order of difficulty from least to greatest:

• Drink more water: I'm currently only drinking about 30-50 oz a day.  For a pre-diabetic, that makes me have to pee every 20 minutes.  This would be much more difficult to do if I weren't working from home, but I might as well work toward this as a general goal.
• Incorporate walking into my daily routine: This can be done anytime, but at my current fitness level, I might only consider starting with 10-15 minutes a day.  
• Have even less carbs in my servings of foods, which will allow me to substitute more proteins and vegetables to maintain a similar calorie consumption.
• Work up to a 20:4 intermittent fasting ratio (maximum recommended)
• Go back to the gym for resistance training: This would be ideal, but I think I would need to get some base cardiovascular fitness first.  I changed a flat tire this morning and put my spare on, which only took about 15 minutes, but I was out of breath for about 30 minutes after that.  This is going to be one of the more challenging steps to take because I don't know if it will even be possible after all my medical stuff I've experienced.  If it is possible, it could take a while to work up to.
• Start running again, depending on how the walking goes.  I've had some success previously with the Couch to 5k app, but I'd ideally not want to do it in our neighborhood due to all the hills.  Could drive to a park or the beach for this (my ideal state).

These changes will be on my mind going forward, but as long as I'm seeing success with the changes I'm already implementing, I'd rather use them as tools to break through any upcoming plateaus I might experience.  Until next week!