Week 7 - Returning to Normal

Last week: 228.2
This week: 225.2
Lost: -3.0
Total: 24.8

Well, we had the funeral on Tuesday, and Drew's Christmas party on Saturday night but other than those it's been all about returning to normal.  I got my full five workouts in, catching up at work and generally resettling into the usual schedule. 

Two more events up this week, we have the work goodie day/potluck on Wednesday, and a Christmas brunch at my aunt and uncle's on the 21st. 

Overall weight loss proceeds at a pace of 3.3lbs per week, which I still find a wee bit high but as I'm not going hungry or leaving too many points on the table at the end of each day I can live with for now.  I did shake my fist at the scale this morning though for that stubborn 0.2lbs.  Really?  I miss my first big goal this week by 0.2?  That adds insult to injury.  Oh well, next week.

Ended up beating my cold into submission over the weekend, but I have to say thank you to a wonderful Drew for turning groceries into supper on Sunday.  I had run out of fucks to give about 3pm and just wanted to lie on the couch leaking out the sinuses.  Thank you for feeding me edible things Drew.

Di

Week 6 - Ugh

First the weight

Last week: 229.6
This week: 228.2
Lost: -1.4
Total: 21.8

Now the rest

We had a death in the family last week.   Drew's grandmother was diagnosed with cancer about 2 weeks ago, and the decline was very quick.  She passed away thursday overnight.  It's been a stressful time for everyone involved, and we're taking it one day at a time.  The funeral is scheduled for tomorrow at one.

Foodwise, this has led to some fast and loose tracking over the last week, especially when combined with a few social events including a birthday party on Friday and a thank you dinner on Saturday at Boston Pizza.  I'm actually a little surprised I lost anything at all, as I figured maintaining for this week would be counted a win.

The transgressions/out of the normals really added up; Tuesday was supper at Davids, Friday was out to the birthday party while Drew hosted our First of the Month game night (and I may have cleaned up the last little bit of the chip bowl when I got home, about 2oz all together of potato chips.) Saturday was Boston pizza with 2 slices of pizza and a hot chocolate at Jefferies across the street for dessert.  Sunday was pizza again with Drew's family, along with 2 molasses cookies and a piece of shortbread from the tray mom dropped off (which was fantastic, it gave me a dessert to feed everyone)

So while I tracked everything I ate, it wasn't exactly a stellar food choice week.  Not to mention I missed 2 of 5 workouts, and the one on Wednesday was short by about half.  The other thing that was discovered is after six weeks of dieting, pizza really isn't your friend.  My body had some very pointed opinions about the amount of grease I ate Saturday and Sunday night.

Well, back on track for this week.  At least until the weekend when we have Drew's Xmas party on Saturday.

Yay Christmas.
Diana

Week 5 - Losing a wee bit too fast

As much as I hate to do it, I'm going to have to tweak my diet and slow down the weight loss a bit.

As of this morning, I weighed in at 229.6lbs, down another 3.2lbs from last week, which was 4lbs down from the week before.  As much as I love watching the weight slide off that fast, it's just too much.

Conventional wisdom says between 1-2lbs per week, and my personal goal is 1% of my body weight per week, which puts me a smidge above those numbers for now.  Except the last two weeks have been 1.4% and 1.5% respectively.  Having one peak over the number I'm aiming at is a cause for celebration.  Having two of them do it means I'm doing something wrong.

I'll concentrate on eating closer to my points value (I admit, I missed it by as much as six points some days last week) and using some of those weekly points on a more regular basis. 

Total weight lost so far is 20.4 lbs.

Down to 31 daily points, and going to be watching the weight watcher site with a hairy eyeball for the next week or so.  They're announcing their annual tweak to the plan on December 7, and I suspect a price increase to go with it.  Now the question is does that include the online plan as well as the meeting plans, and by how much?

Week 4

No post last week. Ooops.

Here are the numbers for the last two weigh ins, last monday and this morning.

Nov 17 = 236.8 (-1.2)
Nov 24 = 232.8 (-4.0) ???!?!?!?!

Ok, I feel pretty freaking awesome about this mornings weigh in, especially as last week had several challenges.

I missed one and a half trips to the gym (One to walk through the neighbourhood to see if I could find the fiance's missing textbooks in a BFI bin somewhere, and the half was when the treadmill just up and quit 20 minutes into my walk on my birthday.  I took it for a sign and went home early :) )

Thursday we went to Mongo's for my birthday supper, and it was the first time I've eaten out since I started the weight loss thing, but I did behave myself.  Broccoli and tofu stir fry with a half scoop of oil, although I did use lots of the stir fry/mongolian/khans favorite sauces.  And the garlic sauce because, you know, garlic.

Friday was the monthly birthday celebrations at work, where we order pizza.  This time we got a pizza and a 'salad' for those of us trying to eat a little healthier.  Except the salad had mozzarella, cheddar cheese, salami, turkey and ham as well as italian dressing.

On another note, I wonder if I'm doing measurements wrong.  I've had to buy a belt because my pants have a new love affair with gravity, but the tape measure has changed by a total of 3cm, and thats across arms, thighs, hips, bust and waist.  It seems odd.  The other thing I've noticed is my fancy bras don't fit well anymore.  Was easily a DDD in the fancy formed foam cup bra I had when I started this, but now if I bend over, the cups gape at the top, and it's very noticeable under my shirt.  I may have to go back to the utilitarian soft wonderbras until I get the hang of this.  If the size changes in those, it's not nearly as noticeable.  I'm loving that my clothes are looser, but the numbers should reflect that damnit!

Also, the points have dropped again to 32 daily points

Diana


PS the total so far is 17.2

Missed Monday

By nearly a week.

Official Naked After Peeing Weigh In for Monday Nov 10 was 238lbs, so down another 2 for a total of 12 lbs so far.

Starting this weekend, things begin to get tough.  Reaching my first real challenge for staying on plan, which is the death of the routine I've had going for the first two weeks.

Jimcon.  Don't get me wrong, I love Jimcon, but any convention isn't really punctuated by healthy meal choices, sufficient sleep, etc.  After Jimcon, my birthday is next week, and the week after that begins the Christmas social whirl, which lasts for a month.

I'm going to have to be very careful over the next six weeks or so to stick to plan where I can, and not say "Ah, this only happens once a year" too often. 

The other challenge I'm going to have to work on is staying off the damned scale between weigh ins.  I'm on it several times a day (pretty much any time I walk into the bathroom) analyzing the numbers and comparing it to what I just ate/drank/whatever.  It's unhealthy.  I'm very much a numbers based person, and I do very well with set routines and hard data, but this is getting to borderline obsession which isn't fun.  If I can't stay off the thing entirely, I need to at least limit myself to once a day.

Tracking my food choices in both a journal that travels with me, and on the weight watchers website, and getting better at hitting the correct points values without crashing and burning in between meals.  Practice makes perfect!

Week One in the bag

Well, that was the first week done!

Did my weigh in this morning (first thing after waking up, stark naked, and after peeing... what, this isn't how everyone else does it?) and the verdict is...

240lbs!

So that is a total of 8.0lbs lost this week, and 10lbs since I got weighed at the Dr's office.

In the first week, I had alot of trouble hitting my points totals.  34 points is alot to use.  I ranged between 28 and 37 points daily.  (The 37 points, 3 from my weekly total is blamed entirely on that day being halloween and lots of wee chocolate bars everywhere.  I was weak.  They were delicious, and I'm proud of myself that I stopped at 4.)

For the week, I averaged about 30 points a day.  With the weight drop, I'm now allowed 33 points a day, so the numbers are getting closer.  And with luck I won't see a drop this big again.

Wait, what?  Why don't I want to see an 8 lb drop again?  Because it's a ridiculously fast weight loss, and while acceptable for the first week, when much of it is probably water weight, and your body isn't used to what you're doing to it, maintaining that level of loss can lead to some serious health complications, not to mention the problem of reaching your goal, and bouncing right back up again.

The idea is to get the standard. 1/2 to 2lbs per week (lets be fair, I really want the 2lbs per week.  I want to do this healthily, but a half lb a week seems... glacial.)  and then maintain it.  This isn't so much fun I want to do it more often than I have to!

The goal this week is to get better at using my points and making sure I'm getting in 5 days of some form of activity at a half hour a day.  Still in the baby step stage, but it's progress!

Diana

Cholesterol

Well, I discovered two things yesterday.

First, it's harder than I thought to eat enough points in a day. I completely flubbed yesterday's numbers, and todays, while better was still much heavier later in the day, and I had to resort to a protein shake for an evening snack to get within 5 points of where I should be.  Going to have to load breakfast and lunches up a bit more to make up for this.

Second, my doctor has given me time limits.

At nearly 38, he's told me I have until I'm 40 to bring my cholesterol down to normal levels, and I have six months to show some improvement from where it is now or we'll be putting me on medication.

Cholesterol: 6.4
Triglycerides: 2.12
HDL: 1.0
LDL:4.48

The numbers I SHOULD have

Cholesterol <5.2
Triglycerides <2.3
HDL >1.3
LDL <3.0

Launch day!

So the planning is done!

Today is Day 1.

I bought my wee book to record everything in, more chickpeas than I know what to do with (yet. There's a lot of recipes out there I want to try. The roasted chickpeas from last night turned out pretty well)

Hemmed my yoga pants.  I had to take a bit more than six inches off the leg length, wearing them unhemmed I had to pull them up to my armpits, and I was still tripping over them.

Started this morning with a healthy breakfast, oatmeal, flax seed and a glass of milk.  Lunch will be a frozen weight watchers dinner, or yogurt fruit and a protein shake.  Possibly a combination of both.  I need to use up 34 points today, and breakfast was a measly 5.  That was my problem last time I did weight watchers about 10 years ago.  When sticking to healthy foods, it was difficult to eat all your points in a day. Supper will be whole wheat penne pasta with a tomato and chickpea sauce.


Day 1

Points: 34
Weekly Points: 49

Official Naked First thing in the Morning after Peeing weigh in: 248

And having managed to hem those pants, I'm off to make use of them at the local gym.

Preparation;

I've spent the last 2 days planning, and now I have two days to implement and get everything in place for October 27, which is when I offically start this whole shebang. 

I've got a membership to the YMCA.  I'd love to say this is new for this reason, but it's more a sign I realized this was coming as I picked it up about 3 weeks ago.  Coincidentally enough, it was about the time I decided to stop avoiding the Doctors office and face the music.  I got my bloodwork done about a week later. 

It's currently underutilized, I get to the gym about once a week for a half hour of imitating a hampster on the treadmill.  That's one of the things thats going to change.  I need to make time for the gym a bare minimum of three days a week, and closer to five or six days a week.

It'll still be a half hour on the treadmill for now, and I admit I don't go very fast or very far.  Thirty minutes at between 2.5 and 3mph right now.

The first goal is a full half hour no slower than 3mph.  When I can reach that and it doesn't make me want to vomit or die, I'll start adding other excersizes.

The next step is joining weight watchers.  I think this time I'll try the online version (www.weightwatchers.ca).  While I like the face to face for the 'accountability' of having another person seeing my scale numbers each week, I never could stand the meetings and the cheerleader 'rah rah rah' attitude that went with them.  I'm sure they're exactly what some people need, but they automatically set my cynisism button to 11. 

The online version of the program gets you the same program, but no face to face meetings with anyone.  I'll use this blog as a substitute for eyes on the numbers of the weekly weigh in, and it's cheaper at $22 for a month as opposed to $12 a week.

The other thing I'm hoping to use this blog for is collecting my favorite recipes.  I'm going to have to make some fairly drastic changes to my food intake, and having a collection of recipes I've tested and actually like will help with that alot.

T minus 3 days.
Di

Half the lady I used to be.

Hello.

This is turning out to be harder right off the top than I thought.  There's something to be said for anonymity.  It lets you not look at various things.  In fact, it lets you pretend there's nothing there to look at.  Combine that with a decent poker face, and an ability to lie to yourself (as well as the ability to shut out any of the 'well meaning' people who try to talk to you about it.  Seriously, you're not helping.), means you can spend a long long time ignoring reality.

So.  Lets remove the lies, and the anonymity and take a good look at my reality.

My name is Diana.

I am 37 years old.

I am 5'0" tall.

I weigh 250 pounds.

I got a call from my Dr's office, asking me to come in to discuss some elevated cholesterol levels.  Now to be completely honest, this doesn't really come as a surprise.  I've been passively avoiding my Drs office for the last 7 or 8 years because I didn't want the bad news (See the above note on lying to yourself and avoiding reality).  I don't see how at my weight and age I couldn't have some cholesterol concerns. My appointment is on Monday, which gives me six days.

Six days for what?  Planning.  Buying supplies. Starting this blog. Deciding what my plan of attack is, and how I'm going to accomplish it.  Because the title of this blog?  It isn't meant to to be demeaning.  Half the lady I used to be is the goal.

At 5'0" and 250lbs, I have a BMI (Body Mass Index) of  49.  This falls well into the morbidly obese category, which is anything above a BMI of 35. Garden variety obese is between 30 and 35.

A healthy BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9 according to the charts. When compared against my height, that's a weight range of 95 to 127 pounds.  Now, I looked at the 95 pounds and nearly cried. I haven't weighed that since I was about 13.

The 127?  That seemed a little more reasonable.  I weighed about 120 through high school before the freshman fifteen ambushed me, and brought friends, family members, family pets, neighbours and anyone else they could find.

So, the goal, and I haven't even come close to coming up with a timeline for it, but the ultimate goal is lose 50% of my body weight and literally become half the lady I am now.

Step one will be talking to my Doctor on Monday and getting the details on the cholesterol.

Step two starts first thing Monday morning, when I take the little journal I'm going to buy this evening (see that bit on supplies) and start recording everything I eat.  What it is, how much of it, and what time of day.  Not just what I should eat, but what I actually do eat.  This is to short circuit the lying to myself about whats actually happening.  If I fall off the wagon and eat a bag of chips it goes on the list.  Not to make me feel guilty, but so I have a record of the cause end of cause and effect.

This blog is going to be where I come to chronicle successes, lament failures, discuss progress and stumbling blocks.  One step at a time.

Wish me strength.
Di