Week 29 - New Record for Worst Month!

I guess the title says it all.

Weigh-in:  +.5lb
Avg. Burn:  2374

Average W/L for December:  .5lb total for month!

Honestly, I should be happy that the gain is only .5lb.  The burn is not too shabby either since I took off Christmas day (planned - still managed to burn over 2k) and the 27th (unplanned - just could not get myself out of bed). 

I have been eating and drinking non-stop.  New Years Day is on Tuesday, and I actually cannot wait to be done with all the holiday parties, gathering, and mostly FOOD.  I have more than indulged myself, and I will be fine with returning to a normal, healthy consumption.

I am sorry that I have done such damage to my goal.  I am currently 5.5 pounds behind where I should be - a whole month's progress - that I need to catch up on some how.  I have started thinking about weight loss pills or something like that to help speed up my metabolism.  Only I'm probably too cheap to actually buy them.  I have started running 3 of the 4 miles that I do on my "long" days (did I mention that I got new running shoes for Christmas?), and I am consistently doing HIIT on my "short" days.  My weights/isometric plans have not fared as well.  Because I do it after my aerobics, it often got short shrift to an already over packed schedule.  This is another thing that should be better in the new year.  Although my classes start on the 7th, my social agenda should be a lot more quiet.  All I have to do is manage to get out of bed at 5:04 AM, and there's no reason why I shouldn't be able to keep up with the schedule more consistently.

I also have to get back to journalling again - totally skipped it this week, it's just too difficult.  But, I'm sure I was at the 2300 calorie mark.

Ok, I'm gonna sign off for now.  I hope to have a better report next week!

Week 28 - No Christmas Miracle

Ok, may as well get right to the stats:

Weigh in:  +1.5lb
Avg. Burn:  2474
Avg. Cal consumed:  1369

This week was tough, definitely the beginning of the holiday eating.  If I am honest with myself, there is probably another 200 calories consumed on average, so at least 1569.  However, that still gives me a 1105 deficit, so once again, I'm baffled that I GAINED.  I can see staying the same - just the deviation from my usual menu could cause my system to retain fluid, etc., but gaining is just discouraging.

I am doing well, however, with my goal to get to Christmas with continuous exercise.  My burn rate is one of the best I've had in weeks - actually, since October, so I am psyched about that.

This next week will be even more challenging, starting today, there is almost daily celebrations, and the food that is around for munching - cookies, candy, crackers, cheese, yummy left overs - it's all too accessible.  I'm going to try to be good, but also try not to stress over it too much.  I'll focus on keeping up with my exercise and I still have a million things to get done, so hopefully I'll be too busy to eat too much!

Week 27 - the Whoosh Fairy taketh away, and the Whoosh Fairy giveth :-(

I guess I can't really call it a "whoosh", but I gained back 1lb this week:

Stats:  +1lb
Ave Burn:  2402

I don't know my average calorie intake because I have not be tracking :-(  Honestly, I am just treading water here - which is kind of what I realized would happen during the holidays.  So, now I'm behind my goal again, but only by .5.  I am going to really try to get back to tracking my calories.  Although I don't believe that I ate 2400 calories a day PLUS 3500 more to gain a pound, I'm sure that my eating and drinking has played a part in my lack of progress.  It's the holidays!

On Wednesday morning, I completely blew through my alarm and missed working out.  I mean, I don't even remember my alarm going off, so you know I was in deep REM sleep.  This was not good because I had plans for lunch, and that meant there would be no opportunity to make up my workout for the day.  I guess, considering that, I did ok with a 2401 burn average, but I just cannot afford those types of slip ups.  I think what happened was that I was up pretty late getting stuff done and ready for the next day, and I just hit the wrong button when the alarm went off - not even really waking up for it.  I try to take these experiences as a sign - my body must have really needed that sleep!

This coming week will be another whirlwind of activity leading up to the holiday and my SIL and niece coming to stay with us.  In addition, there will be mass baking and cooking.  This is what makes it extra challenging to track my food.  One bite of chicken tiki masala, one chicken salad finger sandwich, a sliver of lasagna, a half a glass of punch, and one bite sized chocolate dessert thing.  Oh, and a palm full of M&Ms.  It's all so hard and time consuming to track.  Part of me just wants to put "1000 calories of misc junk".  What I describe is exactly what is coming up on Thursday - our work pot luck and Yankee swap.  But, there will be several more occasions where the sampling will be similar.  I should really try to figure out a strategy for dealing with it without over-doing it.

For one thing, I have a goal to work out every day until Christmas, but take Christmas off (because the kids get up so early, it would be difficult to work out that morning anyway, so I may as well give in to it).  Then, it will be right back to it the next day.  At least this will keep up my burn rate so that I don't gain 5lbs in the next week, maybe only 2 or 3.

Week 26 - Week from H*ll

Well, maybe stress is good for weight loss:

Stats:  -3.5lbs
Average burn:  2382
Average calories:  unknown

Well, what a week.  I started out with a crazy Saturday with my kids - ran the girls to karate, then we went to a church fair, then ran home to get some stuff done before our friends came over.  Sunday was a little less crazy, but Chuck was still sick with a cold, so dealing with that.  My brother's birthday celebration out at a restaurant (very yummy, but I ate too much garlic bread!) 

Monday was crazy - I had a meeting with my boss where she told me that I was being removed as program manager on the program I have been working on for a year.  I was taken aback, but the way she presented it - the decision made, and why she had decided to do it, which was nothing to do with me except for my location??  I played along, but then decided I wasn't going to pretend there wasn't an elephant in the room.  It's ugly, but there's nothing I can do about it.  It made me sick to my stomach, though - or maybe I still have a touch of the stomach flu.

I had to leave early to bring Russell to the dentist for his gum surgery, then we went grocery shopping.  After dinner, I had to start working on my final project for class.  It's not that difficult, but very time consuming.  I tried to get some laundry done while I was working on it, but of course nothing got folded. On Tuesday, I was still dealing with the work decision - I was on the fence about going to my work's holiday party, but I decided to, and I'm glad I went.  Wednesday night I rushed home and took the girls to karate, then home, made dinner, and worked on my homework a little more.  Thursday night we had to go right from work to Tess's school for quality night.  Then home, make dinner, and final work on project.  Then, on Friday we went to get our Christmas tree, and after we went to La Hacienda for our tradition.

I have not been able to keep up with journaling my food, nor have I been able to work my isometric/weights into my workouts this week.  I have barely had time to do my cardio.  I am glad that the woosh fairy visited me (oh, did I mention that I had my period too!), I hope the results stick around.  There is something wrong with my ticker - it should say 26.5lbs, which puts me just .5 ahead this week.  I don't care, I'll take it!

Week 25 - half way there!!!

Well, I am half way through the time to my goal, even if I am not half way to my goal.  :-(

Stats: -1lb
Average burn:  2278
Average calories: 1325

I got a stomach bug this week, and I ended up not eating for 48+ hours.  I also did not work out on Wednesday and Thursday.  I purposely took Wednesday off, but I did not mean to take Thursday off, but somehow did not get up when my alarm went off.  I really was not happy to have illness derail my week, especially since I was taking Friday off for our annual shopping trip.  I guess I did pretty good, considering, with an average daily burn of 2382, considering I took off 2 days.

The weight loss is disappointing.  I am now a full 2lbs behind my goal.  I thought that the stomach flu would give me a much needed boost to my weight loss, but I guess not.  I need the whoosh fairy to come and give me a big loss. 

I probably should be more excited to be half way through to my goal, but it's anticlimactic because of being behind in my weight loss and because I know that, even after I get to my goal, that I am not done.  It won't be like crossing a finish line or passing in a final assignment and saying, "ok, that's over!".  I know I have a lifetime of keeping up with healthy eating and exercise.  Still, for now I have a goal, and I will reach that goal no matter what.

My brother gave me new music at Thanksgiving, and I've been enjoying listening to some new tunes during my work outs.  He does a spectacular job putting together motivating music that's at the correct tempo.

Chuck and I went on our annual shopping day trip - this is supposed to jump start our Christmas shopping.  It was ok, but I cannot believe the holidays are already here.  I am not ready!  I think having so much going on, especially school, makes it hard to concentrate on the holidays.  I hope I can keep up with diet and exercise during the season.  It sure is challenging.

Week 24 - Sigh

Stats:  +1lb
Average burn:  2397 (so close to goal of 2400!)
Average calories:  1248

This is a week that I (we) take time to be grateful.  Everyday, I try to think about how fortunate I am and give thanks, but during Thanksgiving, I think about it in a bigger way - not only about my family, friends, health, but also about having a manager who doesn't drive me crazy, or the fact that I have my wonderful mother living with me, or for something that I take for granted - like trash pick up!  In any case, gratitude is in my heart, and it's important to put all things in perspective.

That's why I tried not to be too discouraged by the scale on Friday.  It was the day after Thanksgiving for goodness sake, and I wasn't exactly an angel.  I had all my favorites, plus seconds, and apple pie.  I skipped dinner, but I did have another piece of pie at 10 PM!  I tried to account for it on my food tracker, but I'm sure my total was underestimated - I came out at ~1750 calories, and that seems remarkable, don't they say the average meal is 2000?  But, I have a couple of things that are going for me, and that is that I don't use gravy, and I have some great vegetable sides that are part of my meal.  Anyway, even if I had consumed less calories, I bet I still would have been up a pound because of all the salt.  At least that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

This week I had two realizations.  The first one is that you can lose 10% of your body weight, and you can feel good about yourself, and you can be happy that you fit into your clothes again, but you still look fat!  It's like when I watch The Biggest Loser.  The contestant has lost like 150 pounds, but he/she still looks fat.  His BMI is probably still obese (at least mine is now merely "overweight").  It's crazy - but the fact is that it's something that messes with your head.  You want to celebrate what you've done, but you realize that you've only made a dent.

The other realization that I had is that I'm going to be at this for more than a year.  I have been focused on this goal so much, and not in the "Ah, I've crossed the finish line, time for a buffet and a nap", type of focus.  I know that I will have to - no, I want to - keep up with my "healthy lifestyle", I've even added it to my workout sheet.  I think what I realized is that my body needs a lot more work than just losing the weight.  I'd like to think I could just be 135-140 pounds and look great, but I think I've abused my body for too long to expect that.  Also, I need to get strong in order to stay strong.  And I want to stay strong for my children, future grandchildren, and, of course, for myself.  I guess part of me was thinking that I could meet this goal then sail into maintenance mode for the rest of my life, but I don't think so.  Maybe it's good that I realized it now instead of waiting until almost the end.

Next week:  Annual trip to Boston, the start of the holiday season, and amping up the activity.

Week 23 - Backlash

Well, it's not exactly backlash, but it sorta makes sense . . . well, let's explain with stats.

Stats:  0 lbs lost
Ave calories burned:  2351
Ave calorie consumed:  1151

So, I figure I'm paying for the big loss two weeks ago.  In addition, the not-so-good eating week I had last week.  But, the numbers are still good - it's baffling, sometimes, how my body works.  I shouldn't let it get to me, but it does.  It's difficult to be working so hard and see an average deficit of 1200 calories, and not even lose 1 pound.  Even if you put in a 5% margin of error - to the negative on both numbers, so the average burn would be 2233, and the average calories consumed would be 1207, that's still a 1k a day deficit - or 2 pounds a week.  Sigh.

One thing I decided was to end my sobriety a week early.  It hasn't given me the extra boost I was hoping for, and Chuck and I were going out for our monthly date night, and I just wanted to have a drink.  I will try to keep it all to a minimum as I was before, and I'll see if it makes any negative impact - there is the theory that I could have done even worse if I had been drinking, but if that's the case, I can always stop again.

My calorie burn dipped a little this week, and that is concerning. I'd like to continue to keep it up over 2400 average, but I did cut back on the aerobic exercise so I could fit in isometric/weight workouts more regularly, and it doesn't seem as if that registers the way the walking does.  My goal this week is to understand my treadmill's programs so that I can use them on my 45 minute days to increase calorie burn :-)

I started to use a new tracker program this week - myfitnesspal - it syncs with my Bodymedia Activity Manager, so I don't have to log in both places.  It's supposed to be easier to log and have more entries.  It has a mobile ap, so if I can use that more often with more success than the activity manager, then it may be worth it.  So far, it's ok - I don't like the fact that you cannot see the calories of the food you are choosing, so you have no idea what it's going to be.  I chose a generic salad - just the veggies according to the description, and it came out to be 400 calories!  I don't think so . . .

Well, next week is Thanksgiving.  I will be weighing in on the day after the big feast.  I'm not sure what to expect, but I'm just going to keep up with my fitness goals and try to be extra good from now until Thursday.  I do love TG, and while I won't go hog wild, I will not skip my favorites - especially apple pie - because I'm on this journey.  I think it's important to understand how to fit these events into our lives without them being big set backs.  Weather permitting, we will go for a walk after dinner, and I will have worked out that morning, so maybe burn some of the calories I will consume.