Week #3 Weigh In

Sigh...this week's weigh-in was not where I wanted it to be. I only lost a half a pound, and with it gained in inches on my waist and bust. Water weight? I don't know. But here's the ugly...

• Weight: 144.5 pounds (down 5.5 pounds in three weeks; had hoped to be down 8 pounds by now)
• Waist: 36.5 inches (that's a half inch more than I started at three weeks ago! And up an inch since last week)
• 1" Below Waist: 38.5 inches (just a half inch less than starting size and same as last week)
• Hips: 39.5 inches (just a half inch less than I started with)
• Thigh: 21 inches (just a quarter inch less than starting size and the same as the last two weigh-ins)
• Bust: 35.5 inches (down 1.5 inches from the start, but up .5 inches from last week)
• Below Bust: 32 inches (down a quarter inch from the start but up three-quarters inche from last week)

Now, I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I'm keeping my calorie count very low--my goal is 1200 calories a day, but in reality I'm averaging about 900-1000 a day. I'm also keeping a careful watch on my sugar intake. And I get no empty calories in my drinks, which is mostly water or flavored water under 10 calories per serving. So when it comes to food, I'm not sure where I'm going wrong. (I'm taking good supplements in order to make sure my energy and nutrition are there.)

The one place where I know I can do better, though, is with the exercise. I'm not getting nearly enough; it appears three times a week isn't going to cut it. So I'm going to have to figure out a way to step away from my work desk during the day to get moving. Perhaps I can fit an hour in mid-day and extend my work hours later into the night. (I can't get on the treadmill at night because the sound will keep my boys awake, but my working then won't bother them.) I'll figure something out, because I'm already behind in my goals. If I'm to make my goal weight by April 1, then I need to get a move on.

Days #12 - 17 - Where Did the Time Go?

Guess I haven't been too good about posting this last week. And yes, I have an excuse. (Don't I always?) I've been trying to pull together info for my business taxes and help my son do his FAFSA and scholarship applications for college. All on top of the regular workload. The last thing I want to do is to sit at my computer any additional time to post to a blog--and so I haven't. If only this work counted as "exercise", I'd be super thin and healthy right now. But alas, it doesn't.

I've pretty much been keeping to my diet, under 1200 calories per day (I'm actually hanging in there around 900 calories) and minimal sugar, though I did allow myself a couple glasses of wine, cheese & crackers, and some poppers on SuperBowl Sunday. Hey, we all need a holiday sometime. My exercise, however, has been very sporadic. I had to take my new pedometer back because it wasn't keeping score...I first discovered this when a nearly 2-hour trip to Costco registered only 16 additional steps on my pedometer. It then dropped to 400 steps a few hours later, when I had been over 2000 steps the last time I had looked. Go figure. Got a replacement now...I just need to break it out and use it.

Monday was my second weigh-in. Two weeks into the diet and I have:

• Lost 5.5 pounds
• Lost .5 inches from my waist
• Lost .5 inches from my hips
• Lost .25 inches from my thighs
• Lost 2 full inches from my bust (there is no justice!)

Not great stats, but I have to tell myself this was the day after letting everything go for the SuperBowl.

I'd much prefer to see the inches drop from my waist than the numbers fall on the pounds, but so far that's not happening. The first week I mysteriously gained a quarter inch around my middle, so I should at least be happy that the numbers are moving south now...but I still don't think it's fair that the bust is the first to go.

Day #11 - Finally, Some Exercise

Today was Aqua Exercise class and so I got in some real exercise. It's amazing how much of a workout you can get in the water. The best part about it? You don't sweat. (Or if you do, you don't know it.) Fortunately, we're having unbelievably warm weather this winter, so it's not so bad getting in the outdoor pool. They heat it, but because the air has been on the warm side (low 70s) the pool water doesn't feel all that warm.

I also went out and purchased a new pedometer this evening. My old one that I've relied on for two years now died. Tomorrow I plan to wear it without doing anything out of the ordinary (in other words, without consciously exercising) to see how many steps I take in an ordinary day. I'm guessing that I'll reach maybe 2000 steps. That's a pretty far cry from the 10,000 steps recommended. I know I'm spending far too much time sitting at my desk working, or on the couch reading manuscripts, or typing on the computer. But it will be interesting to see just where I fall in the step count. (See how I just gave myself permission not to exercise tomorrow? I'm good.)

Breakfast: 31g carbs / 1g sugar / 195 calories

• Sprouted Grain English Muffin (30/0/160)
• with Light Laughing Cow (1/1/35)

Lunch:  22g carbs / 0g sugar / 200 calories

• Think Thin Bar, Lemon (22/0/200)

Snack:  22g carbs / 5g sugar / 95 calories

• 15 Special K Chips (12/0/55)
• 2T salsa (3/1/10)
• 1 Arbonne Weight Loss Chew (7/4/30)

Dinner:  55.5g carbs / 11.5g sugar / 297 calories

• Hungry Girl Funkadelic Chili Mac (55.5/11/5/297)

Snack:  29g carbs / 18g sugar / 152 calories

• Skinny Cow Vanilla & Caramel Cone (29/18/150) - Yikes! Didn't realize there was so much sugar in this! Don't think I'll do this again; it didn't taste good enough to be worth it.
• SleepyTime Tea (0/0/2)

Daily Total:  159.5g carbs / 35.5 sugar / 939 calories

Exercise:  1 hour of Aqua Exercise

Day #10 - Plowing On

Another very busy day; another day I failed to exercise. This has always been the hardest part for me...finding time to fit in the exercise. As for the actual diet, I can't say I feel like I'm missing anything by watching what I eat. I don't feel hungry or deprived...although Davis's Cheesecake Factory Red Velvet Cheesecake looked mighty tempting tonight. I passed it by, though, and had two Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies instead.

Breakfast:  3.5g carbs / 2g sugar / 143 calories

• Egg Mug Lorraine from Hungry Girl (3.5/2/108)
• Coffee w/ half & half (0/0/35)

Snack:  7g carbs / 4g sugar / 30 calories

• Arbonne Weight Loss Chew (7/4/30)

Lunch:  27g carbs / 16g sugar / 215 calories

• Arbonne Vanilla Protein Shake (13/9/160)
• with half banana (14/7/55)

Dinner:  61.5 carbs / 11.5 sugar / 297 calories

• Hungry Girl Funkadelic Chili Mac (55.5/11.5/297)
• Sobe LifeWater (6/0/0)

Snack:  11g carbs / 5g sugar / 82 calories

• Sleepytime Tea (0/0/2)
• 2 Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies (11/5/80)

Daily Total:  110g carbs / 38.5g sugar / 767 calories

Day #9 - My Rules of Weight Loss

Looking back, it's difficult to pinpoint just when I started putting on excess weight. I know it was sometime in my early thirties, perhaps right around the time that I became pregnant. Two things changed about that time: first, I became more sendentary. Not just with the four months of bed rest, but after delivery as well. Sure, with a baby (who quickly became a toddler) I seemed to be running around constantly--to the point of exhaustion--but it wasn't an active running around...it was more overwhelming than anything. My focus turned to my child and his needs and away from my earlier activities of bike riding, dancing, and hiking. Second, I developed a fondness for sweets during my pregnancy. Prior to that, I was never much of a sweet-lover. But during my pregnancy I craved mud pies, chocolate, ice cream, etc. I thought the craving would go away after the baby was born, but that never happened. I still prefer a really good ice cream or gelato over just about anything else. And I guess there truly is a third thing involved: I was aging. And with age, my metabolism slowed.

The days of being called a beanpole, a skinny-belink (my dad's favorite term), are long over, and now I have to work at keeping the weight in check. But there are so many "diets" on the market, so many different theories about what to eat and when to eat it, so many gimmicks that promise easy weight loss, that it's difficult to know what to do. Am I doing things right? I don't know. But I do know that drastic changes in my diet and lifestyle, things that restrict me, will not give me the results I'm seeking. And so I'm attempting a hybrid of things based on the teachings of various diet gurus, the ones that make sense to me. And so I am going to:

• Minimize my sugar intake and eat every 3-4 hours to eliminate spikes in blood sugar (Jorge Cruise)
• Limit my fat intake and keep my calorie count below 1200 calories a day (Weight Watchers)
• Cut out processed foods wherever possible, limit dairy and gluten. (I found that last year when I cut all dairy and gluten from my diet for a month, I lost 11 pounds and felt great. But it was just too difficult to sustain a diet that limits these completely. So this time I'm just avoiding them as I can.)
• Do my best to walk 10,000 steps per day. (I'm still working up to this. It's amazing just how little I walk. I knew I was fairly sendentary in my job, but when I put the pedometer on I was shocked to see just how little I move in a day.)

That's pretty much the gist of it. We'll see how I do and whether or not it works. I'll keep you posted.

Today's damage:

Breakfast:  (37g carbs / 7g sugar / 204 calories)

• Erewhon Crispy Brown Rice cereal (25/0/110)
• with blueberries (10/7/39)
• with almond milk (rather than dairy) (2/0/20)
• Coffee with half & half (0/0/35)

Snack:  (7g carbs / 6g sugar / 52 calories)

• 5 mint M&Ms (I'm bad! They were in a bowl on the counter and I scooped them up and put them in my mouth before thinking.) (7/6/52)

Lunch:  (11g carbs / 4g sugar / 233 calories)

• 3 oz hanger steak (left over from Sunday's dinner out) (0/0/174)
• Peas (left over from Saturday) (11/4/59)

Dinner:  (31.5g carbs / 2.5g sugar / 262 calories)

• Cheesy Beefy Supreme (left over from last night) (31.5/2.5/262)

Snack:  (11g carbs / 5g sugar / 82 calories)

• Sleepytime tea (0/0/2)
• 2 Girl Scout Thin Mints (11/5/80)

Daily Totals:  97.5 carbs / 24.5g sugar / 833 calories

Steps: Pedometer stopped working at 2013 steps. Time to buy a new one.