Update

OK, so. It’s been a while since I last posted. My weight has gone up and down a bit, but it has pretty much stabilized in the 164/165 range.

I’ve decided to do something radical — I’ve decided to stop focusing so closely on weight and start worrying more about being healthy. I have been very frustrated by how hard it has become to lose weight … to the point that it has begun to overshadow my achievements thus far. I mean, I’ve lost 40 pounds and have kept it off. I’m still eating low-carb, and I’ve encouraged Josh to the point that he’s at his lowest weight ever and looking great. (Not that I take credit for his success.) So I want to focus on the positives. I’m not going to change anything I’ve been doing EXCEPT I’ve been exercising every day for about a week now, and I want to keep that up. I want to be strong and healthy and comfortable … I don’t want to fast my way to a weight that isn’t sustainable in the long term.

So, if I stay at 165 for a while or even forever, it’s a weight in the “normal” weight range, it’s easy to find clothes that fit, and I’m comfortable with myself. And if I’m eating healthy and exercising, I have everything to be proud of, even if I never make it to that mythical 150 on the scale.

That’s my new goal – feel happy and healthy, focus on whole foods and exercise and not overindulging, and move beyond reliance on a number on the scale. It all sounds well and good, but I imagine it will be hard to find the balance between not focusing solely on the scale and not letting my weight creep too far up again. Essentially, I’m going to try to maintain this weight that has become my “new normal,” this 164 which constantly plagues my life and which my body seems to feel comfortable with, for a while.

I’ll still probably weigh every day, since it’s a habit, but I’ll make an effort NOT to let that number determine how I feel about myself that day. It is, quite simply, an unhealthy way of living.

Week 2 weigh-in

Ok, so it's been a while, and I'm a day late with my update, but I'm still on track. Yesterday I was at 162.2, which is down 1.8 pounds down from last week. Not too shabby, but I do wish I could get back to my lowest a bit faster so I could move on to losing new weight and not this same old stuff I've been losing and gaining back a million times over.

I'm still doing a combination of low-carb and intermittent fasting, but I haven't been fasting as much as I once did. That works so well when combined with low-carb.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.9

Week One Results

So, I’m at 164 this morning, which counts as my official weekly weigh-in. That’s down from 174.2 last Wednesday, so I’ve lost 10.2 pounds over the past week. GRANTED, much of that is water weight from my extreme swelling, but I’m happy to be back below where I was before we left for the beach. I was 165 the Wednesday before we left, so technically I’ve lost 1 pound in two weeks. Not great, but at least it’s a downward trend!

I’ve pretty much lapsed into a way of eating that I’m comfortable with and which seems to work for me. On days that I fast for a full 19 hours (or more), I give myself a LITTLE more latitude as far as what I eat. I’ll eat a few extra servings of nuts or a biscuit when we go out to dinner or something like that. On days that I feel like eating multiple meals, I keep them small and very low carb. Usually, I still don’t eat breakfast on those days, since I’ve really gotten out of the habit. I may grab a few nuts or a piece of cheese or something, but it’s fairly small.

This morning, I ate a more substantial breakfast – with a few bits of leftover roast chicken, some nuts and a slice or two of apple that Josh was cutting up for Oliver’s breakfast. Josh and I are going out to lunch, and I’m going to get fajitas or a tortilla-less burrito, I suppose. It’s not my favorite place to try to eat low-carb because I’m always tempted by the chips. Maybe we can do lunch kind of early, and I can skip dinner. We’ll see.

New start, day 6

Well, I neglected to blog yesterday for whatever reason, and now I can't really remember what I ate. Oh, yeah, I skipped breakfast, but ate at about noon (homemade chicken salad with homemade mayo, grapes and apples) and then had the most delicious roasted chicken with veggies for dinner. It was Jamie Oliver's recipe, and it was perfect. I could have eaten the entire chicken myself.

This morning, I was 165.0, which is down 1.2 pounds from Saturday and down 9.2 pounds since I started last week. And, it's back to my last posted weight before we left for the beach, although I think I was actually slightly lower than 165 when we left.

Today I had kind of a weird eating day. I broke my fast a 2 p.m. with some popcorn. Why popcorn? I don't know ... it was calling to me. I'd fasted for 19 hours when I broke my fast, so I guess it's not a big deal, but it felt like a little bit of a fail. It was delicious, though! Anyway, that was my breakfast and lunch, and then we went out to Ruby Tuesday for dinner, and I ate the Petite Sirloin with zucchini and green beans. Ruby Tuesday has the best veggies as sides. They've even recently added new ones, including the zucchini and spaghetti squash as well as sliced tomatoes. It's nice how many different options they have there ... even mashed cauliflower, which I've never seen on a menu before.

I didn't get in any exercise today. I was going to go for a walk at lunch, but I went to the store instead. And since we went out to dinner, we didn't have time to go for a walk this evening. Hopefully I can walk at lunch tomorrow, and then maybe come home and either walk/bike with Josh and Oliver or do something else like Wii or walk on the treadmill.

Only two days until my OFFICIAL Wednesday weigh-in ... I hope I can lose another pound or so between now and then. It's hard to believe that it wasn't that long ago (about two months ago) that I was in the 150s and now I'm fighting the fight all over again. It's kind of depressing, but I really want to push to get there again.