Delicious snacking!

I know I'm late to the game (or at least all my college friends claim I am), but I just found my new favorite snack - edamame (soybeans).  They taste like they were roasted in butter and are a delicious low-calorie snack that are fun to eat.  They make me feel like I'm eating luxuriously without "wasting" the calories.

Weekly weigh in

WEIGHT: 172.2
TOTAL LOSS: 54.2

I'm going to start doing weekly weigh in on Monday.  I've been doing this personally, but I might as well start doing it here too.  I'll include a weekly loss next time, but I don't have the information from last week.

Remember Saturday, when I said that weight loss fluctuates?  Well, my body sure did prove my point this week.

Yesterday I was 174.8.  Today I am 172.2, which is an all-time low for me!  Despite my limited appetite yesterday, I didn't simply lose 2.6 pounds in a day.  Maybe I shouldn't trust the surprisingly high numbers, but it's always the low numbers I am skeptical of.  I find it easier to blame myself for high numbers than trust the hard work I did for the low numbers.

So how did I lose over 2 pounds in a day?  I have no answer, but I do have an idea.  I eat a lot of sodium during the week because of all of the pre-packaged meals I eat.  On weekends I try to compensate with more home-cooked foods.  I think the two pound drop is simply no longer being full of salt, and thus not retaining water weight.

Of course it could just be my hard work paying off at the end of the week, but I find it hard to believe it.  Maybe that's just because I'm not good at giving myself praise, despite the almost 55 pounds I've lost in the last year and a half.

Still hurt

Four days after The Fall, and I'm still sore.  Yesterday I went to the gym, trying to make up for the skipped work outs on Wednesday and Thursday, but I am afraid I did too much.  An hour on the elliptical going slowly was thirty minutes too much.  I think it's stunted my healing process because now I'm just as sore as I was on Friday.

My eating yesterday was great, but Friday's was not.  Never the less I am surprised by this morning's weight: 174.8.  When I saw the number, I was very unhappy with myself.  I am grateful that I track my weight.  I have a short-term weight memory.  Whenever the number is stagnant for a week, the week feels like a month.  When I put the weight into Spark People, I saw that 174.8 is a pound less than it was three weeks ago, during the holidays.  I'll take the (small) loss, even if I had hoped for more from myself this weekend.

The view from my window is beckoning me to go outside, but sadly I don't think I'm going to be able to make it today.  My hip is hurting simply from sitting.

Planning

My weight loss journey has been successful for one reason: I plan.

I plan my work outs, I plan what food I'm going to eat, and I plan my weight loss goals.

I finished my 2010 calendar, and it looks like October 11th is going to be a big day for me.  If I lose 1 pound a week, that is the week I'll be at my goal weight.  I hope to be able to lose closer to 2 pounds a week, but I know the weight loss fluctuates because I am human.  But a 1 pound a week loss is a very reasonable expectation, and it should be possible for me to reach this goal.  Very exciting!

Taking a tumble: The Hill and Chinese Food

I took a bit of a tumble down the hill (read HUGE MOUNTAIN) where I live on Wednesday morning.  Trying to avoid a puddle, I slipped on the wet sidewalk next to it.  On the ironic scale, pretty hilarious.  On the pain scale, ouch!  It hurt to move, but thankfully I walked away with nothing worse than some bruising.  I  avoided the gym later that day and the day following.  I could barely walk.  There was no way I could elliptical.

Yet, I was very excited about the opportunity to show the eating skills I've mastered.  Despite the pain, I didn't let myself eat emotionally and even saw a loss the next morning!

Thursday, on the other hand, was pretty awful food-wise.  I have a variety of trigger foods, and they can all be lumped into the same category: carbohydrates.  I ordered chow fun while out at lunch with a lay leader, and ate responsibly.  But then I got hungrier later that day, with delicious leftovers sitting in the fridge.  Without enough forethought, I ate everything that was left!

But I'm feeling good about today, right now.  I have been eating normally once again, with no more Chinese food to haunt my fridge.  I love being able to start a new day!

2010 goals

My goal for 2009 was to lose 52 pounds in 52 weeks.  Weighing in at 175 on the week of my birthday, I am shy of my goal by 12 pounds, yet I am more successful than I ever imagined by virtue of the things I’ve learned in this last year.

Healthy eating simply feels better now than it ever did before.  My body works better after a year of exercise and 40 pound loss.  I feel healthier and happier, and I now am confident that I can create my own path and physique.  I can care and sculpt my body like I would feed and trim a plant.  A simple concept, but until this year, it was completely foreign to me.

In 2009 I started at 215 pounds, size 21, and unhappy with my body.  Now in 2010 I am starting at 175 pounds, size 14, and excited about my body.

I am looking forward to the next year, but I still feel ambivalent about my 2010 goals.    My goal weight (arbitrarily set) is 135 pounds, which is 40 pounds away from what I am at currently.  Part of me feels like I now have more tools than I ever had before, and I should be able to get rid of 40 pounds within six months.  The other part of me remembers than it just took me a year to shed 40 pounds, and I’m afraid that weight loss will become slower the closer I am to my goal weight.  To be completely truthful, I am afraid that I won’t know how to eat at 135 pounds; I have to imagine losing weight at 145 is a lot different than losing it at 215.

Ultimately I know what my goals are, but I don’t know how quick I can achieve them.

My 2010 goals are:

• Lose 40 pounds and be at my goal weight of 135.  (I am most anxious about the next 20 pounds, which will put me at a “healthy” BMI weight)
• Squeeze into a size 8.  I would like to be able to be a size 6, but we’ll see how my body works looks and feels.
• Take a dance class.
• Set a fitness-related goal.  (Maybe train to run a 5K?)
• Learn how to improve my healthy cooking.  I know some recipes, and I would love to learn more and new ones.
• Feel pretty.  I love that clothing options are opening up to me, and I want to explore and take risks with my clothes.  (Also, I am pretty!)
  

Birthday

Just a short post, because it's my birthday.  My weight today is 175.0 (according to a scale that is not mine), which means I've met my holiday's goal, if not my year's goal.  I'm quite alright with that.  40 pounds gone, and I feel great.  Expect a larger update later in the week, when I'm done stuffing my face of birthday goodies!