Checking in: Week 13: 15 pounds!

TA-DA!!!  I hit another Mini Goal today!
Another 5 pound marker and a total of
15.4 pounds lost!!

This will be short and sweet.  Today was weigh in....and I couldn't stay for the meeting but I did go check in.  And I lost 2.8 pounds this week hitting and surpassing 15 pounds!  I'm at 15.4 pounds gone! YAY!
Made some changes this week.  Tried to change things up a bit and it worked.  I did try to move whenever possible.  I even got off the bus when it broke down and walked home two miles.  I did bathroom counter pushups throughout the workday to combat my jiggly arms.  More big salads too.
So the moral of the story is (after last week's slight weight gain), don't lose heart on small set backs.  Be consistent and keep your focus!
Now for my next mini goal....another 4.6 pounds by Memorial weekend!!

Catching up: Week 10 - Pinch Me!

Ta-Da!!  Three whole pounds down
this week!!  13 pounds down!

I had a busy week.  Over the weekend, Neddy and I stacked over 600 bricks and created two big raised beds in our yard.  I planted veggies.  My friend and I walked on our lunch break a few times.  So I go to my Wednesday lunchtime meeting, get on the scale and what NEVER happens, Happened!!  I LOST THREE (3!) POUNDS this week.  Notice the caps!  Yep!  I'M SHOUTING!

This brings my 10 week total weight lost to 13 pounds!  That was yesterday.  This morning I hopped on the scale, kind of as a "pinch me...I must be dreaming" kind of thing, and it was still there!

So it makes me wonder what's different?  Why the sudden weight loss.  Yes, we stacked bricks and worked out in the yard, but my active link monitor didn't even register that as activity. I've been trying to evaluate the difference and the one thing I can think of is that now that lent is over, I started back on dairy and therefore, higher protein foods, like greek yogurt, cottage cheese and eggs.  I'm still keeping within my points and tracking.  But i'm wondering if that's what's responsible for my numbers this week.

But whatever it is, I'm good with it!!!

Here's a picture of the work we did this weekend.  It starts in the lower right bottom  with our terrible soil garden space...and progresses up to the raised bed, the new soil, Neddy filling the boxes and then finally, up top, the finished and planted garden.

Checking In: Week 9: I Did It!!

I did it!  I met my first mini goal!  10 pounds lost!!

Well, it finally happened!  You know how it is when you get up first thing in the morning, go about doing your morning "stuff" and right before you get dressed for work, you hop on the scale for your weigh in.  Well, for the past week, I have more than hit my 10 pound mark, but weigh in is not until 12:30 p.m.  And in that time between 5:30 in the morning and 12:30, there a lot of life that goes on:  There's the morning coffee, a little something for breakfast...some water...you get the idea.

So if you read my post last week, I had 1.4 pounds to lose to make it to my 10 pound mini-goal.  And come Wednesday morning, I didn't think it was going to happen because my home scale had not moved significantly enough from the week prior.  So it was totally unexpected when I went to my meeting and the leader said, 'Oh, good, you lost again...."  The loss was EXACTLY 1.4 pounds making my grand total loss in 9 weeks to be 10 pounds!  Woot!!

So what did I do differently this week than last?  Want to know?  The answer is NOTHING.  I did nothing different.  I stayed consistent.  I tracked, I stayed within my points and I walked (and walked and walked...and still did my bathroom counter pushups).  (I'm averaging about 70 pushups a day now!!)

My friend Karen and I (the one that's lost 18 pounds in 9 weeks, thank you) have been doing what I call the "Green Light Walk" on our lunch break.  We walk until we hit a red light.  And so we have to turn and follow where the green light takes us. Anytime you stop at a red, you must change direction and go to the green.  I work at 7th and Fig.  This week we ended up taking Hope all the way down to Pico, and then walking all the way around the Convention Center and back to work.  It was a 3.6 mile walk. 

So I'm happy. One mini goal down, and the next mini goal is set.  Losing another 10 is already under way! 

What's working for you?  Let me know how you're doing.  I'd love to hear from you.

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Do you use a pedometer? It's fun to see how far you're going.  Pedometers have come a long way and you don't need anything fancy.  Here's a basic one from Timex, but nowadays, if you carry your phone with you, there are pedometer apps that keep track of your miles and calories burned.  Still, if you don't want to carry your phone with you, the classic pedometer will clip onto your waistband.     

Week 6: There's No Comparison!

Ta-Da, another .8 pounds down
Week 6 total lost: 7 pounds

There's something that needs addressing - WITH MYSELF - about this whole thing about weight loss, getting healthy.  And that "something" has to do with comparisons.  When I first started this journey 6 weeks ago, you heard me.  I was all gung ho about embracing every ounce, and sticking with it and blah, blah, blah.   I'm not throwing in the towel by any means.  I'm still in it for the long haul - BUT - would it be so hard if the scale dropped a whole pound instead of ounces?  Really?  This week's weigh in brought me .8 (that's 8/10th's) of a pound closer to my goal.  Okay that ALMOST a whole pound, but not quite.  Still, it's a movement in the right direction, and I am grateful, don't get me wrong.  But still......

Okay, here's the big picture.  The truth of the matter is that doing this with friends is great (i.e. great to have a buddy to share the journey with), but on the other hand, I'm constantly comparing my loss with hers.  She started a week after me and has already lost 13 pounds!  I am at 7 pounds in 6 weeks.  She is not exercising nor active.  I, on the other hand, have been doing my ActiveLink challenge since I got it and always pushing myself to reach 100% of my activity goal.  We both track.  We both drink our water.  So how come the scale is moving for her and not as much for me???  (Can you hear me whining?)

This goes back to something I taught my daughter when she was but a baby birdy in the nest.  "LIFE IS NOT FAIR!"  That's it in a nutshell.  But stepping back to the bigger picture in hand is the reality.  Why should we compare ourselves to one another?  Not just in weight loss but in everything?  God has created us uniquely.  Different bodies, different metabolisms, different strengths and weaknesses.  When I think of it this way, it seems silly to compare.  I am who I am.  And I am good as I am...I just want to be better.

When it comes to my friend, the reality is that she is younger than me (faster metabolism).  She is a totally different build than I am...she's a head taller than me and a muscular build.  I've had endless surgeries (cancer(3x thank you) gallbladder, salpingo-oophorectomy (look that one up) and have had more things removed from my body than have been left in (or so it feels sometimes).  So OF COURSE my body is going to react differently than hers, right?  

I have to say that another thing that's  helped me put this in perspective is the WW site and my eTools.  Because I've been tracking my intake and my weight, it produces progress reports for me.  And when you look at the big picture, I have been averaging a 1.2 pounds loss per week.  So all those 10ths are adding up.  And 7 pounds in 6 weeks is pretty good.

So I am plugging right along!  It's lunchtime and I have already hit 50% of my activity level for the day.  I am walking home from the bus stop this afternoon with Farmer's Market groceries in tow...that ought to give me a few extra calories burnt.  And this weekend, I'm hoping to do either a hike, or digging up the garden.  We'll see.

I hope you are all having a great week.  I'd love to hear from you. Let me know what's working for you, and what isn't.

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Check this out right here.  It's called a Weight Watchers Body Analysis Scale.  I have never seen it, nor is this something they weigh you on at a WW meeting, but it looks like it measures all sorts of things from your weight, body mass, fat, bone, etc.  Who knew?  I'd want to know that info...but I don't think I'd want to know if every time I hopped on the scale.  I'm already obsessed with the numbers as it is  : )

Checking In: Week 4 - Achieving My First Mini Goal

Ta-Da!  At 4 weeks, I reached my
first mini goal of 5 pounds and change!

At my four week weigh in, I reached my first little mini-goal, the 5 pound mark!  This week I lost 1.8 pounds! bringing my total weight loss to 5.6 pounds.  I tracked my food intake and tried to drink more water, cutting my coffee intake down to 1-2 cups a day.  The rest of the day I drank water and herbal tea.  I noticed a bigger change though.  I am actually happy with a 5 pound weight loss in 4 weeks.  In the past, I would have poo-poo'ed the slow loss.  But this time around, I've been watching the scale slowly and consistently move down an ounce at a time.  I am accepting of the fact that at this time in my life, my body is healthy after having been through a lot of trauma (cancer) and that's what the goal is.  To be healthy.  I am not seeing the weight fluctuation of 2-4 pounds a day that I used to see when I was doing severe dieting.

I am trying something new and I'm excited to see how it's going to work.  Weight Watchers came out with a new little gadget called ActiveLink. it's a small little thingee that you wear on your body, either in your pocket, around your neck or clipped to your bra.  I bought it 5 days ago.  For the first week, you must just wear it as it is establishing your level of "normal" activity.  This week, all I am doing is wearing it and plugging it into the computer to charge.  After a week, it will generate a report of my activity levels - and the it will make weekly challenges to help me increase my activity levels!  I'm not sure how it all works right now, but I'm ready for this preliminary week to be over and to give this a shot!  I'll let you know how it's working!

I hope you're all having a great week.  I'd love to hear from you.