Week 73, 129+ pounds down

I think my body is finally adjusting to taking the rest day.  Over the first two weeks that I started taking a rest day, my weight jumped up after my weigh in day and it took me until the following Saturday weigh in to make any additional downward progress.

This week, for the first time, I was actually below my previous week's weigh in by Friday, the day before my Saturday weigh in.  It feels like I am actually starting to physically get used to the new schedule. 

This week I managed to lose another 1.3 pounds for a total of 129.2 pounds down to date, or 76% of my target.  I am now down to 204.7 pounds, which officially puts me at light-heavyweight.  Not yet overweight, but that's only a matter of a couple of pounds now, and I know it is only a matter of time. 

 

I am still on track to hit my 165 pound weight target sometime between the end of November, 2013 and the end of January, 2014.  If I hit my final goal in January, that would mean that it has will have taken me 2 years to lose 168 pounds, which would work out to an average loss of 1.6 pounds a week.  That feels slow, but it also feels like a nice, sustainable weight loss.  One I hope that I would be able to maintain. 

I have had some great fasting blood sugar figures this week, with all normal readings, and 3 readings even below 5.0 mmol/L (where the upper limit for normal blood sugar is 5.5 mmol/L).  May was a watershed month in terms of my blood sugar readings, and now each month is more normal than the last.  I am so happy to see these readings each morning, because avoiding the Type II diabetes that riddles my family is one of the main reasons I was workout out.  That, and being able to sit on chairs without breaking them, of course.

For Father's Day I sent the Patriarch a Withings wifi scale that records weight, body fat and BMI, as well as my favourite fitness apps like TactioHealth, Glucose Companion, and Full Fitness HD.  The Patriarch is tracking his food and exercise using MyNetDiary, which I personally do not find as user friendly or flexible as MyFitnessPal, but to each his own.  The Patriarch was only recently diagnosed with Type II diabetes, and he is working to develop better eating habits and to increase his activity levels.  It's kind of strange how I am the more experienced person when it comes to lifestyle change; I am the one giving him advice based on my longer experience with nutrition and exercise - - after all, I am a year and half ahead of him.  He still weighs less than me - - but only slightly - - but I am far fitter.  And at the rate I have been going, I will be lighter than him pretty soon.  It's a real role reversal between father and daughter, though, and it feels a bit odd.

This week I had a funny thing happen at discoveries.  We were at the court reporter's office, and I had one of our assistant's bring over some printing from the office.  When I went out at the break to pick up the printing, the receptionist handed it to me before I even introduced myself.  I asked her how she knew the printing was for me, and the receptionist told me that she had looked me up on my firm's website to see what I looked like.  I must have winced (it's a photo taken before I began working out), because the receptionist said "You need to get a new photo!".  Love it.

Just so you can see what she was speaking about, here's the (terrible) photo in question, compared to how I look now:

So where do I stand in relation to my goals?  Pretty good, actually:

I reached my "light heavyweight" goal this week, so that's another goal down.  Next up is reaching overweight status, which is only a couple of pounds away.  I should (hopefully) reach that in a couple of weeks or so.  Next up is to break the 200 pound barrier. 

The Nerd and I are going to South Carolina in a couple of weeks for his family reunion, and I am a little worried about (a) food, and in particular, healthy food; and (b) exercise.  The cabins at which we are staying are right on a lake, and there are apparently kayaks and boats available, which is good.  On the bad side, there is no internet access at all, which may cause me to have seizures - - I am such an internet junkie, I don't know how easily I will be able to go cold turkey like that.  It will be like traveling back in time to the 1980s, except without the snazzy fashion sense and danceable music. 

This week will be another challenging week, albeit for nice reasons.  My sister's birthday is this coming Saturday, so Friday night the family is going out to North 44 (a nice Mark McEwan restaurant in midtown Toronto).  That's all well and delicious, but my new weigh in day is Saturday. 
Given the typical sodium levels in restaurant food, even trying to eat manageable portions will make it tough to lose weight this week.  But I keep reminding myself that this is a long term lifestyle change, not a sprint, so one week off the reservation should not be too bad for me in the big picture. 

7 months down - an update

Another month on the books, and 14 straight weeks of working out without missing a workout, and the results are in.

This past week I lost an amazing 3.6 pounds, for a total of 49.6 pounds lost total.  That represents 15% of my starting body weight lost, and 29% of my total goal weight lost.  Even more fun, I have gone down another dress size, down to a size 22 from my starting point of a 26.

The changes are evident on my body as well.  This month I lost another inch on my bust, half an inch on my waist, an inch on my hips, 3/4 of an inch on my thighs and more than half an inch on my calves.  Overall, since starting, I have lost 19 3/4". That's a lot of inches

I am within kissing distance of losing 50 pounds, which is apparently the equivalent of a small bale of hay or a small bag of cement.  Go, me.

My resting heart rate continues to trend down as my fitness level improves, as shown in the chart below:

My blood pressure continues to be normal, too, so all this cardio (still 35 minutes on the elliptical x 6 days per week, plus incremental walks during the week) is paying dividends.

I am most pleased about the workouts.

I never would have thought, with my workout-aversion, that I would be able to go 7 months with regular workouts, and 14 weeks without missing a single workout.  I would also never have thought in a million years that I would be using the elliptical 6 times a week, and then would willingly add more exercise on top of that, in the form of incremental walks.  I only did one walk this week on my own, so I hope to do at least a couple of walks with the Nerd this weekend.

The only thing that is not a positive trend this week is my blood sugar.  I did not have a single normal value this week, and although the high values did not put me into the diabetic range, I was solidly pre-diabetic this week.  I think part of that is due to the number of calories I am eating, and the fact that I was seldom able to keep the carbs below 200g each day this week.

Speaking of eating, I tried to eat more than before, on purpose.  I was aiming for between 1800 - 2000 calories per day, which would cover my BMR plus much of my exercise.  Overall, it's generally easier for me to control my eating on the weekends when the Nerd is cooking, but this week he made a bunch of meals ahead of time that I could pack for lunches and dinners at the office.  And I could see the results: this week I was able to keep the daily calorie intake around 1800-1850, which is much more than I had previously been eating.  I am not going to say that my fantastic weight loss results this week are due to eating enough that my body does not go into starvation mode, but it is likely a contributing factor.

My short term goals are still in sight.  I would like to get down to a size 20, which only requires that I lose a couple of inches on my hips (my bust and waist measurements are already there).

I want to get my weight down to 270, which would give me a BMI of 40, which would put me into "Obese Class II" from the present "Obese Class III" (at least according to the Government of Canada).  (Obese Class I has a BMI of 30 - 35, below which is merely "Overweight".  I will be "Overweight" at 203 pounds, or thereabouts).

I would like to be able to walk 3 miles by the end of September.  In one sitting, not in individual walk-ettes like I have been doing. 

I would like to have 2 consecutive days with normal blood sugar values by the end of September.

I don't think any of these objectives are out of reach, given my present lifestyle and habits.  It is almost ingrained to drink water rather than pop now, and I walked to work and home from the office every day this week, a new first for me.  It's just easier and quicker to walk than to wait for the streetcar, which is always jam packed anyways.  Exercising on the elliptical is like second nature to me now, and the only question for me is when I will up the time again.  Walking is still not so comfortable for me, or at least not as comfortable as the elliptical, but it is easier every day that I do a longish walk.

So all in all, it was a positive month.   Here are some progress photos showing the difference between now and last year, before I began working out.  Please disregard the disastrous hair in the recent photo, but it is windy outside.

Weekly Progress Report

Another week is in the books, and I am another 1.1 pounds down, for a total of 44.9 pounds lost overall, which represents 27% of my total weight loss objective. 

My blood pressure continues to be generally good, and this morning I was pleased to see that my resting heart rate was back down to 48 bpm, after having been running between 55 and 61 this past week (likely completely unrelated to my stressful week - ha!). 

You can see the new walking element added to my routine in the chart above.  Today's numbers look a little hinky because it looks like I did two workouts this morning when in fact I did one - I had an issue with the DigiFit app dropping the heart rate sensor, and had to restart it. 

An even more important win is in my fasting blood sugar levels.  The first two weeks of tracking my fasting blood sugar I did not have a single value in the normal range - each reading was high, in the pre-diabetic range.  Last week I had a single normal reading, which was very exciting, because it showed me that exercise and attention to my diet could, in fact, reduce my blood sugar levels. 

This week was even better - - I had 3 normal values this week, including this morning.  Sure, they are all 'high normal', but the operative word there is NORMAL.  This is a fantastic trend, and I am confident that with time, I can bring all my readings into the normal range.  Even my high readings were not so high this week as when I first started looking at my blood sugars, so I can definitely see substantial and positive progress here.

I have to confess that even losing another 1.1 pounds and having a normal blood sugar reading this morning, I was frustrated with my weigh-in.  There is still a part of my dinosaur brain way in the back of my head that thinks "I worked really hard this week, and watched what I ate, made sure to eat enough, and to eat the right things, and for this iron discipline I lose a lousy pound??".

The rational part of my brain has now kicked in to remind me that 1 - 1.5 pounds lost per week is the objective, and I am perfectly within that range.  Plus, there's all the positives, what with my improving stamina on walks, and greater frequency of normal blood sugar readings - - these are all things that I need to focus on, not the fact that weight loss is not instantaneous.

The real positive thing is that no matter how heavy the scale thought I was this morning, I was clearly under the 300 pound mark (in fact, my weight was not even close to 300 pounds).  And that 300 pound mark is well under the 333.9 pound mark where I started.   I know I am particularly guilty of focusing on the weight I am not losing, when I should be focusing instead on what I have accomplished.  Even with minor fluctuations in my weight (that you can see in the first chart, above), I weigh nowhere near what I once did.  That means that my workout and eating plan is working, and working well.

I am eating delicious meals (especially on the weekend when the Nerd cooks) and I can still go out and enjoy dinner with friends, and I am still losing weight, overall.  This is a much more healthy and sustainable pattern than I had when I was first working out in 2000.  Back then I starved myself during the week only to binge on the weekends, and because I was on such a calorie restricted diet, I eventually gave in to the cravings and gained all the weight back and more.  This time, I am able to eat the things I enjoy, but in moderate portions.  

What this process has taught me is to adopt more of a lifestyle change than quick fixes.  My understanding of nutrition and portions and carbs is having a significant effect on the way I eat, and on the choices I make.  And that will serve me well, I think, for a long time to come. 

And then there were none...

Photo by Maggie Q. Magniloquent, Some Rights Reserved

Another day, another piece of workout equipment gone... 

I posted adds on Kijiji last week offering the rowing machine and the recumbent bike for sale.  Last weekend, the rowing machine was snatched up (after generating lots of interest), and this morning, the recumbent bike was sold.  I was actually a bit surprised that the recumbent bike went given that it is more than 10 years old, and the manufacturer no longer sells replacement parts for it.  However, it's the right price and the right piece of equipment for some, and those are the people who expressed an interest in the bike. 

I'm actually a little sad to see the bike go, because it was the foundational piece of equipment in my basement when I last worked out in 1999-2000 to get in shape.  Sure, the bike wasn't the fanciest thing, nor was it the most modern, but it was a lot like me - - good at brute force. 

In other news, now that I am officially "pre-diabetic" [editorial comment: "bleh"], I need to become much more aware of how many carbs I ingest every day, because the carbs have a direct impact on my blood sugar.  I have already been tracking my food for about a week or so (albeit with a bit of a bobble with 3 missing days because MyFitnessPal deleted my account), so I was able to look back and see how my carbs have been recently. 

According to the Canadian Diabetic Association, you should eat some level of carbs every day.  How much?  The actual amount will depend on your gender, amount of exercise each day, and whether you are trying to lose weight or maintain weight.  Which is a complicated way of saying "it depends".  From what I can see, as a pre-diabetic woman trying to lose weight who exercises 6 times a week, I should try and ingest no more than 200g - 250g of carbs per day - - around 60g at each meal, and 5g for each snack. 

This is where preparing your own food is a real asset.  A lot of prepared foods have high levels of carbs and sodium, which are both things you should monitor and control as a pre-diabetic.  Cooking from scratch makes hitting carb targets easier.  

The MyFitnessPal app has the most user-friendly and useful food diary that I have seen thus far.  I particularly like that I can add recipes and get calorie (and carb) counts.  Entering data is quick and easy, and the snapshot view gives you a lot of data at a glance.  But it's really a fitness and health app, rather than a diabetes app, so there's no tracker for blood sugar, which is a shame. 

I have a couple of glucose tracking apps that I am trying out.  The first is the Glucose Companion, which tracks - shockingly - blood glucose.  I like that it has a very easy interface to enter blood glucose levels and weight levels, and it provides both tabular views and graphical views.  The app also has a snapshot view that provides you with minimum, maximum and average figures. 

This is, as you would think, a very diabetes-focused app, so there's nowhere to enter food.  But weight and blood sugar are two out of three important metrics for me moving forward, so I think I will keep using this app for a while.

The other app I am trying is giving me really mixed feelings.  It's the Carb Master app for iPad, and it has a lot of attractive features.  It has a food diary that tracks carbs, among other nutrients, and also has a tracker for blood sugar and a tracker for insulin.  Another diabetes-centric app, this one also has both tabular and graphical views.  On the surface it is very pretty to look at.

My hesitation about this app is that the food diary is clunky.  Very clunky.  To select foods manually, one must drill down through multiple menus (e.g. dairy, cheese, goat cheese).  I tried searching using the search window and the app had a significant lag, making searching extremely cumbersome.  Adding recipes is an available function, but it is dependent on searching to add foods (which takes what feels like forever), and when the foods are found, some of them have a serving size listed as "one serving", making it impossible to truly customize the ingredients - how much is "one serving"?  1 cup? 100g?  Who knows?  MyFitnessPal permits you to add all the ingredients and the number of people served by the recipe, so the app will automatically calculate the appropriate calories and carbs per serving.  Carb Master does not appear to have this same functionality, or if it does, I have not been able to find it (which is much the same thing, if you think about it).