Week 35 - Progress and Update

This week, as expected, I mostly fought to get back to last week's weigh in number.  Since it is almost impossible to lose 8 pounds in a week (and keep it off), I thought that most of the astonishing loss from last week was due to water weight lost, or perhaps, scale error. 

I would seem to be borne out by my results this week.  My official Friday weigh in was 1.3 pounds heavier than last week, for a total loss of 56.7 pounds down.  However, by this morning (Sunday) after my elliptical workout, my weight was down still further to 276, for a total of 57.9 pounds lost.  It's almost as if this last week hasn't happened. 

I am most happy with the fact that I didn't let my gain after last week's weigh-in defeat me and start me on a cycle of emotional eating (which would have been much more difficult to recover from).  I kept my focus, kept eating well, and kept working out.  As a result, I am only .1 pounds off of last week's weigh in, essentially neutral. 

My sugars were somewhat high this week, but they are coming back down - today's reading was 5.7 mmol/L, which is only slightly above a normal reading.  Hopefully I can begin to string together some normal values again.

My BMI this morning was 40.8, which puts me on the edge of Obese Class III (according to the government of Canada).  Compared to my starting BMI of a whopping 49.3, I have come a long way.  My weight is still high enough at 276 pounds, that it does not appear on most BMI charts (they only go up to 40), but I can hope that within a month or so I could be below 40 and into Obese Class II (BMI of 35-39.9), which is one of my short term goals. 

On the good side, I went to a barbeque yesterday and managed to stick to my plan even though almost nothing was on my list of "safe" foods.  Instead of vegetables as a snack, the hosts had put out chips and dip, stuffed jalapeno poppers, and cheese and crackers.  No chicken, but only barbeque pulled pork.  There was a salad, which I loaded up on, and potato salad, which I shunned.  For dessert the Nerd made cookies.  I discovered that the Nerd's peanut butter cookies are my kryptonite, and I had 4 (1 in batter form and 1 to taste before we left, and then 2 more at the party). 

In the end, pre-planning helped me out.  I completely avoided the potato salad and stuck to the caesar salad.  I did not take a bun, but added onion and tomato to the pork.  I drank lots of water, and I stopped at 2 cookies (at the party), where previously I would have had 6 or more.  All in all, it was a great day for discipline for me, and I feel pretty good about that.

Photo courtesy Dr. Donald Corenman, licensed CC-BY-NC-ND

Which is good, because physically I am feeling terrible. 

I was shopping with my mother yesterday (as is my custom), and when I was reaching into my purse to hand her a wet wipe, I felt a sudden stabbing pain in my lower back.  Holding on to things with my arms outstretched was incredibly painful, as was slouching.  It almost took my breath away.  After a couple of minutes of wriggling around and trying to figure out less painful positions, I discovered that standing straight and walking were fine and sitting was fine, but transitioning between the two positions was agony, as was lifting or holding anything.

Initially I thought that I had reverted to the old type of back pain I used to experience after walking any distance before I started working out.  But back then, it helped to sit and lean over and stretch out the muscles in my lower back - - now that only causes more pain. 

I took some Robax and Advil, which collectively did nothing, and managed to make it through the party last night with relatively little discomfort by being careful to stand or sit, and my lifting as little as possible. 

I did not sleep well at all, mainly because any movement brought discomfort.  Changing sides - agony.  Rolling over - agony.  Lying flat and stretching - agony.  Every time I moved I woke up, and I am sure I got only half the sleep I usually would have gotten because of this stupid back thing.

This morning was another scheduled workout day, and I was pleased to find that doing the elliptical was fine, as long as I maintained proper posture.  Slouching would bring another jab of pain, and there is this constant dull ache in my back reminding me that it is there.  Thank goodness the workout was fine, though - - ironically, it hurt more to bend my body and lift my leg to put on my workout pants than it did to do the actual workout.  At least I will be able to keep active and exercising through this.  Although the pain was there during the workout, it was more as a reminder of what could be. 

Let's hope this goes away soon - - I am such a miserable wuss when I get hurt.