Week 41 - 9 months down (with pics)

Another month down, and another month of pretty good results.  I did not lose as much weight as I have in previous months, but I did have Thanksgiving, 3 birthday parties, multiple cake/cupcake occasions, and a business trip thrown into October, all of which made things a little challenging.  All in all, I consider that I did pretty well to lose 7.5 pounds last month.

First things first.  What do these people have in common?

 That's right.  We could all fight in the UFC's heavyweight class.  I finally reached 265 pounds for the first time in years as of last week's weigh in.  That puts me down 68.9 pounds overall (as of the end of last week), with exactly 100 more pounds to lose.  That represents a loss of about 7.6 pounds per month since I first began working out. 

Reaching 265 pounds was my next short term goal.  Although it sounds like a huge number, and still puts me at a weight heavier than 95% of the population, this represents huge progress for me, and is a major milestone. 

This month I managed to pass another milestone: I dropped below 40 BMI, which puts me in Obese Class II (rather than Obese Class III).  I now appear on BMI charts, whereas previously my numbers were so high I was just a suggestion on the far right hand tail of most charts. 

See below for my BMI data:

Last month I would not have even shown up on this chart which only goes up to 40.  This month, and every month from now on - - look out, here I come!

So let's look at the numbers for this month:

Metric	31-Dec-11	30-Sep-12	31-Oct-12	Change vs prior month	Change vs. Dec 2011
Bust	52.9"	46.5"	45.5"	(1.0")	(7.4")
Waist	48.0"	42.5"	41.0"	(1.5")	(7.0")
Hips	58.1"	52.0"	51.0"	(1.0")	(7.1")
Thigh	35.0"	31.5"	31.25"	(.25")	(3.8")
Calf	20.5"	19.0"	19.0"	---	(1.5")
Bicep	14.9"	13.75"	13.5"	(.25")	(1.4")
Total inches lost:				(4.0")	(28.1")

Once again I can see progress in terms of significant inches lost, so  I should keep doing whatever I am doing, because it seems to be working.  My current program is to do 40 minutes on the elliptical machine 6 days a week, plus 3 sets of free weights using 4 pound dumbbells x 12 reps 3 days a week.  I am finding that the 3 sets of weights are taking a lot of time, making my weight days tough ones so far as scheduling goes. 

But what about the face, I can hear you asking, what about the face?  Are these inches translating into a slimmer looking face? 

Yep.  The face definitely looks skinnier.  Not skinny, yet, and I still have only the merest hint of cheekbones, but the face has definitely lost at least one chin and some padding in the width.  My glasses look larger, because my face looks smaller. 

How about those fasting blood sugars?  I am frustrated - - I don't think I had a single normal reading this past month.  My sugars were consistently running higher than even in September.  We'll come back to these figures next month.  So far, things are looking up for November, as I had a normal fasting blood sugar reading this morning.  Fingers crossed this is the start of a positive trend.  I am still exercising every day, and eating well, so I refuse to let myself get discouraged by one bad month. 


In summary:

Pounds lost this month: 7.5
Total pounds lost: 68.9
Pounds still to lose: 100
Inches lost this month: 4.0"
Clothing size: US/Can 20 (plus size 20, down a size from plus size 22)
Average fasting blood sugar: we're not going there this month.  Nope.
Number of ankles: 0
Number of cankles: 2 (sigh)
Number of clavicles seen: 0 (but the merest hint of a clavicle was spotted this morning, suggesting that sometime soon these little guys are going to make an appearance).