What the hell happened this week??

No really, I am serious.  What the hell is going on with my body that would have me lose 4.4 pounds in a single week, when my usual loss is one and a half pounds?  I mean, I had just posted a blog post on the subject, for goshsake.  I had resigned myself to being Miss Slow and Steady, and here I go turning into Ms. Aggressive Weight Loss all in a week.  I am not going to complain too much, mind you, I just wish I could figure out my body and what makes it tick.

Nothing I have eaten has really changed from week to week - - I am trying to avoid snacks just like the week before and the week before that, but I can't say that I am eating anything very different from the usual things.  A lot of Jamie Oliver meals, but that's nothing new. 

Nor has my workout routine really changed.  My new weight program is much more aggressive than my old routine, but I've been doing it for a couple of weeks now.  Perhaps it takes that long for my body to figure out that something is happening to it?  I just don't know.

What probably helps contribute to these results is that I am still very very consistent.  I haven't missed a planned workout in well over a year, and I don't go off the reservation too often with the unbridled snacking.  I continually try and increase my workouts and incorporate new things to keep challenging my body as I become fitter.  Best of all, thanks to the Nerd, I eat very well - - lots of fruits and vegetables and balanced low sodium meals.  Delicious meals, too.  But since none of these things have really changed from week to week, I can't really tell you what is driving this sudden unexpected weight loss.

I lost 4.4 pounds this week - - ridiculous!  I now weigh 188.7 pounds, down 145.2 pounds overall.  That's more than 85% of my total weight loss goal.  I am thrilled with this progress, of course, especially because it brings be 4.4 pounds closer to my goal. 

The loss this week brings me within 3.7 pounds of my next goal.  Even better, I am LESS THAN 20 POUNDS AWAY FROM A NORMAL BMI.  Yes, I am shouting that last bit because it makes me very excited.  Less than 24 pounds to goal, too - - how cool is that?

I have absolutely no illusions that this rate of loss will be sustainable.  I just hope to maintain and consolidate this upcoming week.  It may be shark week, in which case I will be extra-bloat-y and full of hormones and all. 

Speaking of my program, with this sudden and dramatic weight loss I am now down to 1,360 permitted base calories per day on my program.  <mumbles curses under breath>  This virtually guarantees that I will stay on my workout plan, if only to burn enough calories so that I can eat a decent day's worth of calories.  1,600 - 1,800 calories a day seems to be working pretty well for me, so that's what I am shooting for right now.  That requires a workout of some sort, so that keeps me honest with my exercise. 

As for my workouts, in a fit of enthusiasm this morning I tried to take the tension on my elliptical machine up to level 9, from 8.  I did about 20 minutes of that, fantasizing all the way that I would stop my workout early, and finally gave up and returned the tension back to 8.  After that I felt like I was flying, it was so easy and so I finished my planned 75 minutes on the elliptical no problem.  How easily my simple brain is tricked.  So it may be a bit early to dial up the tension, but I can definitely take the weight routine up to 5 sets of 10 reps at 12 pounds, up from the current 5 sets of 8 reps.  We'll work that into the plan effective my first workout of the week on Tuesday. 

I have been taking my rest days on Sundays because at the core of the matter, I just really really like sleeping in and lazing around.  When I take my rest day on Monday I still need to get up early to go to the office, so that's hardly restful.  Taking the rest day on Sunday has been good from a napping point of view at the very least.   I have done Sunday rest day for the last few weeks now and it has worked very well.  I have made a point of not weighing myself on my rest day, and it has helped a ton.  I don't feel like I am starting the week behind the 8 ball, and when I do weigh myself on Monday after my regular workout, my body is back in its rhythm and my weight is usually the same, or slightly lower than my Saturday weigh in. 

It is increasingly challenging to eat within my allowable calories on Sunday, but sleeping in and rolling breakfast into brunch seems to help [grin]. 

My new test kits arrived from the States last week (they're not licensed by Health Canada as yet so I need to trans-ship them from my US drop box).  Tomorrow I will test my A1C and my fasting cholesterol for the first time in months.  I am hoping that the A1C number reflects all the improvements I have made to my fasting blood sugar numbers since I broke through the "consistently normal" barrier in May of this year.  If the number is a good one I will share it with the Matriarch, and I am sure she will be relieved - - since virtually everyone else in my family has diabetes, she will be happy to see that my sugar numbers are normal.  You and I know that they are only normal after 19 months of hard work to bring them out of the pre-diabetic range, but she doesn't need to know that. 

On a final fun note, the Nerd admitted to checking me out in the parking lot this morning.  I was walking back to the car with the Matriarch and we were likely yipping away as is our custom, and the Nerd saw us backlit in the entrance to the parkade.  He thought to himself, "I see Maggie Q's mom, but who is that shapely woman walking with her", before he realized it was yours truly.  Squee!  That made my whole morning!

Onward and downward!