Workout week 80 = 138.5 pounds down [with photos]

This week was a good week. 

I tried yoga for the first time and although I am, as it turns out, about as flexible as a piece of rebar, I really enjoy trying to do the different poses.  It makes me feel all girly and stuff.  Eventually, I hope that the yoga will help me improve my balance and flexibility, even though right now I'm mostly just a lurching fool.  And this lurchiosity, my friends, is why I do my yoga at home, without witnesses.

As for the weight loss, I was right on track this week, losing 1.5 pounds to bring me to a total of 138.5 pounds lost overall.  That's 41.5% of my original body weight lost, or 82% of my total weight loss objective.

Depending on the tool used to calculate these things, I am on track to hit my weight loss goal in early December 2013 or January 2014.  The last couple of weeks of slightly slower weight loss have pushed the goal date out slightly, but I am still trending exactly where I need to be for when I need to get there. 

Last week I upped my free weights to 12 pounds, and this week I added the yoga 3 times a week.  It finally feels like I am getting back into my routine after all the disruption with my vacation.  It feels nice to be back into my routine, too.  I like the predictability of my workouts.

My fasting blood sugars have gotten back to normal, as well.  Last week I had a couple of slightly high readings, which was disappointing considering how normal my numbers had been for so long.  How soon we forget!  It wasn't all that long ago when I would have been thrilled to string along 5 normal numbers, and now to have one high reading puts me into a bad mood. 

We looked at what was causing the elevated results, and it looks like eating dinner too late in the evening is the culprit.  Both times that I had elevated blood sugars occurred the morning after we ate dinner around 9:30 - 10:00 pm.  That appears to be too late.  Now we try and eat earlier, and at the worst, no later than 8:30 pm.  So far, this slight adjustment to my routine appears to be working, and I haven't had an elevated reading since putting this plan into place.

Last week I officially broke into size 14 (according to my end of the month measurements), and in honour of that momentous occasion I am wearing a pair of Gap Classic blue jeans, size 14.  I tried to find the jeans on Gap's website so that I could post a photo, but this style is not on the website.  Considering that these jeans came out of my clothing archive and are at least 13 years old, this is perhaps not surprising.  Oh well.  You will have to trust me that they are hugging every curve.  But they fit fine - - no muffin top!

This week I had my photo taken for the firm's website.  As you may recall, in 2011 I had the sad, puffy photo taken (months before I started working out), and ever since then if you google me you will see this bloated, depressing picture staring back at you:

I look tired and sad and defeated.  138.5 pounds later, you get this:

Same basic pose, same necklace, only now I have a neck (!) and only 1 chin and my necklace hangs lower.  I don't see the progress I make from day to day, but holy cow can I see a difference between these two photos.  I am not sure if I will chose this picture for the website, but at least whatever goes up there will be more representative of what I currently look like.   After all, one always wants one's exes to look at one's photo and say "damn, how could I let her get away", rather than "whew!  Dodged a bullet there!". 

This week's loss puts me well on track to hit my goals by the end of the year or so.  I am only 10 pounds away from Middleweight, and 30.4 pounds away from my overall goal. 

30.4 pounds - - that's like the weight of 3.6 gallons of water.  I can totally reach that.  I just need to keep walking, keep ellipticalizing, keep eating sensibly and keep working on managing my calories.  My calorie goal is down to 1,400 per day which is a challenge on rest days.  However I know I have meals that will get me there, so that's no excuse.  Onward and downward!

Back to blogging - 127.9 pounds down [with pics]

I haven't been blogging for a couple of weeks because, frankly, I have been really frustrated with my workouts and weight loss.

Let me be clear here - - losing weight is work every step of the way, especially when you do it the right way, through gradual lifestyle improvement.  But up until relatively recently, it has been pretty easy for me to lose 1 - 1.5 pounds each week.  I would log my Friday morning weight, bump up a bit Saturday morning, and then Sunday through the following Friday I would pretty well see incremental losses every day.  I would not stress out too much about my progress, because by Sunday (or Monday at the latest) I was usually below my previous Friday's weight, and anything I achieved from that point on was gravy.  (mmmmmm....gravy)

Two weeks ago I changed up my routine to formally add back in a rest day.  Not a pretend rest day with "only" a 30 minute workout like I had been doing, but a full, proper rest day.  No intentional workouts at all.  I would not be bedridden for the day, but I wasn't going out of my way to exercise, unlike the other 6 days of the week.

The rest day has led to a couple of changes in my routine.  First, it has shifted my weigh in day from Friday to Saturday, the official end of my workout week.

Second, it has led to a huge rebound weight gain on Sunday morning, because I have the usual weekend rebound plus whatever I am not losing through sweat from the normal workout.  For the past couple of weeks, instead of getting back to my Friday weight by Monday, I have been only getting near my Saturday weight on the following Friday - - in other words, it is taking me the entire week to get back only as far as I had been the week before.

I am sincerely hoping that this is merely a temporary aberration, prompted by the recent change in routine.  I am finding it very difficult to spend so much of my time making up ground I have already lost, so to speak, and I really dislike the feeling of being behind the eight ball for most of the week when I am exercising every day and eating well.

Now that I have vented my frustrations, let's focus on some of the positives, shall we?

Although it is not pretty, I am still losing weight, which is good because otherwise I would be completely demoralized with the difficulties of the past couple of weeks.  I am down another pound this week, which, in addition to the 1.2 pounds I lost last week, brings me down to 206 pounds, down a total of 127.9 pounds.

Looking back at my progress, I have lost more than 90 pounds since last July, the first readings on the chart, above (top line).  The other major win in the past few weeks has been that I have decreased my body fat % into the normal range (bottom line), albeit not consistently.  Keep in mind that the above chart only starts 6 months after I had first begun working out. 

Taking a look at my steps over the past 11 months, you can see that my average daily steps have increased over time.  In recent weeks I have averaged more than 15,000 steps per day on days I work out.

 

Certainly as my fitness has improved, my world has expanded.  The city is more accessible to me.  Just last week I walked up to the Bay to do some shopping (a trip I previously would have taken the subway to accomplish), and yesterday the Nerd and I walked a mile up to the Loblaws at the old Maple Leaf Gardens to pick up our favourite bread (4 subway stops away).  Where I once could barely walk half a block to the corner, now I don't think twice about walking for an hour on an errand.  I like that.  

 The biggest improvement over time has been in my fasting blood sugar levels.  In May I saw a step change improvement in my sugars, as shown in the above chart.  Whereas each previous month I have seen gradual improvement, even sometimes stringing together 3 or 4 normal results, in May suddenly all but 2 of my readings were normal.  This month to date I have only had 1 elevated reading, and I have also had several readings in the 4 - 4.9 mmol/L range - - another step change improvement.

It's funny how quickly I went from hoping to see a normal fasting blood sugar reading to expecting my readings to be normal.  I am not exactly sure what led to this sudden improvement, other than losing enough weight to almost be overweight, rather than obese.  Perhaps that's all that it takes.  

So how am I progressing against my goals?  Pretty well, in small baby steps:

Only a pound to go to reach light heavy.  In fact, I could qualify for a non-championship fight right now, if, say, I were at all fit.  Which I am not.  At least to that level.  Better yet, I am only 3 pounds away from being overweight.  

I have to confess that it feels like I am reaching 50% of this goal every week.  Which of course means that I will never get there.  I know that I will eventually reach this goal, given time, but it honestly feels like forever.  Patience, grasshopper.  

Here's how I am looking as of June 1, 2013.  To me, I just look normal, like nothing has changed.  Still with the unmanageable hair, still with the wonky eye.  But if I look over time, I can see big changes:

In March 2012 I was wearing size 2X-3X, or a 24-26, and weighed 313.7 pounds.  In October I was down to a plus size 20 and 268.4 pounds, and now I am a size 14-16, and 206 pounds.  Definite progress, if slow and steady.  I have had an expensive month because I have had to buy a lot of new clothes to replace my old baggy suits, but I am feeling more confident and healthier than I have been in years. 

So, net net, it has been a frustrating month so far because the change to my routine has made progress a little tougher to see.  But the progress is still happening, which is great.  I just need to be more patient and accept that this is still a long term thing that I am doing here.  Every month I am still losing pounds and inches, and every month I am measurably healthier.  So I just need to stop trying to have it all, right now, and get zen about this lifestyle change.  

Back on track - - and feeling fine!

Although it felt like I went a little off the rails in the last couple of weeks, overall I managed to keep things on track.  This week I saw more progress, and even a few nice wins.  To belabour the train metaphor, things just kept chugging along this week. 

This week I lost another 1.9 pounds to bring my weight down to 211.1 pounds, for a total loss of 122.8 pounds.   My BMI is now 31.2, down from 49.3.  Yes, I am still obese, but I am creeping ever closer to "overweight". 

I particularly like that my body fat % is coming down - - when I first got my Withings scale (last July), I had body fat % values of greater than 50% - - just take a minute and think about the implications of that.  Understanding that the body fat % measurements on an electrical impedance scale are directional only, with a value of more than 50% body fat, my body was still largely fat, directional or not. 

Apparently a healthy body fat % for a woman of my delicate years is between 23% and 33%, so I am well on my way to a good place in terms of body fat.  36.9% is much closer to 33% than 50% after all. 

The 1.9 pound loss this week keeps me well on track to hit my goal weight of 165 pounds around the end of January.  So how are things tracking vis a vis the other goals?

More progress this week.  I am within 6.1 pounds of being light heavy, and 8.1 pounds of being overweight.  That will be a significant milestone.  The 46.1 pounds to my ultimate goal still feels like a long way away yet, but it's closer every week.  Tiny steps closer, to be sure, but closer.  I just wish I weren't so impatient, but that's the curse of a Type A personality for you - - a craving for instant gratification.


As for nice wins this week, I have started wearing some of my size 16 clothes (notably a couple of flannel skirts and a pair of blue jeans) and I am getting a ton of compliments on them.  It's amazing what wearing clothes that fit will do in terms of making it obvious that a person has lost a significant amount of weight.  I am still a bit uncomfortable about not wearing my camouflage - - black suits with many layers in a size or two too large - - but having people tell me how good I look is a nice way to gentle me into wearing more size-appropriate clothing. 

It is also making me want to embrace more colour - - I am wearing a red twin set today, and I am mulling over buying a nice spring dress.  It is such a change from a year ago when literally the only things I wore were black suits, or black sweaters with black skirts.  Johnny Cash and Darth Vader were my style icons.  No longer!

Yesterday I was very excited because I was able to button up the jacket of one of my size 18 suits for the first time ever.  It looked good, and I felt good, which is all that matters.  Every week as I lose more weight I am also losing inches, and it is a constant revelation to see how differently my clothes fit over time.  I remember when I was first able to put on my old size 20 suits from the archive, and how excited I was.  And I vividly remember the end of January when I was able to do up the jacket on the size 20 black and white suit for the first time -- what a great feeling!  It was the same feeling as yesterday when I did up my suit jacket - - I felt beautiful and powerful and motivated and strong and all those good adjectives that come with progress. 

Another win this week has been that my excellent blood sugar values have continued.  This is really a month to date win, as I have only had 2 above-normal readings so far this month.  I am well on my way to experiencing my second consecutive month with normal fasting blood sugar values.  And it's all without medication - - I can only thank weight loss and regular exercise and sensible eating for the decline in my sugars.  This is such a major testament to the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. 

It is such a major thing given my family history.  Taking control of my eating habits and working out regularly to lose weight has had so many positive side effects, but this is one of the big ones.  As the Matriarch always says, "you don't ever want to be a diabetic", because the related health issues are significant.  Although I would not entirely agree with the Matriarch that it is easier to avoid being a diabetic than dealing with diabetes once you have it - - I would say my daily routine is plenty difficult, thank you very much - - it's nice to move out of the danger zone.  Prediabetes is really like being a little bit pregnant - - you're in for some major physical changes and nothing will ever really be the same again. 

So it's 68 weeks of workouts in the books, and 51 consecutive weeks without missing a workout - - coming up on a full year.  The last time I missed a workout was on May 25, 2012.  This whole eating well and working out thing is well and truly entrenched as part of my lifestyle now, and I am enjoying the benefits of it. 

I still struggle with food cravings and the occasional binge, but I know that I can work through that, with focus.  Yesterday I managed to pull together another great on-plan day, and my objective for this week will be to try stringing together a full week on track.  I can do it!

Pre-Diabetes is not Destiny ... Part 2

I have a frankly terrible family history of diabetes.  The Matriarch's side of the family is riddled with it, and recently the Patriarch was diagnosed as diabetic as well.  All the cases in my family involve Type II diabetes, not always weight related (but often weight related).

A couple of years ago I was worried about my eyes and paranoid that I might have been experiencing optical changes associated with uncontrolled Type II diabetes, and I purchased a portable blood sugar test kit.  In fact, I was experiencing what is known as "old glasses prescription", and as soon as my vision went back to normal I put the test away in my desk.

Coward that I am, it took me almost a year to actually crack open the kit and test my fasting blood sugar.  I knew that if the numbers were in the diabetic range, I would have to adopt some pretty severe lifestyle changes over and above all the things I was already doing.  If the numbers came back in the pre-diabetic range, that was not good either, because it would be a huge red flag telling me that my lifestyle change was no longer optional.

Of course, anyone who has read this blog knows that the test came back in the pre-diabetic range. 

As you can see, that first month I did not have any normal readings, and my highest reading at 6.8 mmol/L was only a cream-filled donut away from the 7.0 mmol/L that is the threshold of diabetes.  As it was, the average fasting blood sugar of 6.3 mmol/L was much higher than I was personally comfortable with. Cue the pouting and petulant whining on my part before I decided to suck it up and look at what I could do to reduce my fasting blood sugar numbers.

It turns out that everything I was doing - - watching calories, reducing alcohol consumption, being carb-aware, exercising and losing weight - - are all things that help reduce blood sugar.  I was already doing all the right things, I just needed to keep doing them over and over again, repeated forever.

And my hard work paid off.  Sure, there were hiccups along the way, but since last July as I have lost 81.4 pounds, I have also lost 0.9 points of blood sugar.

In fact, this month I had normal average fasting blood sugar. (!!!)  Cue the sounds of angels singing.  Yes, I still had elevated results during the month, but my highest reading this month was 5.9, a far cry from 6.8 from when I started.  More than 63% of my readings were normal, in fact, and I even had a couple of readings in the 4s. 

This is such a major, huge, massive big deal.  For one thing, it shows me that pre-diabetes is a red flag, but it does not mean that I will inevitably get Type II diabetes.  Yes, my family history is a nightmare, but I know about it and know what to watch for.  I started taking control over my diabetic destiny last January when I began working out, and I'm not going to stop any time soon.

Another thing that is a big deal is the fact that on average, my fasting sugars were normal this month, without the need for medication or draconian lifestyle changes.  By exercising regularly and being aware of what I am consuming, I have improved my lifestyle to the point where my blood sugar is naturally declining. 

I still believe that being pre-diabetic is a little bit like being an alcoholic - - you are never not an alcoholic, you are just an alcoholic who has not had a drink in a while.  In my case, no matter what my sugars are, I will always be a pre-diabetic by dint of my family history - - but I will be a pre-diabetic with normal blood sugar, so help me god. 

I will keep sticking to my plan and hopefully next month will be even better.  My objective now is to try and string along 3 consecutive months of average fasting blood sugar.  Part 1 is done - - I've got one month in the bag.  Let's hope next month is as good. 

64 weeks down ... 117 pounds down [with pics]

Last week was a great week, progress-wise.  I kept working on my sodium to hold it in my target zone, my sugars continued to be great, and my weight went down.  Sounds like a trifecta I can get behind.

Overall, I lost 2.5 pounds last week, to bring me to 216.9 pounds, and 117 pounds lost. 

As mentioned, my sodium and fasting blood sugar figures are on track as well, although the sugars were creeping up there by the end of the week:

I had a nice thing happen Friday afternoon.  One of our trade mark associates who is presently on maternity leave came into the office to show off her child.  I'm not 100% sure why people do this, because it's not as if we secretly harbor doubts that she had a baby and she had to show it off to prove that she was entitled to the mat leave, or anything.  Anyhow, the baby was darling, and all the cooing and giggling she did caused every woman within 10 feet to immediately ovulate.  Too bad for the lone male trade mark associate who was just down the hall - - sure, he's now more aware of his sensitive side, but on the down side, I am sure he experienced some breast tenderness with all the estrogen floating in the air.





Back to the point, which is that this female associate had not seen me since she went off on mat leave last November, and she was a little shocked at my appearance.  "Oh my god, look at you!" she exclaimed, and then asked how much weight I had lost.  Guessing, I told her that I had lost 60 pounds (actually it was only 50 pounds, but I was close enough).  She was suitably impressed. 


I don't really see a huge sifference between now and last November (see below), but I sure as heck can tell a difference from before I started working out:

It's all headed in the right direction, anyways.  Here's where I stand on the goals for the week:

I am less than 20 pounds away from onederland (!), and only one large bale of hay and a pound of butter away from my target. 

This past weekend was more social than normal, and it definitely involved rather more margaritas, enchiladas, ice cream and carrot cake than the usual weekend, so this week may be a difficult one, weight loss-wise.  In anticipation of a struggle, I have increased my free weights from 4 sets of 12 to 5 sets of 10.  Hopefully that will help. 

I'm not thinner, I'm just more condensed! 114.5 pounds down [with pics]

You know how some people say "I'm not fat, there's just more of me to love"?  As the Nerd says now, "there's not less of you to love now that you're losing weight, you're just more condensed". 

On that note, I am even further condensed this week.

This week was another 1.6 pound loss, bringing my weight down to 219.4 pounds, and my total pounds lost up to 114.5 pounds.  My current BMI is 32.4.  Interesting bit of trivia for you: when I have lost 167 pounds, I will weigh 167 pounds.  This must be some type of quantum singularity or something, and although it is not something I need to worry about for many months yet, it will be so damn cool when it happens.

Still on track...!

This week I upped the workouts by adding more weight to the ankle weights, adding more reps to the free weight sets, and adding more crossramp to the elliptical.  My workouts felt pretty good, and I'm happy with the changes I made for now.

On the sodium front, I was able to keep my numbers well within the recommended daily average of 1,500 - 2,300 mg sodium both this week, and month to date.  I don't have today's figures in there yet because I don't know what we will have for dinner tonight, but if recent trends are anything to go on, my numbers should be fine.

I don't know what the heck is happening with my fasting blood sugar this month, but I will take it!  So far this month 7 of my daily readings have been normal, and although I think it's a bit early yet to expect to see this trend continue all the way through the end of the month (I think I've got a lot more weight to lose to bring me fully into the normal range), so far my numbers put me just at the top end of normal range month to date - - very promising to see, and fabulously motivating.

The Patriarch has only recently been diagnosed with Type II diabetes, and he does not test his sugars daily (the diabetes person he is working with tests his A1C numbers and fasting blood sugar levels when he sees her every quarter).  I wish he would test daily, because it's so motivating to see the numbers trend downwards with weight loss.  Sure, it takes a really long time, but it does happen, and it reinforces all the good behaviours when it does.

In clotheshorse related news, I am very happy with my new running shoes.  I have learned so much about the importance of good footwear for working out in just the last 24 hours after posting about the new shoes, and I am feeling very good about making that great leap forward.  I am also amazed that I didn't collapse in a pile of shin splints and turned ankles long before now given the appalling state of the shoes that I was wearing.  Whew!  Dodged a bullet there!

It occurred to me out of the blue this week that although I have gone down 4 full dress sizes and have worked my way through my clothing archive, I have never taken a look at my court outfit.  In Canada in the Federal Court and in front of judges of the Ontario court, counsel must gown in a black waistcoat, wing collar shirt with tabs, and gown.  I bought my robes back in 2007 just before my call to the bar (for which you also must robe), which means that my robes were custom made to fit me at whatever the heck weight I was back in 2007.  I will tell you right now, it wasn't anything close to where I am now, judging from the slack I have in my waistcoat.  The gown itself is always going to look big, so that's probably ok not to have to change.

When I got my robes the company who made them did not have any women's wing collar shirts in size 26 - - not much call for them, I expect.  So instead of a shirt I was reduced to wearing a wing collar dickie, which looked just the same under the waistcoat.  It always burned me that I didn't have a proper shirt, though.  Well this week as I looked over my robes I thought - - why not see if I can finally pick up a shirt?  The answer is "hell yes!", and the shirt arrived today.

Below for comparison is a photo of me from my call to the bar (ignore the shiny face - - it was a million degrees that day), and me trying on the new shirt this afternoon.  No, blue jeans are not approved court attire, and yes, I am missing my tabs, but otherwise, I like how my robes look now, although I will need to get a new waistcoat when I go down another size:

The comparison from year ago is also striking:

What a difference a year makes!

I am gradually whittling down the numbers until I make my next goal:

I am less than 20 pounds away from Onederland!!  And only 16.4 pounds away from being merely overweight!  My overall target still feels like a long way to go, but it's much closer than it used to be.  If I keep stringing productive weeks together as I have, I will hit my objective early in 2014, right on track. 

Almost entering the terrible teens ... lost, that is

Another week is in the books - - week # 62 of exercising, and the 45th consecutive week without missing a single workout. The focus this week was on proper nutrition, and in particular, managing down my sodium levels.  So far, my efforts have been pretty successful.

This week I lost another 1.6 pounds, for 112.9 pounds lost in total (almost 113 down!).  I now weigh 221 pounds, about what the Nerd weighed last July (he's now down to 177 pounds). I am still on track to hit my goal of 165 pounds sometime around Jan-Feb of next year. 

For the past couple of weeks I have been monitoring my sodium consumption and actively working to bring my levels within Health Canada's guideline of 1,500 mg - 2,300 mg per day.  As you know, my numbers in the past have been higher than the recommended amount, occasionally much higher (my highest reading was more than 6,000 mg!).  Although my recent numbers were not so far off the charts that I needed to dramatically change my lifestyle (I was running around 2,400 - 2,600 mg on average in the past few months), I need to pay attention to sodium and make smarter choices - - both in purchasing and when selecting what foods to eat.

It has been a couple of weeks now, and my work is paying off:

Both my past 7 days and month to date averages are well within the recommended range, and with time (and work), I hope to keep the numbers on the lower end of that range.  Thankfully I do not have hypertension so I do not need to maintain a super strict sodium-reduced diet, but it's still good to keep sodium from getting out of hand - - which is tough to do, since the damn stuff is in everything.  Well, everything delicious, anyways. 
Even more promising, my fasting blood sugar levels have been absolutely fantastic in recent weeks.  I finished off March with a couple of normal results, dropping my average fasting blood sugar for the month to 5.6 mmol/L (where normal is 5.5 mmol/L and under), and I had 9 normal readings in the month (just less than 1 in 3).

So far for April, however, my fasting blood sugar levels have been almost entirely normal - - 4 out of 5 normal readings, in fact, bringing my average fasting blood sugar to 5.4, or in the normal range.  (!!!)

I can't tell you how happy I am with these numbers, as I have been working very hard on nutrition and exercise to bring my numbers into the normal range.  Knowing my double-barreled family history of Type II diabetes (thanks again, Matriarch and Patriarch!), I need to keep working on my lifestyle to get my fasting blood sugar levels down, and keep them down.  I am under no illusions that I will have dramatically improved numbers from this point onwards since this is really a long term objective, but each normal reading represents a positive step in the right direction. The long term trend has been steadily downwards into the normal zone, so I am hoping that my normal readings this month are not outliers, but rather, harbingers of positive trends in the future.

After this week, I am only 16 pounds away from light heavyweight, and 18 pounds away from being merely overweight.  That will be such a huge accomplishment when I get there - - I can't wait!  And Onederland is only 21 pounds away - - - sooooooo close!

To avoid the inevitable plateau, and because my workouts have felt pretty good recently, this week I am taking my workout program up a notch, and adding another 2 pounds to my ankle weights (1 per leg to 3 pounds per leg), and putting the crossramp on the elliptical machine to 7 (or about 50%), up from 6.  I am keeping the tension the same on the elliptical for now, at 5 (or 25%), because I can comfortably do my 130-145 stride rate at that tension.  I think I will also take the reps up on my free weight routine, to do 4 sets of 12 reps (instead of 10 reps) using the 8 lb weights. 

Looking back on what I was doing this time last year, I am amazed - - I was doing 12 minutes on the recumbent bike 3 days a week along with 2 minutes on the rowing machine, and then 15 minutes on the bike plus 3 minutes on the rowing machine the other 2 days a week (I only worked out 5 days a week at that point).  That's a whopping 14 or 18 minutes of cardio, and even that small amount almost killed me.  I was completely blown after getting off the rowing machine, which is perhaps to be expected of someone who at that point weighed around 313 pounds.

I thought I was never going to be able to do much more than that, and now here I regularly do 60 minutes on the elliptical machine, and my only concern is not whether I can finish the workout, but whether I will get too bored.  It is so true that the healthier you get, the more you can do.  My body is simply more able to handle physical exertion now than it could last year, and I love that.  It's important to remember how far I have come on those mornings when the workout is a little tougher, and I have to celebrate that.

What a week!

This week was more of the same (in terms of workouts and nutrition), with somewhat more focus on sodium levels and water consumption.  And boy howdy, did the consistent approach pay off again this week: I lost 4.8 pounds this week for a total of 111.3 pounds lost to reach 222.6 pounds.  The weight loss to date represents exactly 1/3 of my starting weight, and 2/3 of my overall weight loss goal.  My BMI is now 32.9, down 16.4 points from the high of 49.3.  44 weeks without a missed workout are paying off!

After this week's loss, I am averaging a loss of 1.8 pounds per week, and I am still on track to reach my goal:

Since this is the end of the month (almost, at any rate), I took my measurements:

I am always surprised at how I continue to lose inches each month.  This month I lost an inch off my bust and waist, a half an inch off my hips, and a quarter of an inch off my thighs.  The three and a quarter inches lost this month add up to more than 45 and a half inches lost total.

I am particularly thrilled with my inches lost this month because it moves me officially into size 18.  I have lost 4 clothing sizes since I have started this little adventure.  My 2 size 20 suits are now getting obviously big, and I get a lot of compliments on my size 18 suits that are now fitting well. 

I mentioned that this week I have started looking at my sodium consumption.  So far the attention to sodium has caused me to make different food choices, but successfully - - each day this week my sodium has been within the 1,500 mg - 2,300 mg recommended range.  And for March month to date, my sodium has averaged 2,135 mg, down from 2,481 mg in February.  I like that trend, which is heading in the right direction.

As for my fasting blood sugar, this also trended in a positive direction this month.  This month to date I had normal readings 24% of the time, down slightly from last month (which were normal 26.9% of the time).  But my average blood sugar reading was 5.7 this month, down from 5.8 last month.  That's what I like to see.

So where do I stand with respect to my goals?

I am thrilled with this month's results - - I am less than 20 pounds away from being merely overweight, and less than 60 pounds away from my final goal.  That is fantastic!

This lifestyle change is full of ups and downs...

Photo courtesy Steveage, licensed CC-BY-SA

It seems like each week I am on a high, or a low with my new lifestyle.  Some weeks it is an effort just getting on the elliptical every day, where my fasting sugars are high, where the weight seems to be coming off only in ounces at a time - - if at all.  These are the weeks that it is difficult to stay motivated and keep working my plan.  After all, what's the point in working so hard if I'm not going to see any results? These are the weeks that I feel like I am constantly walking uphill into a headwind, and making no progress.

Then there are weeks in which everything seems to click.  My sugars are low (or at least decreasing), I have a ton of energy and practically fly on the elliptical, and my mood is positive.  These are the weeks the weight seems to practically melt off me, and my lifestyle doesn't even feel like work.  It's as if I'm not doing anything, and I'm seeing all these good results (even though, in reality, I am working just as hard as ever - - it just doesn't feel like work when it all clicks).  In these weeks, I feel optimistic, like I can do anything, and my goals are all within reach.

It's not as clear cut as all that, of course.  Some weeks my sugars are awesome, and the scale refuses to budge.  And some days I just have more energy than others, regardless of whether the weight is coming off or not. 

Thinking back on it, though, a lot of my my high and low weeks are weight-related.  When I lose weight easily, I feel empowered and motivated, because my effort is delivering immediate results.  By the same token, when the weight sticks around despite my best efforts, it's frustrating, and demoralizing. 

Because I know that I need to see progress for my effort, I track many many different metrics.  Weight, fasting blood sugar, body fat%, measurements, # steps walked in a day, # minutes worked out, calories burned, # workouts, clothing size, inches lost, calories consumed, carbs consumed, and now, sodium consumed.  All of this is important because I know that if one metric is not moving (I'm looking at you, scale!), then something else usually is.  It's these little glimmers of progress that I cling to when the weight is hanging on, as proof that all my hard work is paying back results, even if they are not necessarily the results I prefer.

This week is one of the good weeks.  I upped my free weights last week, and as per the usual pattern, the first week of a new routine was a tough slog - - exhausting, and no huge weight loss.  This week, the weight appears to be dropping (although I won't know for sure until my official weigh in tomorrow morning), and the free weight routine feels more comfortable.

On a related note, this was my first week of really looking at my sodium intake, and the numbers so far have been pretty good:

     Monday = 1,928 mg
     Tuesday = 1,298 mg
     Wednesday = 1,952 mg
     Thursday = 1,434 mg

All of the sodium levels this week have been in the 1,500 - 2,300 mg recommended daily range, and I am happy about that.  I have had to change up some of my eating habits and be aware of serving sizes, but overall, it hasn't been as difficult as I feared to keep my sodium in a good range.  It's still early days yet, but this is certainly promising.

Tomorrow is the official weigh in day, and I will be doing measurements as well, because it's close enough to the end of the month.  Fingers crossed!

February 2013 - I love it when a plan comes together

Another month is in the books.  This makes a full 13 months of working out for me, or 57 weeks.  Once again I am a boring ol' consistency monster doing all of my workouts this month (40 weeks now without missing one!). 

And the results...some wins, some reverses, but mostly more wins.  All in all, my routine appears to be working, and the bullheaded consistency with which I am approaching this healthy lifestyle thing appears to be paying off. 

You know I love numbers and pretty charts.  And graphs.  OK, I'll admit it, I love quantifying the various changes to my body, because it permits me to see progress on many different metrics.  After all, the more you track, the more possibility there is that at least something will show improvement.  There is a method to my madness. Plus, how do you know you've won if you don't know what the goal looks like? 

As you can see, this month had rather more up and down than I like, driven by: i) a charming Italian man visiting and cooking; and ii) scale recalibration issues.  Essentially the week I gained was like 2 weeks lost, one for the part where I went up, and one for the part where I got back down to the place I had been.  But no one said this weight loss thing was going to be easy (well, no one who is not a complete charlatan, anyways).  Still, I consider it a moral victory if nothing else, because even when I went up I stuck to my plan.  Perhaps with a few more expletives thrown in there, but on plan nonetheless. 

And you can see from the year to date graph that this gain was just a small blip on the road, so I am not fussing about it too much:

... and overall, I am still on track to hit my weight goal on the original timing (early 2014):

For the month I ended up 6.3 pounds down, which is a little lower than I would have wished, but as it is still a loss, is a completely fine number.

Speaking of completely fine numbers, my body is doing some ridiculous changes this month:

Big inches lost everywhere except my puny Tyrannosaurus Rex arms this month, for more than 6 inches lost, or more than 42 inches lost overall.  I suspect it averages out over time, because last month I had only a small loss of inches.  But still - - 10 and a half inches gone off my bust?  That explains why my lingerie is fitting so differently. 

What's very nice about these numbers is the fact that they put me well in normal-size 20 territory, and halfway into size 18.  My lilac suit jacket that was tight last month now fits, so it's only a matter of time before all of my size 18 suits are back in rotation. 

The other nice thing about these numbers is that the smaller waist measurement leads to reduced health risks, now that it is under 38".  Sure, I am still in an elevated risk category with this result, but not the "condition critical" risk that I had been. 

This month also had the big milestone of weight goal #5 being met, as I broke the 100 pounds lost barrier.  Whoo hoo!  Better yet, it wasn't a one time fluke, as I was able to improve on the loss for the usual end of the week "official" weigh in - I am now down 101.3 pounds.  My weight of 232.6 pounds puts me in the 85th percentile, down from the 95th.  Just another way of tracking improvement. 

But not everything is unicorns and sprinkles this month.  For some reason my fasting blood sugars were higher than usual, and I had only 7 normal readings (26.9% of total readings) as compared to 9 normal readings (35.5% of readings) last month.  With the fewer normal readings, my average fasting blood sugar reading went up to 5.8 mmol/L compared to 5.6 mmol/L last month.  I have no idea why the numbers were so high this month, comparatively speaking.  With the exception of the week that our Italian visitor was here, my diet was pretty much the same as usual.  It's a puzzler, that's for sure.  But I finished the month strong, with 3 normal readings in a row, so hopefully March will be a better month, blood sugar wise.

I am not going to be too down on myself, because even though these numbers are slightly worse than January's figures, they are still way, way better than last July's numbers when I first started tracking.  I averaged around 6.3 mmol/L back then, with zero normal readings.  For me, every normal reading is a triumph.  As I continue to lose weight, these figures will, I hope, continue to improve. 

So all in all, it was a good month.  I have a whole bunch of new workout gear, just ready for my next session with the elliptical. 

"Bring it on!"