Start Spreading the News.....

Start spreading the news.....

I'm leaving today.

I wanna be a part of it.

New York, New York.

So close. So close. So close.

BYE WEEK

Alright. I did something stupid.

I hosted a New Year's Day party.   The theme was death-by-fast food......and gumbo.   I didn't weigh myself this morning. I was too terrified of the damage.  The salt from the gumbo and chicken nuggets alone was probably enough to cause the most nasty of upward fluctuations.

I am not sure I ate enough calories to do any permanent damage, but the salt......oh, the salt.



Normally if I indulge like this, it's on the weekend and I have almost and entire week to de-salinize myself and get back on track for the weekly weigh-in.

Well, it's Thursday and I don't have the time I normally do to repair the damage that has been done before tomorrow.

I think that in honor of the NFL post-season, New Year's Day, the end of 'the holidays' in general, and just in the interest of keeping my insanity.....I might go ahead and take a "bye week" from the weekly weigh-in this week. 

 

.....I guess the bright side was that at least I've been great about going to the gym this week. o_O

Week 22 Progress Report and Is This the End?

WEIGHT: 131.0

WEEKLY NET CHANGE: -2.2 lbs

TOTAL WEIGHT LOSS: 30.8 lbs

Only 1 pound away from my original goal to "get to 130 in as long as it takes."   Only 5 pounds away from The Big Carrot (a fabulous trip to NYC with my mom if I reach her street address: 126 Chunkyway Drive).

BMI: 24.0 
WTF that means: Solidly in the "normal" range, but at the high end. 

Not to get too far ahead of myself (I do still have two goals to reach), but with the end so very much in sight, my thoughts have now started to turn towards what happens after reaching The Big Carrot (which I expect to happen in about 3 weeks).

The H recently asked me the very question that's been nagging me for a while now: "How much weight are you planning to lose?"

Good question.

So for starters, I looked at what the government defines as a healthy weight for someone my height.   It wasn't helpful.

Anything from 102-136 pounds is considered the normal range for someone my size.   I happen to have been almost every weight in that range, and based on that I know straight away that 102 isn't gonna happen.   The closest I was to 102 in my adult life was sophomore year of college when I tipped the scales at a very, very svelte 105 on a hungover day and 108 on a truly bloated day.

Looking at the photos from that time, I looked great, but it would be almost impossible to maintain.

I am very, very focused on trying to make whatever results I achieve this time around permanent.  I think it would be psychologically dangerous to get super tiny "just 'cuz" only to gain some back to get to a realistic "forever weight".....because once the gaining starts it is oh-so-easy to let it continue.

So I don't think anything under 110 will be the ultimate goal.  Too low. Too difficult to maintain permanently.

Then I considered splitting the normal range in half and aiming for that: 119.

But that just seems cruel.  The thought of some days waking up in the 110's and other days waking up in the 120's...well it's enough to make you crazy.   If I've learned one thing from this journey it's that these little mental tricks can make or break you.  For an able-bodied person, losing weight is definitely 90% mental and only 10% physical....and I don't have the mental strength to straddle two different "decades" of weight. On purpose. Forever.

So how do I choose that "perfect number" for my forever weight?

After a lot of reflecting, I finally came up with a cop-out solution: don't choose a number.  Don't pick a goal weight.   Just don't have one.

I want to be whatever I might weigh when I can work out for an hour most days of the week and enjoy what I eat.  It's what I've been doing for a while now.

I don't think I've really blogged much about it, but at some point I just stopped worrying about having decadent foods from time to time.   I have been enjoying pizza, cheese, chinese food, multi-course steak dinners, buffalo chicken, and--yes--even fettucini alfredo (granted, all in moderation).

And I am still losing.

I suppose that at some point I'll reach a plateau.  And I guess that'll be the "goal weight."  Maybe it'll be 126 after I reach the Big Carrot. Maybe it'll be 119. Maybe it'll be something else entirely.

It just seems stupid to fixate on a number. There will be days when my weight fluctuates and that's not something I can control. The only thing I can control is whether I am good about going to the gym and reasonable  in the times that I choose to splurge.

And that's what I am going to try to do.

Who knows.  Maybe after reaching 126 I will feel lost and listless without having another number in mind and I'll find it much harder to commit to working out and eating right.  And if that's the case, I'll come up with another goal to keep me in the game.  But, for now, I think the goal should simply be to keep doing what I am doing for a lifetime...whatever my weight may be.

It's a Christmas Miracle!

(This post really goes much better if you click on the audio clip above)

No, not that Christmas miracle.   THIS ONE:

THIRTY POUNDS GONE! 

The Big 3-0.

FINALLY.

God bless us, everyone!!!

Week 21 Progress Report and Lament of the Holidays

I was so cute.  I thought I could breeze through the work holidays without gaining an ounce.  "Heck, I might even lose some weight this week, " I thought.

Yeah......that didn't happen.  I tried to be good---honest, I did.  But then there was a Ruth's Chris lunch....and a company Christmas party complete with 4 courses of gloriousness, and then there was the work party hangover which only greasy goodness could cure.....

I be like.....

I slipped.  I admit it.   The damage: 

WEIGHT: 133.2

WEEKLY NET CHANGE:  +1.0 LB  (I guess it could have been worse). 

Total Weight Loss: -28.6 lbs. 

And to make matters worse, work is completely insane now which means longer hours which means it's going to be that much harder to get to the gym to undo the damage.   =( 

Ugh. 

Jiggle All The Way

It's here. 

The week I have been dreading since the beginning of this blog.

The most decadent and tempting week of the fiscal year. 

It's "Christmas week" at the office.

The office....

I've only been an office worker for 2 years now, but that is long enough to know that Christmas at an office is the most disgusting, secular, commercialized and gluttonous version of the celebration of Jesus's birth in the entire world (and that's coming from someone who would probably be struck by lightning the next time I step foot in a Church).

When I was in school, I never understood the people who got all bent out of shape about remembering the "Reason for the Season."  I'd leave my show choir rehearsal (which was always chockfull of Away in a Manger's and O Holy Night's) and think, "Uh, duh. Of course Jesus's birth is the reason for the season. Who said it wasn't? Could everyone just relax please?"

But then I graduated, got an office job, and quickly learned that the office world treats Christmas much differently than the rest of the world.

The rest of the world donates money and toys to charities to bring a little holiday cheer to those in need.  The office world wants to make sure your end-of-year reports have been submitted.  The rest of the world gathers with family and friends to sing carols in hopeful anticipation of the coming holiday. The office world reminds you that there's only two more weeks to make your end-of-year-quota. 

The rest of the world buys heartfelt gifts for the people they love to symbolize the greatest gift of all.   So what does the office world do to try to have a sense of occasion during this festive time of year? 

It eats.

Well, eats and foists a stupid Kris Kringle gift-exchange upon the entire staff during which everyone trades assorted $20.00 gift cards that no one actually wants (seriously....why can't we just all agree to keep the 20 bucks and skip the damn Kris Kringle?!)   But I digress.

You can't blame the office workers for the problem.  Everyone wants to do something special to mark the occasion, but there's no room for any of the beautiful things that truly make the holiday season great in an office. There's no room for joy, love, magic, and hope. 

But, I'll be dammed, there's room for multi-course lunches.

There's room for plates of snicker-doodles.

There's room for cakes and cookies.

There's room for candies.

There's room for cheese and deli meat platters.

There's room for those giant tins of popcorn never-quite-perfectly-separated into three different flavors.

And then, finally, the Pièce de résistance: there's room for the company Christmas party.



(I am convinced that no one in the world actually likes the company Christmas party.  Even if it's a lovely party, it's just awkward. Like.....on the one hand, there's a bar and a band and all the trappings of a really sweet time.  But on the other hand.....your boss is there. And your weird co-workers. And creepy Joe from the HR department. And the forced conversations......*shudders*).

But here we are. Smack dab in the middle of Christmas week 2013.  I've already had two very decadent lunches. I am starting to freak out. I don't want Christmas Week to take too great a toll on progress thus far, but I also don't want to be the office Grinch.

I will just have to work extra, extra hard on the treadmill this week. It's my only chance. Otherwise, I'll just be jiggling all the way to adult onset diabetes.

Week 20 Progress Report

Ahhh! I've had such a busy week with the holidays and end-of-year stuff at work that I haven't had time to update the blog! 

On Friday, I did a weigh-in as I always do. Here are the results: 

WEIGHT: 132.2

Weekly Net Change -3.0 lbs 

Total Weight Loss: 29.6 lbs

Half a pound away from a 30 pound "carrot."

Only 2.2 pounds away from my original goal of "130 in as long as it takes"

6.2 pounds away from The Big Carrot trip to NYC.

And 9 pounds away from my wedding weight. 

Forward, ho!!! (ho ho)