Weekly Weigh-In: She's Down!

You know those moments, where you do something that just makes you feel really proud of yourself? Ace the paper, spot the error in the important document that nobody else noticed, cook a delicious and healthy meal, nail the comeback. They’re not usually big things, but they make you feel like you can do anything.

On Wednesday I got stuck at work until almost ten. As I was leaving, I called my husband and told him to meet me at the gym. And gym we did. I am disproportionately proud of myself for this. It was a long day, but I actually wanted to go - it’s nice to move around a bit after mostly sitting in front of a computer all day, and to justify watching TV or just letting my mind wander.  

Bloat?

I'm taking this as a great sign of progress. I would love to get to the point - long term - where I look forward to working out as a time to focus on myself and getting stronger, and take a break from whatever else is going on in life.

When we were on the way home, in my head was something like, “I can’t believe we just did that. I got out of work at ten pm, and instead of getting home and crawling into bed to watch S.H.I.E.L.D, I actually acknowledged that I wasn’t that tired, it wasn’t that late, and that it would be good for us to exercise. This. I’m doing it, I’m actually doing it. This is awesome. Everyone, look how awesome I am! Everyone is awesome. America! Togetherness! We can do so many things. Hey random stranger, we can do things! Everything is beautiful.”

So, onto the numbers. Fantastic results this week! I am really happy.

Measurements	4/9/2014	4/23/2014	4/30/2014	5/7/2014	Difference from Previous Week
Weight	186.2	188.1	188.3	185.8	Minus 2.5 lbs weight
Pounds Fat	76.6	79.5	81.5	78.3	Minus 3.2 lbs fat
Pounds Muscle	65.4	67.4	68.4	67.4	Minus 1 lb muscle

Even from the “low” I hit a couple of weeks ago, this is a new low!

Overall weight is down 2.5, and fat is down over three pounds. Muscle is a bit down too but holding steady from a couple of weeks ago. I take these weekly numbers with a movie-popcorn grain of salt, as it’s more the month to month numbers and averages that show the real weight trends. I didn’t lose literally three pounds of fat and one of muscle in seven days, obviously, but I do think I weigh a little less than last week, and have a little less fat. I hope to keep the trend going this week.

I don’t think I was particularly magical this week, but I tend to think that any weekly weigh-in isn't just about that week's progress, but rather a culmination of the last several weeks.

This is a comparison between yesterday and eight months ago, when I was still on the way up, weight-wise:

Measurements	9/3/2013	5/7/2014	Extra
Weight	183	185.8	2.8
Pounds Fat	69.9	78.3	8.4
Pounds Muscle	65.1	67.4	2.3

Funny how upset I was when I saw that on the scale in September, but now I would be thrilled. The numbers are a little weird, as this indicates that I gained a lot of fat even though the net gain is only a few pounds. However, the muscle is up too, so according to this I gained eleven pounds of mass, but only three actual pounds.

In other news, I've been thinking it might be time for another measuring session. The last one was in March, about two months ago. I have since lost 4-5 net pounds, and we've kept up the gym routine of going three or four times a week. Hopefully the measurements will reflect that. While measuring just a few times a year instead of every two months might yield bigger changes, I'd like to see the smaller progression as well. I'm also impatient as hell.