Pages

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Results of My Eight Week Reboot - Weigh In

My self-imposed eight week challenge is over. And I’m really, really glad I did it. I was stuck in a serious rut for a while - working out, eating right “most” of the time, and getting more and more pissed off that the scale wasn’t moving. I wasted a lot of mental energy being annoyed before realizing that I was eating more calories overall than I realized, despite tracking and doing okay from day to day.


Equal parts chocolate and asparagus.


I set my caloric goals to lose 1.5 lb/week which gave me 1000-1100 calories per day plus whatever I burned off in the gym. My actual daily calories came out to 1350. It’s higher than I wanted, but still translates to a pound a week, so I expected to lose at least eight pounds over these two months.


On June 9, I weighed 191.2. At the time, I thought some of that was bloat since it was a couple of pounds higher than the usual range. But, no matter. Yesterday, I weighed in at 184 even. Or to put it in chart form with fat and muscle numbers:

Measurements 6/8/20148/4/2014
Weight191.2184
Pounds Fat82.774.5
Pounds Muscle 67.368.2


I definitely haven’t seen numbers close to that this entire year, so I’m happy to have some concrete progress. A little over seven total pounds in eight weeks, and eight pounds of fat gone from that. The scale isn’t infallible, I know. I weighed 185 in my kitchen and 184 in my bathroom, but it’s the best I can do. Time will tell where and how I’m really doing, but at this weight, where five or ten pounds lost doesn’t show, I want to know I’m making progress. And I've NEVER seen less than 40% body fat on the scale before.

Though my last official weigh-in was in the beginning of June, I’ve definitely sneaked a few peaks on the scale. It was hard not to look when I wanted so badly to see some validation of my efforts. Now I realize that I need to either get rid of the scale and bring it out once a month just to track long-term progress, or weigh myself regularly and learn to accept normal fluctuations. Standing on the scale while my husband wrote down the numbers did not work out, but it was an idea worth trying.



Good Changes and Improvements:
  • Tracking my food and exercise honestly every single day for the last eight weeks
  • Saying “no” more often to treats I didn’t need and didn’t even want - office cake, alcohol at cocktail hour, candy, french fries, second and third helpings
  • Eating more consciously, even with junk food
  • Going to the gym and pushing myself on the weight machines and the elliptical 4-5 times a week



Things I Should Work On:
  • Bringing lunch to work - I would do this for two weeks, and then get lazy for another. Rinse and repeat
  • Not weighing myself or at least not letting the number on the scale dictate my feelings
  • Patience
  • Ending sentences with prepositions
For now, I’m going to keep going the way I’ve been doing, but just try to push a little bit harder to lower my average calories. Those extra hundred or so came from two or three higher calories days, but mostly from little but completely unnecessary extra treats that added up to the difference between a pound loss a week and a pound and a half.

In other fun news, there's now a headless "before" shot of me on the About Me page.


My next mini goal is to be in the 170s by Labor Day, which give me about a month. For now, I’ll weigh in and report each week but there may be a bra/scale freedom burning in the future.


This is exactly how cool I am.

2 comments:

  1. You did great! For sure you can get into the 170s by Labour Day.

    I only weigh in once a week now on Wednesday mornings. That way I'm not tied to weighing daily, which would drive me berserk!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! I was at 170 for a long time, and while it's still not a healthy weight, my face wasn't bloated. So 170s would be a big milestone just because I know it makes such a difference, unlike going from 190 to 180.

      I've enjoyed your weigh-ins :)

      I sometimes entertain the idea of doing a daily weigh-in for a bit so I can actually prove to myself how normal body fluctuations are and that I'm still making progress.

      Delete