Great Weigh-in!

I have a lot to share tonight and so little time! I’ll save the best for last.

So I didn’t blog yesterday becuase I got home really late, but, never fear, I still logged all my food! Well, as best as I could – I ate at someone’s house so you never really know the calorie counts. Let’s suffice to say, it wasn’t such a great food and exercise day. It’s so hard to recover when you start off poorly. First, I was in a hurry, so I ate 340 calories worth of pure carbs for breakfast – not so filling. So when I arrive at work, of course I’m still hungry. So what do I do? I mindlessly run to the vending machine and get POP-TARTS! What on earth could I possibly have been thinking!!!??? Seriously! POP-TARTS. I think I wrote an entire post a few months ago about how bad I think pop-tarts are. Two pop-tarts have 400 calories, and when you’re done eating them (which takes about 60 seconds if you stretch it out and attempt to savor each bite), you can’t even tell you ate anything. So here I am, sitting at my desk, it’s 7:30am, and I have already consumed SEVEN-HUNDRED-FORTY (740) calories of pure nothing and so I’m still not full, and the whole day is ahead of me. To top it off I have dinner planned at someone’s house and it’s chicken paremesean with garlic bread and green beans on the side. And, as if the situation couldn’t get any worse, I absolutely, physically, literaly did not have time to exercise – as in it would be humanly impossible to do so and make it to said friend’s house for dinner. (Normally I can kinda sorta squeeze it in before evening plans if I dash like a madwoman, don’t dry my hair after my shower, and arrive fashionably late – although I really hate being late for anything – but trying to fit my workouts in has turned me into someone who is late fairly often, and it’s definitely given me some valuable insight into those that are always late. Anyway, couldn’t squeeze it in yesterday because I had to pick up my car from the mechanic shop 20 mins away.) So what did I do? The best I could given the situation. In the end I think I ate just enough to simply maintain my weight. That’s okay for one day, but it’s going to make my goal of a 7000 calorie deficit for the week even more challenging! But I can do it. Here’s the graph for yesterday:

So, moving on to today. I’ll keep it short. I did well eating wise. I discovered a wonderful new food – Smart Ones Chicken Marinara Flatbread. Like what you get out of the frozen dinner section. So, so, so good. Lots of chicken and veggies on top of the flatbread. (I ate it like pizza, though, because the crust is crispy and it feels like more that way). Only 290 calories. I’m sold – unfortunately that particular dinner is not actually on sale like all the other ones. Oh well. I’m still sold. I jogged outside today. I really, really, really wanted to get a good long workout in instead of just 30 minutes of walking/jogging, but there wasn’t time. I got home from work really late and had plans, so I just jogged for 30 minutes. A lot better than nothing, but I haven’t gotten a “full” workout (full meaning 50-60 minutes of decent cardio) since probably last Friday. I need more time! Anway, here’s the graph for today:

Now for the good news. I lost 3.19% of my body weight this week! I’m giving percentages instead of actual pounds lost because I’m participating in a biggest loser contest where my percentage is posted, and I don’t exactly want to just broadcast my weight on my blog – I have people I know “in real life” who read this. Anyway, suffice it to say, 3.19% is a lot of weight, I believe the most I’ve ever lost in a single week, and I’m thrilled! I think my “gazelle intensity” is definitely the way to go. I’ll explain the Biggest Loser thing that I’m doing a little more in a later post. Right now I have to get to bed, so I have the energy to work out tomorrow!

Week 14 Summary

So did anyone notice that last week was “Week 10″ and this week is “Week 14.” Probably not, but in case you did, I’ll explain. Yes, I do know how to count. Whew! – you should all be relieved to know that the person designing nuclear power plants knows how to count (along with a few other mathematical things)! Anyway, I had “restarted” my weight loss after the third week so I started back again. But since then I have realized that there’s no such thing as restarts. And if there were, nearly every week would be week one again. I don’t want to wipe the slate clean every time I mess up…it’s all part of the plan. Besides, my body doesn’t negate all the extra calories, just because I arbitrarily declare a restart.

Anyway, not too much in the way of stats this past week, as I did not journal my foods and only (dare I even say this – this may be the worst yet) exercised two times for 30 minutes each. Better than nothing. And a positive step considering how in the past I would allow the all-or-nothing mentality overcome me and not even bother exercising any at all because I couldn’t do it as much as I thought I needed to.

Okay, on to what you really reading to find out. I lost 0.6 pounds this week, and I’m thrilled with that. I was afraid I would gain, with how little I exercised and how poorly I ate. I think my continuing to try in spite of many mistakes has really helped me make it through the last couple weeks without a gain. This week, however, I am really trying for a more serious loss.

Week 9 Summary

Lost 0.2 pounds this week. It was Thanksgiving week. I’ll take it. I don’t have stats because I stopped journalling my food for Thanksgiving.

Week 8 Summary and Stats

I already wrote my feelings about this on my last post, so I’ll just stick to the facts here:

• Pounds lost this week: +1.6 (yes, that’s a gain, my friends)
• Total pounds lost: 16.0
• Avg net cals this week: 1175
• Avg cals burned through exercise: -326 (not bad, if I do say so myself)
• Total calorie deficit this week: 5,075 (see I ACTUALLY burned 1.45 pounds of fat this week, even if the silly scale is being contrary)

Week 4 Stats

So, drumroll please . . .

I lost 3.8 pounds this week!

I’m super excited about that. It’s about time. I will say that my weight is wildly fluctuating though, so I don’t really know what to believe. I think the fluctuations are because I eat vastly different amounts of sodium each day (anywhere from 1000 to 4000 mg) and I don’t monitor how much I drink. Oh well. The overall trend is what is most important. That brings my total loss to 11.8 pounds and my loss for the past four weeks to 8.6 pounds (just over 2lbs/week). I still can’t see a see a difference in my appearance, though. Hopefully that will happen soon. Some stats for the week:

• Weight loss: -3.8 pounds
• Average calories eaten: 1110
• Average calories burned through exercise: -245
• Average Net calories: 865 (wow, that’s really low – that loss may have been real)
• Minutes of exercise: 189.5 (3 hrs 9.5 mins)

Week Two (so to speek) Stats & Summary

Alright, so I’m calling the past week, “week two.” Although I started losing weight six weeks ago, I “fell off the wagon” and got back on two weeks ago. So that’s when I really started cracking down. The scale was actually up 2 lbs from yesterday. I won’t even bother with theorizing why, although I do have some ideas. Suffice it to say, it was. So here are a few stats for ya (with some of my commentary):

• Loss for this week: 1.8 lbs
• Loss for the past two weeks: 3.8 lbs (ironically, pretty close to what the calorie deficit would predict)
• Total loss for past six weeks: 7 lbs (painfully slow, I know, but cracking down these past two weeks has really helped a lot. I just needed to get serious)
• Average calories eaten this past week: 1324
• Average net calories this past week: 1082
• Total cals burned through exercise the past two weeks: 3661 (that’s OVER A POUND of fat – 3500 cal in a pound – exercise is important)
• Total mins exercised the past two weeks: 398 mins or 6 hours, 38 mins

Week One Summary: Down 3 pounds!

Monday is my “official” weigh-in day. I lost exactly 3 pounds! I’ll take it! And there was definitely some fluctuation throughout the week. Here’s some stats:

• Worked out 4 times for a minimum of 45 mintues each time
• Avg calories eaten: 1635
• Avg calories burned through exercise:  291
• Avg net calories: 1344