Week 38 - RESULTS

After last week's burst back into the weight-loss scene, have I managed to maintain my momentum?

STARTING WEIGHT:   219.9 lbs

ENDING WEIGHT:  217.0 lbs



WEIGHT LOSS:    2.9 lbs

Woo hoo! Very happy with this loss too, as its significantly above my target for the week. That said, this is actually the difference over 8 days rather than 7, as I didn't manage to weigh in yesterday. In fact, I didn't manage to do much of anything yesterday, after my 2am run followed by 2 hours of sleep!

Amazingly, I have now passed the 80 lbs dropped mark! That seems incredible to me, especially after being becalmed in the 70-lbs bracket for oh-so-long. I now have less than 1.5 stone left to lose, and have already lost more than 5.5 stone - wow! Sometimes I just like to rattle off the numbers and remind myself about how far I've come!

Anyhow, we'll see if I can make the six days left before next Monday count. I did eat a lot of birthday cake etc last week, so maybe I could have lost even more weight if I'd had more control? Well, I'll try and stay in control between now and Monday, and see what happens!

 

WEIGHT LOSS TO DATE: 

80.1 lbs

217.0 lbs

217.0 lbs

Week 38 Round-Up

Just a quick one for now, as its 2.30am for me, and I really ought to try and get some sleep!

Not a bad week really. I didn't run as much as I would have liked - only one run before Friday, but I made that up with a Saturday run, and I've just got back in from a late one now! (Well, I say late, but I think I've gone past late and into early, as its technically now Monday morning!) Strangely, despite the crazy hour, my run just now was the best so far - I shaved two minutes off my time, and finally have an average speed of less than 10 minutes a mile, which isn't bad for me! If this goes on, I'll have to think about upping my distance.

Foodwise wasn't as good, as I'll explain. Saturday was my younger sister's 18th birthday, so I went home on Friday evening, and we went out for a nice meal. I ate rather more than I intended to, both that evening, and the following day when the birthday cakes showed up! Still, I was still showing a loss when I weighed this morning, and I'm hoping that my run just now will help me see a decent weekly loss in the morning. I might not be quite up to my weekly target, but we shall see.

Anyway, that's all, and I'll see you all tomorrow for the results from Week 38!

Fading Away...Take 2!

The last time I did a Fading Away post was back in May, when I was almost at the 50lbs down point. You can see the original post here.

As I've now passed the 75lbs lost point, I thought it was time to do another Fading Away post, to really try and appreciate the visible difference between then and now, rather than just the numbers on the scale.

As before, these are Monday's weigh-in photos, with the pictures from Day 1 superimposed on top.

It was actually difficult to put these two together, as all the landmarks (armpit, nipple, chin etc) have moved in the last few months! Clearly the belly bulge is smaller, which is great. Once again I am amazed by just how much weight I was carrying underneath the belly, above the groin area! Nice to see that the chin has receded a lot too!

 

I didn't include the front view the last time round, as there wasn't much of a visible difference then. I think there is now though! I still have those bulging love-handles/muffin-top things on my flanks, but the curve has certainly reduced, and I'm carrying a lot less weight under the armpits too. Hooray!

Anyhow, that was all I wanted to do for today! I will probably do the same again when we get to 100lbs dropped - won't THAT be the day!

Week 37 - RESULTS

I've had a fantastic week, watching my food and exercising like crazy. Finally, its time to see how much of this is reflected in the scales!

STARTING WEIGHT:   225.0 lbs

ENDING WEIGHT:  219.9 lbs



WEIGHT LOSS:    5.1 lbs

Boo yah! After all these months of complaining about small losses, and the slowing rate of weight-loss, all I had to do was start exercising again, and I see my biggest weekly loss in about five months!

Obviously I'm delighted with this result, and it accomplishes several things for me:


- I have finally lost all of my summer gain, and am back to making real progress!
- I have finally left the 220's, after getting stuck here for 15 weeks...I'm into the 210's!
- Have passed the 75% progress point, more than three-quarters of the way to goal!
- Have now lost more than 5.5 stone (UK)!


There is still a hint of frustration here though. One, because I was a pound lighter by Friday, but my weekend showed a net gain. And two, because of how easy I found it to get this loss...well no, easy isn't right. Let me explain.

In the weeks before this one, I let myself accept the tiny losses of 0.2lbs a week, telling myself it was because I'd already lost so much weight, and my body just wouldn't give up fat like it had before. Thing is, I wasn't exercising for all that time, so I had no way to know if that was true. Maybe my rate had naturally slowed, or maybe it was just because I wasn't exercising. I didn't know.

Well, I know now! After running 20 miles overall last week, I have lost more weight in the last 7 days than in the previous...well, if you take my gains into account, months! And I could have done this so much sooner, and been so much further on, if only I'd got off my butt and started exercising again before now!

Ah well, I'm not going to gripe too long after such a good weigh-in, lest I tempt the gods. My target weekly loss of 1.8 lbs has been comfortably surpassed, and in fact I now have a headstart of several weeks on my aim of hitting goal weight by February 2012. I also know that I am unlikely to see this level of loss next week - this is a reaction loss, due to the sudden change from sedentary but dieting, to dieting and being extremely active. I went a bit nuts last week, trying to lose as much as possible, to give myself a real boost. I want to take this week more carefully, and make sure the loss is sustained. If I can hit my target next week too, I'll be psyched. Let's give it a go!

WEIGHT LOSS TO DATE: 

77.2 lbs

 219.9 lbs

 219.9 lbs

A Stitch, In Time...

I've had a really good week so far...but I want more!

I just got back from my fifth run this week. That's 20 miles I've covered this week, after months of nothing. I was only aiming for three runs, but found myself chasing a phantom loss...

You see, I have managed to blow my target loss for this week completely out of the water. As long as nothing bizarre happens tonight, I should be able to record my target loss tomorrow, and then some.

But, by Friday morning, my weight-loss was really impressive. I was back at a figure I hadn't seen since the early days. And to try and keep that going, I was really good food-wise on Friday afternoon. I knew I was going out that evening and that there would be food, so I went for a run beforehand, and still took it in moderation that night. My calories were DEFINITELY below 2000 for the day.

But, when I weighed in on Saturday morning, I had inexplicably gained almost 4lbs. The fact that I was still below my weekly target despite this gives you an idea of how well I'd done up until then, but it still pissed me off. So, I ran on Saturday. And again today. But I'm still not quite down to where I was on Friday.

I know that numbers always fluctuate, and I'm taking it too seriously, but after spending months chasing the weight I'd hit before my summer gains, it was really annoying to finally be beyond that, only to see it shoot back up again, despite all the effort I'd made.

Whether I make that loss back by tomorrow morning remains to be seen. Either way, I'll still have had a really good week. And, if nothing else, I have certainly got my hunger for big losses back!

The running is going well, but I have been suffering from stitch-pain for the first time. Perhaps its just because I haven't run in such a long time before this week, or maybe its because I've exercised harder this week than I planned to. I tried a new breathing technique tonight and it seemed to help, so hopefully it won't be an issue from here on out.

See you for the weigh-in tomorrow!

My New Running Ticker!

Just a quick post this evening folks, as I'm off out very shortly.

I've added a jogging ticker to my blog, which you can see over on the right hand side, underneath my weight-loss countdowns. I realised that I had never included a proper track of my exercise on this blog before, apart from occasionally telling you when I'd done some! That, and the fact that I struggled to get back into exercise for so long before last week, led me to putting a ticker up on here, to either share my exercising success, or reveal my non-exercising if I haven't bothered, and hopefully guilt me into doing some!

I actually found this ticker over at another blog, A Mama's Goals, and very much recommend you check it out! As you can see, I've managed 12 miles so far this week, and that's three runs of 4 miles each, on Monday, Wednesday, and just now.

I think today's run is another good indication that my attitude towards exercise is back where it should be. I'm heading out tonight to visit some friends and celebrate Bonfire Night/Guy Fawkes Night (remember, remember the...well its not the 5th yet, but we're celebrating now anyway!). I was worried that, if I ended up drinking tonight or eating their nibbles, I might see a gain in the morning, so I decided to go for a run (even though my legs were hurting), to try and counter that. In the past I would have just decided to 'write off' the day, but not anymore...that's promising!

Can't wait to weigh-in on Monday...let me just say that the old Headspace is well and truly back!

Week 37 So Far...

It's strange how quickly I've switched from not really thinking about my weight-loss, eating without worrying about calories, not bothering with exercise (or even weighing) etc etc, right back into my previous weight-loss mindset.

Having a target again is the reason. Finally, a weekly goal! I made so much about having mini-targets when I started this blog, but managed to ignore my own advice over the last few months, and was just coasting along.

You can see the effect that had by looking at the graph below, which comes from one of my weight-loss tickers at the bottom of the page. (I put them there as I don't have room at the top, wonder how many of you guys have never seen them before?)

It's not completely accurate, because when I had my gains in late August, I didn't update it (hence the sudden drop in the number of dots on the line). Strictly speaking, the plateau on the right side ought to have a spike in it, representing the gain, and then losing it again...but its still telling, don't you think? After such a nice steady drop in weight, the thing just completely levels off.

Then again, maybe that's just a part of the journey I needed to take. If I had carried on making the effort over those months, I might have burned myself out, and been unable/unwilling to get back into it when the scales started creeping up. As it is, I stopped losing weight, had a bit of a rebound gain which I have lost, but otherwise I've managed to maintain my weight quite nicely for a few months.

I find that encouraging, when I think of reaching my goal weight and entering the maintenance phase. I think it shows that my behaviour/attitude towards eating has changed. I COULD have stopped losing weight, and just regained it all, but I didn't. I have more control now. And I like it.

But we're not at maintenance yet, so for now I have to keep plodding on. Well, not plodding, as this week I've been running and dieting like in the old days again. And I love it! I never usually blog my weight unless its an official Monday weigh-in, and I won't now, but let's just say my target loss of 1.8 lbs for this week has already fallen. That's more weight dropped already this week than I have lost in the past month!

I know it only takes one slip to lose all that progress, so I'm not relaxing just yet. In fact, I'm about to go for another run! But, if I can avoid a gain for the rest of the week (and heck, if I'm honest there's no reason I shouldn't lose even more) I should be a very happy boy by Monday...