This morning's weigh-in was not what I was hoping it would be. I was very excited on July 3rd, when I weighed 189.8 and was finally out of the 190s. Unfortunately, since then, my weight loss has slowed down again. This morning I weighed 188.4, so I have lost 1.4 pounds in 9 days. Perhaps I should not be frustrated with that, I am still significantly under my line, but my pattern seems to be changing from a slow and steady weight loss to sudden drops of a couple of pounds then a week or two of fluctuation around that new weight. For some reason, that is a lot harder for me. It is much more rewarding, emotionally, to see all of the hard work I am doing result in the steady downward progress of my weight.
One of contributing factors to this trend seems to be my lack of...um...regularity. This is a relatively new problem for me and seems to be a direct result of the change in my diet. I find it odd that I should be suffering from this problem since I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, I would think that I get plenty of fiber in my diet. Yesterday I decided to actively seek out foods that might help this little problem. I found a few prunes in the pantry that Carla left behind and had 5 of those for a snack. I ate the last 4 for my breakfast fruit this morning. Hmmm...they seem to be helping a little already. I'll pick up some more prunes today and use them for my breakfast fruit for a week or so and see if there is an improvement. I also read that ground flax seed helps, too. If any of you have suggestions, please let me know. I already drink plenty of water, so I am sure that is not the problem. Perhaps I am not getting enough fat in my diet, though I am not actively avoiding fats. But I have made a habit of substituting mustard for mayonaise and salsa for salad dressings and that sort of thing, to reduce total calories. There is a possibility that I need to add a little bit of healthy oils into my daily diet. *Sigh* Just when I thought I had things figured out!!!
Other than that, everything is going well. I am exercising 6 days a week, 3 days of strength training and 3 days of cardio. This week's strength training routine actually takes me about 65 minutes, so it is pretty exhausting! For cardio this week I did one day of running on the treadmill for an hour - 4.8 miles, one day of stair master (100 floors level 7) and ellipitical (2500 strides level 7), and one day of running outside - 4.0 miles. I feel pretty good about all that! I have not been recording my calories, as I have felt very in control of my food, but perhaps I should start again to see if there are some surprises there, that I just have not been paying attention to. I have been focusing on making sure I get healthy snacks, so I am not too hungry in the evenings, and keeping my evening meal small.
Maybe I need to think about adding more activity to my day. In spite of the fact that I exercise an hour a day six days a week, I do spend most of the rest of my day sitting at work. I've talked before about adding a walk in the evenings after dinner. That's probably a good idea. I think I may start that now that my weight seems to be getting a little more stubborn.
I'm close to half way! 1.4 pounds to go, and I will be half way to my goal. I guess it is not surprising that I need to change things up a little to keep up the progress...it is just a little frustrating. I'll figure it out, though. I will reach my goal weight by February 4th, 2012!!
Some recent science shows that 1 hour of working out followed by 23 of sitting does not give you as much benefit as 30 minutes in the morning and 30 in the eve. You need the big morning burn because you want to lose weight. You could add 20 - 30 min of intense cardio in the eve. These were called "two a days " on the swim team. You will feel righteous.
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