12/4/2012: A Little Progress!!

Morning Weight:  158.0!!!
This Morning's Exercise: Cardio day at the gym - 30 minutes on elliptical machine and 17 minutes on stationary bike - I got there a little late and the stair masters were all busy, so no stair master today.
Yesterday Evening's Exercise:  3 miles on the treadmill (31 minutes)
Yesterday's Calories: 1541
Vitamins:  1-A-Day, D, B-Complex, Calcium, Glucosamine

Finally, a step down from the 158.6lb plateau!!  What a relief to get on the scale this morning and see a little change in the right direction.  I was completely prepared to see 158.6 again!  The numbers were flipping between 158.0 and 158.2 and I was glad when they decided to rest on 158.0, though I would have been happy with 158.2.  It's just good to see something lower than 158.6.  It is amazing how consistently my morning weigh-ins were coming in at exactly that number.  Some days over the last two weeks it was a little higher, usually due to a late meal or something like that, but then the very next day it would be 158.6 again.  It feels good to have broken through that floor and be moving down again.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.

There is an Aspen Fitness Center (my new gym) very close to work, so I stopped there last night on the way home from work, for the first time.  I spent a half-hour on the treadmill and kept up a pace of 6.0 mph with the exception of the first couple of minutes when I was warming up.  It was a push to get that done and it felt like it may have been a little too much, as in I felt a little wiped out this morning.  I will stop at the gym again tonight, but I am not going to try to maintain 6.0 mph for the whole 30 minutes.  I will probably do a combination of walking briskly, jogging, and running, just to get my heart rate up for 30 minutes.  Last night, for some reason, I felt like I had something to prove to myself, like I can do 3 miles in 30 minutes.  It wasn't worth feeling totally spent for the rest of the evening and into this morning, though. 

As I told my sister in my response to her comment on yesterday's blog post, I am having a particularly difficult time sorting out my emotions with regard to my goals right now.  She cautions me against adding extra workouts or cutting calories below my current daily target in order to lose weight faster.  Her argument is that neither one of those tactics is sustainable long term and if I exercise too much or eat too little just to lose 8 pounds by year-end I will be sabotaging my long term ability to be healthy and maintain my weight loss.  I agree with her, in principle.  I even told Jack that very thing about two days ago.  At the same time I am so close to goal and the year is almost over and I find myself almost desperately wanting to put those two together.  I am also feeling the "December Blues" which hit me every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas, which cause me to want to eat to self-medicate.  I feel like I have two choices, the first is to succumb to eating too much and the other is to be ultra-disciplined through out the rest of the month.  I don't think there is any in-between.

My original goal was to lose 74 pounds in 48 weeks.  So far I have lost 66 pounds and it has taken me 40 week and one day.  I have 7 weeks and 6 days left in my original plan.  I can lose 8 pounds in 7 weeks and 6 days even with plateaus that last 2 weeks.  Can I lose 8 pounds in the 27 days remaining in December?  I don't know.  Two weeks ago it seemed reasonable, it doesn't feel reasonable anymore.  It feels like I would have to be ridiculous in some fashion to get there.  *Sigh*  I've been doing a lot of that lately, sighing, that is.  OK, OK, OK...this is crazy.  Sometimes I feel like I am crazy.  Let's just boil this down to the facts.  Having a real, attainable goal that was defined by a timeline and a specific amount of weight loss has been key to my success with this whole plan.  The fact of the matter is that it looks like I was pretty realistic when I said I would average 1.5 pounds of weight loss per week.  At first, it came off more rapidly; now the rate as slowed down, but at the end of the day, damned if it doesn't look like I was right on the money when I made that chart on February 26th, 2012.

I need to reach my goal of 150lbs.  That is incredibly important to me.  I don't need to reach it by year-end, but I do need to reach it by my original target date.  I do need to be very disciplined throughout December to combat the blues and to keep from indulging in party offerings, office treats that tend to pop up this time of year, etc...  In order to maintain the necessary discipline to get through the next 27 days, this is what I will do.  I will keep my calories closer to 1500 a day than 1600 a day and I won't go over 1600.  I will enter all my calories as I eat them, rather than relying on my memory and entering them once or twice a day.  I will maintain my exercise routine of an hour a day 6 times a week in the morning.  I will be disciplined about stopping at the gym or exercising outdoors (whether permitting) on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays after work.  I will continue to abstain from drinking alcohol (I have had two drinks since August 1st of this year).  I will not cut calories below 1500 a day in an effort to lose weight more quickly and I will not exercise to the point of exhaustion and fatigue.  First and foremost is continuing to build healthy habits that will last a life time.  With any luck, my mental health won't be far behind!!

The final stretch; man, it's rough!!