Should I Skip Weigh-In?

I seriously considered skipping weigh-in. I have been in eating mode since last Friday and I did not want to be all "well that sucks for me....bring on the food!" I have yet to do that but it has been a weird week. No telling what I will do next.

I did weigh-in. 177.2 that is a 2.4 pound gain. Sucky, sucky. Oh well. I don't really care what the scale says (too much anyway). I think I am going to go ahead and call my goal weight 175 and goal size 10. That is the weight I have pretty much been maintaining since Thanksgiving and I am okay with it. It is healthy for me. I feel good at this weight and size. Really good actually.

Confession - last night was not super healthy. Nope. No chicken and salad for me. This week was the 100th day of school. I always have my class make a snack with 10 ingredients. 4 of them are varieties of cereal. I was telling my husband how this year I gave them Cookie Crisps. He got so excited so I decided to bring home the leftovers so he could eat it. I normally do not do this but he is like a kid and it is fun to watch his face get excited.

So for dinner he ate toast and 2 bowls of Cookie Crisp. I ate 3 bowls of cereal. 3 different kinds - Pops, Honey Nut Cheerios and Fruit Loops. Oink, oink. Over my calories and minimal nutritional value. Boy was it good too. Like I said, this week is sooooo out of character for me. And tonight is happy hour with more delicious foods.

I did however go to my turbo kickboxing class. I just cannot stay away. I am now leaving for another body attack class (4th one since Monday **body is tired**).

I hope you all have a great weekend and better luck on the scale!

Why is there no formula?

You know weight loss is supposed to be simple in theory. Take in fewer calories than you burn and viola - weight loss. In execution it is much more complicated. There is metabolism, body type, HORMONES. Friggin' hormones.

My weight is still up and waiting for the lady troubles to be begin. It is kinda like waiting to be smacked in the face. I am trying not to flinch. I am sure the extra 300 to 500 calories I ate the past two nights after dinner have not helped. Not really bad calories, just more than I should have. Not even for hunger, just an overwhelming need to eat. And it tasted pretty good too. It is funny how being up a few pounds makes your mind go crazy. I keep thinking when I look in the mirror those old pictures will be looking back at me. But no. I do not look any different (read fatter), but that thought is still there - lurking in my mind. So instead of continuing to bitch about how hard this week is I decided to find one positive thing to focus on.

I started trying to run a little bit (and I mean little - like the distance of 4 mailboxes on my street) last fall - I weighed in the 270s. Not the easiest task in the world for me at the time. Then I continued to add a little more (not sure why I stuck with this, I am not a runner - maybe just to challenge myself). Oh, I did this with the vampire method (early morning under the cover of darkness so no one could see me or judge me). Today I can run a lot farther and a lot faster (and I feel fine doing it in public). Sometimes I feel like I can fly - even this morning being up a few pounds I felt that way.

Last December was when I first tried to run on a treadmill. I was scared to death everytime I did it for the first few weeks. I was scared I would fall and break my face. That, and man did my belly rolls flop around when I ran. I ran on the treadmill for 10 minutes as part of a warm up the other day and I did not think twice about it. Had that been my goal, I could have gone a lot longer and even faster. I was just trying to warm up my muscles. This is progress people. Especially for someone who is not a runner and will probably never be a runner. So there it is. All my sunshine and positivity - I must rest now.

I went to the doc yesterday. I asked about calories for maintenance and a good goal weight for my build (since no charts really take that into consideration). She was thinking between 160 and 170. She also thinks maintenance calories for me will probably only be an additional 200-300 per day. I am looking at about 1800 (when the time comes). Looks like I've got some more work to do! She also said I may have to drop to 1500 calories to get the last of the weight off (um, this sucks). I am having a hard enough time sticking to 1600 this week.

I just wish there was a specific formula to follow. Like with the Jenny Craig eating plan. The problem with that is, I want to enjoy my life too. It is all trial and error. This week I think I keep hitting on error. Maybe today I can hit on a winner of a day. No whammy, no whammy (90's game show reference - 10 points to you if you caught that).

Week of discoveries

1. Last Thanksgiving I had lost 30 pounds, this Thanksgiving 115 - 85 more pounds. No wonder I am cold this year.
2. When the kids hug me at school, their arms go all the way around now.
3. I have been without acne medicine for months (cannot seem to make it to their office on their schedule) and my skin looks the best it has my adult life. And I sweat alot when I workout. I know they say there are weird hormones in fat, I wonder if that was fueling the fire.
4. My wedding rings were so big I was wearing them on my middle finger so I got them resized (and just so you know, I gained 50 pounds after I got them so they were snug for a while too). One was larger than the other but it went from a size 8 to a 6 1/2.
5. Got my hair trimmed and noticed after she straightened it that I have some really shiny hairs.....no make those gray hairs....GRAY HAIR!!! I am 31 and have no kids yet, where did this crap come from? I never thought this could happen to me. I may or may not have thought the same thing about morbid obesity.
6. I have a ganglion cyst on top of my foot right where I tie my running shoes. It is gross and uncomfortable - not painful, just uncomfortable. If you have any suggestions on how to deal with this, please let me know. If you do not know what it is, look it up. Gross.
7. We started ripping up carpet in all the excitement of getting new stuff (in about a month) and in one room the pet stains were so bad it went all the way through the padding and to the cement. Again - GROSS!! No wonder that room had a smell no matter how much we cleaned the carpet.
8. I was able to maintain my goal weight for 24 hours!! And that is on Thanksgiving. And I ate well.
9. I wore my heart rate monitor for my 2 hours of turkey burner classes at the gym today and even though I do high impact I do not burn as many calories as I thought. **SIGH** But it is still a decent number of calories. **SMILE**
10. According to the Biggest Loser special from Wednesday night, formerly obese people have to exercise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, 5 to 6 days per week to maintain their loss. I suspected this but now I want to know if some of that can be weight training or is that straight cardio?
11. I may want to change careers. Not sure what that would like just yet. I do know the best way to master something is to teach it to someone else. I like being outside - like hiking. I have a BA in business and a Masters in teaching. I always wanted to run a camp. Maybe a weight loss camp for kids? Who knows? I want to work on something for all of us on weight maintenance. Hmmm....Not really a paved road out there for me to follow. I do know I do not want to be a personal trainer. Dietitian, possibly but not really thrilled at the thought of getting another degree.

So it has been an interesting week. I am also working on a new goal. I think I will change my ticker now. I am thinking the next goal weight will be 170. Maybe I can do that by the New Year. Maybe not. I just need something to focus on to get me through all this food and schedule disruption. Sorry for the ramblings just typing out my thoughts! Enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend!

Trotting with turkeys

Actually turkeys are much faster than some of the folks doing the turkey trot. The 1st picture is me after the trot at my goal weight (which is normal, no longer overweight) wearing all medium sized clothing (I would have NEVER thought this possible). The 2nd pic is part of the crowd (12,000 people) I was trying to slog (slow jog) through because they were in no hurry. The 3rd pic was taken on the way back to the car. At first I thought it was a deer taking a crap on a building but then I realized it was the ever rare jack-a-lope. What a lucky day to see one of those gems.

The trot went well. I am so proud of my husband. He is not really into this kind of stuff but he did it. He even slogged it most of the way. We finished in 34 minutes. Not too shabby. I will probably have to listen to him complain about being sore for the rest of the weekend but he did it. Even let me buy him nice new running shoes last night (that he will probably never run in again). I did notice I could have talked the whole time and I ran by some peeps who were really wheezing (one of them may or may not have been my husband). Good for them for giving it their all. I just wished that would have moved to the side so I could get through. I am an ass like that. It makes me want to run a competitive 5K so I can be the slowest one and be in the way.

Used my new Polar F6 heart rate monitor. This thing seems pretty pimp. I burned 360 calories and I even got a little above my target heart rate zone. I cannot wait to wear it tomorrow to see how many calories I burn in turbo kick boxing and boot camp.

I am pretty good at guessing calories in food and calories burned now. I wore it just walking the dogs (no running) and I assumed I would burn 100 calories and it came back at 99. Not bad. I will run the intervals too to see the difference. The turkey is in the oven and many of the sides and dessert are done. Now I must go beat my husband at ladder golf (fun game - look it up).

I plan on posting tomorrow about some discoveries I have made this week. Until then, enjoy your day! Gobble, gobble.

The heavens opened and the angels sang....

Well, okay, not so much. However, I did step on the scale this morning to see 174.8. That means I have hit my goal weight. I am not stopping just yet (but I do plan on eating well today for sure!). Not sure what the ending weight will be but I am leaving my ticker the way it is for at least a day so I can enjoy the accomplishment of that task.

I am sure most of you will be busy today and not checking blogs. I do have a lot more to blab about so I may come back this afternoon after the Turkey Trot.

In the mean time, Happy Thanksgiving!! And for those of you outside of the U.S. I hope you have a super great day and I am thankful for you too!