Weekly Weight: May 19th, 2023

Good morning everyone. I think that what I am going to be doing with the weekly weight is weighing in once a month instead of once a week. I know some of you are gasping with horror and some of you are applauding. Most of you probably aren’t doing either and might just be interested in why I am making the choice.

Here is the thing. My weight loss is not going to be dramatic. I have found a decent balance between exercise and food (portion size has always been my achilleas heel). The thing is that when i stick to it, it shaves off a little bit at a time. I am not going to ever get on that scale after a week of work and see five to ten pounds dop off like a weight loss show. That is just not going to happen.

Nor do I think it should.

I think I would suspect something was seriously wrong if I did do that.

I am fine with the slow and steady weight loss. What gets me is working really hard during the week and only seeing the sliver at the end. I think that for me, longer between my scale times will let those slivers add up. so they feel more substantial. I’m still not expecting massive changes in the scale, but hopefully it will be larger.

I don’t want to give the scale up all together. And truthfully I may try out this once a month scale trial and decide I don’t like it and go back to the once a week after a few months. It is something I am playing around with and it is really all about my peace of mind. I think knowing that once a month I will have to step on the scale and post my weight and look at what I have done that month will be enough to keep me on track without making me feel stressed about only seeing slivers come off.

I want the scale to remain a tool for monitoring but not become so big a focus. At the moment I am really enjoying having the focus being how I feel in my skin. I like that I am concentrating on how my body feels rather than fixating on the number. I still want to know so that if adjustments need to be made, I can make them. I just don’t need to do that on a weekly basis right now.

And again, that could change. But for now I feel good about this decision. I also feel really good in my skin today. I am using the My Fitness app to keep track of my food and exercise. It is working out well for me. It allows me to have a log of what is going on incase there are major changes. And it really does help me balance my food and fitness. I really like that it not only counts the calories, but it shows me the nutrients as well. I can see where I am falling down on protein (which I often do actually) and use that to actually keep my meal plans balanced. I can also add my recipes into their system, if only for my personal use, and build kind of a mini data base of the foods I make a lot. That way I can just click on those items in the same way i can click on ready made meals and foods. Which really helps because we only eat out at best once a week. so for me that function has been magical.

However you keep track of things I think keeping a food diary is a really good idea if you ae trying for weight loss. That is actually my favorite weight loss tip if I am passing them on. Whether using a notebook and pen, the free app like My Fitness Pal (or some other app) or trying a paid service with all the bells and whistles, just keeping track of what you consume and what activities you do will go a long way towards making you mindful of what is going on in your body and is a great first step.

It can also give you strange insights into yourself. I started out thinking ‘I don’t eat junk food that much,’ Then I saw how much/often I did eat junk food and was able to change that. Then I started looking at some of my meal choices and pairing them with my calendar. I actually found that I had one elderly relative I called once a month to check in on and that night I almost always craved something fattening and covered in melty cheese. Melted chees is my comfort food. And she was a difficult relative. So the food log ended up giving me insights into more than just what I was eating. I also found out a little bit of the why. Which I hadn’t actually expected.

So it is a good tool, with occasional mental minefields to navigate. As it turns out, losing weight ends up requiring both physical and mental exercise, who knew?

Save 10% on an Annual MyFitnessPal Premium Membership today.
Stay focused on your goals with MyFitnessPal Premium. Log food, exercise, and weight from your app’s home screen. Zero ads means zero distractions. Join today for 10% off Premium when you use code 10AFFILIATE22 at checkout!

Weekly Weight: May 12th, 2023

I decided today that I would get on the scale to see where my weight actually was. It was a bumpy month off of the scale but over all I was able to maintain fairly well. In fact i am quite pleased by what i saw when i stepped on the scale. Don’t get me wrong, 224 lbs doesn’t make me a light weight by any stretch of the imagination, but I also knew April and May were going to be fraught. we had Easter and then we had the one year anniversary of my brother’s death. My father passed away several years ago the day after Easter so it is not always the most fun holiday.

Its one of the reasons I always end up running myself into exhaustion with the little kids over the holiday. Oddly enough three out of my four grandparents died on my birthday (end of June). which is why I tend to favor quiet birthdays I suppose. I always meant to find some sort of statistician and find out the statistical odds of that happening but i never got around to it.

It does mean that I favored comfort foods over the past month though. I did up my exercise time though so I think that it might have balanced out. which is nice news for me since I intend to keep the same exercise level and phase into the lighter summer meals. We are edging into the season where heat steals the appetite and salads of all varieties dominate the menu plan.

I am also going to have to start getting up earlier so that I can walk without giving myself heat stroke. So there is likely to be a week or so where I am just a little bit grumpy as i try to adjust my sleep schedule. In the end it will work out and I will cover my grumpy with coffee. lots of coffee.

But for now, I am pleased. I don’t think I am going to go back to the weekly weigh in though. I think I might make it a monthly moment on the scale. I have really enjoyed getting in tune with my body over this past month so I really don’t want to go back to being mentally dominated by the scale. I like periodic check ins, to see that I am still on track, but I am not sure I want to go weekly with that. It is something I will have to think about. As for today, I am glad I stepped on the scale. I am happy to know that what I am doing is working. And now I am happy to let the numbers go and just work on being the healthiest me I can be. For me, that is the best of both worlds.

Weekly Weigh in: April 14th, 2023

Good morning and welcome to the weekly weigh in. I am still taking a break from the scale but I find that even without the scale around this space is a good place to take a bit of a weekly check in.

This week I mostly kept my exercises the same. I was going to increase my reps from last week, but didn’t. And then I tried to add a couple of extra exercises midweek, mostly because I remembered that I hadn’t added any more reps. I over did it and ended up taking the exercises off.

I will look into adding them in again, this time more slowly. It is hard to remember that slow and steady wins the race some times. Especially as I start feeling like I have more energy and flexibility. The more I can do, the more I feel I can do anything. So I forgot to go slow when adding.

I know not to, but sometimes knowing and doing don’t actually meet in the middle. It is why I started the add in a couple extra reps every couple of weeks in the fist place, but sometimes, I am my own worst enemy.

At least i have learned not to push it when I do over do it. I take the time to realize what is going on and think about what I need to do. I also have to remind myself that the world will not end if I can’t add more push ups or crunches to my morning. At some point I will get to where I want. And then hopefully I will still keep pushing myself.

Later this afternoon I will be driving out for a belated Easter celebration with family. It does involve a road trip and I am trying to gather all of the good for me snacks. I have some Righteous Felon Jerky (Darth Garlic) and some of the Harvest snap Garlic and Parmesan Baked Pea snacks. It is my hope that having both on hand will prevent miscellaneous snacking and stocking up at gas stations along the way.

I love gas station snacking on road trips but I am the first to admit, I do not make the best choices when picking up gas station snacks. I make delicious choices, but not the most calorically intelligent. So the pre trip stock with good snacks. Also it means we can pay at the pump and not go in. Which means there is less chance of picking up extra germs to bring back to the elderly folks who will be gathering for the delayed Easter visit.

I think I would worry less about picking up something from strangers if it wasn’t for the fact that there will be three people in their nineties, one of whom is only five months away from seeing a triple digit age, at the gathering.

A part of me feels like I out to hose myself down with hand sanitizer and maybe wear a hazmat suit before seeing them. But everyone is vaccinated and we’ve all spent the last few weeks monitoring everything just in case. I know it sounds paranoid, but sometimes, a little paranoia is a good thing.

So road trip snacks are sorted and we are pulling an Agatha Christie Audio book for the journey. I think it is And then there were None which is my absolutely favorite Agatha Christie Book. There is a actually a really good BBC version out. If you get a chance i suggest watching it. I also suggest reading the book. It is quite lovely. Well maybe lovely isn’t the word for a murder mystery. But it is a good book. So soon, we will be off. Have a great weekend wherever you happen to be.

Free Bag of Biltong or Jerky If You Spend $5 with code BAGONUS2022

Weekly Weigh In: April 7th, 2023

Good morning my darlings. For this month I am not going to be stepping on the scale. I have a love hate relationship with the scale and to be honest I feel that sometimes it is better to step away from the scale so that I can lessen it’s impact on my thoughts.

I know that sounds strange, but I am not losing weight to reach a specific goal as though I want to do something that has a weight limit. I am not attempting to get a bikini body by June.

I have about 100 lbs to lose which is a slow and steady race with many ups and downs. In fact, it is not even a race, it is a meandering path on a long and winding country lane with many frequent stops to see the sights. Except instead of stopping to admire the World’s Largest Ball of Yarn I am marveling at my own increased flexibility.

Maybe that is more of a road trip then a country lane walk, but you get the point.

The goal is of course to lose weight and reach a healthy for my body shape and age weight. while the scale is a tool it often looms large in the thoughts. Increasingly I find myself forgetting how I feel in my skin and how pleased I am that my exercises are making it easier for me to get down to the floor and back up with ease and thinking more about those little decimal points of numbers.

I am losing weight for my health and so that I feel good and move well and stay healthy for as long as possible. While the weight needs to come off for that to happen and a healthy weight is a much lower number on the scale, a break is needed to realign my thoughts so that I focus more on how I feel.

At the moment, I feel pretty good. I had minor issues with sleep this week that were really my own fault (ALWAYS remember to read labels) but it is being sorted. I may have missed two of my morning workouts but I adjusted and did the same work outs in the morning. While I am still walking to increase my calorie burn, these exercises are really helping me with my strength and flexibility and I can do them every day. For me that is a schedule that works. If it is every other day I will start to forget or just think i can postpone it a day and adjust the schedule. Everyday works for me.

At the moment this is my simple morning workout.

After stretching to warm up I do the following…

Small Arm Circles first forward (30) and then backwards (30 more)
Large Arm Circles, first forward (30) and then backwards (30 more)
Lunges, right leg front (30 lunges) then left leg front (30 lunges)
Over head lifts: Take a 5 lbs medicine ball in your hands and lift it straight up in the air. then bend your arms to lower the ball behind your head, elbows still up in the air. Then lift it up again. (30 count)
Squats (30 count)
Side punches (make sure to keep your feet in place but twist your torso as you punch to the side (30 left, then 30 right)
Front Kicks – kick up with your right foot and swing your left arm over your leg like you want to touch your toes (30 count) then do the same with let foot and right arm (30 count)
Crunches (50 count)

This is the list I run through every morning, Monday through Friday. I give myself Saturday and Sunday off.. I find it easier to roll out of bed, dress and do them before I have time to think about it. On the two mornings I missed I did them before lunch. They generally take me about fifteen minutes to do. At first my body was stiff and sore (especially my thighs). This is the count I am at now. Every other week I add a couple more once I notice i am not sore any more. I think I started with fifteen of each and added slowly. On Monday I will add two more so most everything will be 32 instead of 30. I go slowly so I am not discouraged. I also keep all of the numbers more or less the same so I don’t lose count thinking that this one was fifteen while that was twenty five.

Thus far this combined with walking is working for me. I am actually amazed at how much easier it is for me to get up and down from the floor than it was when i started this routine. That is one of those real and tangible benefits I want to focus on a bit more than the scale this month. At the moment I am very pleased with how things are going. I’m still impatient but I have to remind myself that I didn’t add all of this weight at once so it is unreasonable to expect it to all come off at once.

And so we continue. Happy Good Friday Everyone and I hope you have a fabulous Easter weekend planned.

Weekly Weight: 226.7 lbs

Good morning my darlings and welcome to not just Friday, but the end of March. I am happy to report that I have seen some improvement on the scale since last week. It is always nice to see the numbers go down.

However the feeling that I need a little bit of a break from the scale still remains. I know I usually reach this point in the spring. And it is almost always around Easter. I don’t think there is a real connection. I usually allow myself a break from the scale in December because so much is up in the air and with parties, gatherings and holidays the scale just adds an extra element of stress.

I think that part of the reason I usually end up needing a break in the spring is because after the holidays I really tend to focus hard on the scale and by April I am sick of the way the scale seems to dominate my thoughts.

Seriously this morning I was thinking, please let it just be at least a sliver less when I step on the scale. And I think that is what I need a break from. I know it is more important to pay attention to how I feel and how my body is reacting to what I am doing than it is to focus on the numbers. It matters more to me if my jeans fit well and I feel good wearing them than it does what number is reflected when i look down.

And on the months when I remove the scale from the equation I do pay more attention to my body.

I also know that at the end of a month away from the scale I will be very ready to see if the numbers reflect how I feel. But at that point the scale will have gone back to being a tool in my weight loss arsenal rather than something that dominates my thoughts.

I know that if you are working on losing five or even twenty pounds the scale needs to be more present and I get that. I also know that some of you need the routine weigh in as part of your plan. Everyone is different and there are long stretches where I too need to step on that scale at the end of the week.

I also know that I have about 100 lbs to lose in order to be healthy. It is a long process, a marathon in so many ways and to keep sane and avoid burn out I do need to periodically take some time away from the scale. So I will be taking April away from the scale. I will be checking in each week still so I will maintain personal accountability for myself which is why I started these posts in the first place. I know that at the end of each week I am going to talk about both food and fitness even if I don’t step on the scale. That will keep me on track while giving me a mental break and let the scale dim in it’s importance. It will not be the deciding factor in my weight loss and return to just being a tool in my arsenal.

so…

The Stats:

Starting Weight: 246.0 lbs

Last Week’s Weight: 228.3 lbs

This Week’s Weight; 226.7 lbs

Lost this week: 1.6 lbs

Lost thus far 19.3 lbs

And so we keep on keeping on with the weight loss plan. I am glad that today showed some improvement on the scale as it does provide me with a boost of confidence as I let the scale go for a month. I plan to talk about food and exercise in these posts but if something comes up that you want to ask about, feel free to drop a comment below or send an e-mail through he contacts page. As for me, it is time to get this Friday started. Have a good one.

Yoga for every body – online. Discover more at YogaWorks.com!

Weekly Weight: 228.3 lbs

I know the scale isn’t everything. The numbers do not define me and it is all about how I feel and finding a healthy weight. However that being said after a few weeks of back and forth and small nudges of zero point somethings. I did the happy dance this morning.

Admittedly it is a small bathroom so I also hit my funny bone on the sink, but still, it was a happy dance.

I know the weight loss is good, and I am always going to be thrilled when it is a week where I lose more than three pounds, but it is more than that. with my weight loss I have been in a rut lately. I put in the effort but nothing seems to change. I know that this happens periodically and i just need to tweak things. Unfortunately this time it wasn’t my body getting used to a new level of food and exercise it was that things beyond my control kept knocking me off my plan.

Now I will be the first to admit that yesterday my plans were sent into a wood chipper and sprayed across the landscape in an effort to conceal the crime against planning. However my food and exercise plan stayed in tact for the week.

So this morning’s weigh in felt like a much needed validation that if I just keep sticking with it and getting back up every time I get knocked down things will progress.

You have no idea how much I needed that. Or if you read this often, maybe you do. It felt like such a huge win.

The stats

Starting Weight: 246.0 lbs

Last week’s Weight: 231.7 lbs

This week’s Weight: 228.3 lbs

Lost this week: 3.4 lbs

Lost thus far: 17.7 lbs

I know there is still a long way to go but for the first time in a long while it feels like I am actually moving forward instead of standing still. The scale may not be the end all be all but sometimes it can provide much needed validation. I am going into my Friday feeling better than I have for quite some time. This was exactly the pick me up I needed.

Weekly Weight: 230.4 lbs

Oh yes my darlings the scale is once again moving. I know it didn’t move as much as I liked but it did move. And that itself is always a relief. This week was interesting as far as exercise went. there was much rain so there wasn’t a lot of out door activity. However, I managed to make it to my morning workout every day this week.

That’s right, five days in a row with no talking myself into hitting the snooze button until the last possible second.

Which I will admit is quite the feat. I do not like mornings. I just don’t. I am comfy in my bed and really don’t like getting up. I have no problem staying up later to get something done. Personally if I could wait to roll out of bed around eight thirty to start the day and then just work later in the day to make up for it, i would.

However i do not live alone and the world can not just run on my schedule. (although really who got to decide the morning people ruled the world? I think they just made that decision before the rest of us were awake. maybe threatened to take away our coffee or something).

As much as it pains me to admit it, I do feel more awake even without my coffee after I have done my morning exercises. For me the trick is to start them before I am actually fully awake. So before bed I put ot the exercise clothes. Then when the alarm goes off I roll to the bathroom and then straight into the work out clothes before i have a chance to rethink it and head back to bed.

Then i am already in the clothes so i feel like I might as well just get it over with. For me that works best. I may feel more awake after the workouts and i may know it is good for me and I even may see a difference in the scale, but I am never going to be a huge fitness enthusiast. I am a reluctant participant. I’ll do it because it is good for me, but it will never be my happy place. Still it is helping me out, so I will continue. I am also pleased that the stiffness and sore muscles have also faded. On Monday I am going to add one extra exercise to my list and see what happens. I haven’t increased for a while and I think it is time. I go slow, and that too seems to work for me.

The stats

Starting Weight: 246.0 lbs

Last week’s weight: 231.3 lbs

This week’s Weight: 230.4 lbs

Lost this week: 0.9 lbs

Lost thus far: 15.6 lbs

And so the journey continues. I hope that where ever you are on your journey to a healthier you, that you are feeling good with yourself today. remember to celebrate the little things. this week i am celebrating the fact that i managed to get up and fight the urge to hit the snooze alarm, instead making it to all my regularly scheduled workouts. It is a small thing, but it will have big consequences if I make it a set habit.

Weekly Weight: 231.3 lbs

I know 0.1 lbs of loss is really just explained by me exhaling before I got on the scale not an actual weight loss. I can’t actually complain too much though. I didn’t really get my exercises in this week. I know I feel like a slacker.

And having to write down that I skipped my exercises this week is part of the reason that I started these posts to begin with. It is my version of accountability. When I tell my babydoll I didn’t do my exercises, he shrugs and reminds me it was a good week. If I tell my mom, she says, Oh I’m sure you will do better next week. If I mention it to one of my friends trying to lose weight the response is usually, “Me too!” or a replay of what exercises they did.

While I love the support and companionship, and understanding, it really doesn’t help me. Having to write it down here actually does help me. Usually it keeps me on track because I know i am going to have to write things down on Friday morning and admit to the world what I did or didn’t do. Not that the whole world is watching, but it is the internet, and once something is on the internet it more or less exists forever. And when I have to write that I skipped my exercises, it always makes me work that much harder the following week.

I bet you didn’t know you were part of my weight loss plan, huh?

Surprise!

The thing is losing the weight is something i am doing for me and my health. Everyone in my life loves me for me. I am lucky that way. I have also developed a bit of an intolerance for people who do judge my worth by my weight. So it is sort of part luck, part design. Don’t get me wrong, I have several of those weight judgement people in my life and unfortunately they are not exactly removable from my world, but they are kept at arms length and my inner group of people like me no matter what size of clothes I am wearing.

But that love and acceptance doesn’t help me when I veer off track. Hence the weekly weight confessional. For me having to write things down also keeps me cognizant of it. There are things I let slide if I don’t have those reminders. Some of the things I let slide are things I don’t want to do. And trust me, I am not a morning person. Getting up earlier than usual to get my workout in before the work day starts doesn’t make me a happy camper. I feel better once it is done, but i don’t like the getting up part. I’m good when I am in motion, but getting in motion is the tricky part.

This week, it was a hurdle I really didn’t get past. I worked late because of last week’s issues as I tried to catch up. And I didn’t sleep all that well. Most mornings this week, I skipped my morning workout and hit the snooze button as many times as i could get away with before I had no choice but to roll out of bed. It was just that sort of week. I hate admitting it, but there it is. I know why it was, and I know that next week, I will do better. I can be kind enough to myself not to mentally beat me up for it. But I also don’t want to have to write this again next week.

The Stats

Starting Weight: 246.0 lbs

Last week’s weight: 231.4 lbs

This week’s weight: 231.3 lbs

Loss negligible.

And so here is where I leave you. Now we can all get on with our Fridays and I can start planning ways to make sure that I get up on time in the coming week. I’ll see you back here nest week to let you know how I’ve done. Happy Friday.

Weekly Weight: 231.4 lbs

There is a strange sort of routine developing. Have you picked up on it because I certainly have. I lose a pound or two and then stay at the same weight for two weeks. Then I lose a little more weight only to stay at the same weight for two weeks.

To be honest I am not mad at it. As long as it stays consistent then I am fine with two weeks at the same number. i am happy I am not gaining anything, so there is that. I have no idea why it is happening, but as long as I feel healthy and the weight is slowly declining, I am fine with the trend.

It does make me curious but the only thing I have to blame is the weather. I think that on the days where my sinuses are acting up even if I can walk i put a little less effort into it. So on the days where my sinuses are fine I put more effort into it. I’m betting that somewhere along the way ot balances out.

But that is just me trying to figure things out. For now, I am happy with the over all trend. The weather has turned cold again, however that isn’t really the part that bothers me. The part that gets me is the wind. It has a way of knifing down the through and spearing into the lungs. I’d like to say it wasn’t this bad last winter but the truth is that while the wind is probably the same as it has always been, it is my lungs that are different. This past summer I had a go round with Covid and ever since then I’ve noticed the wind seems to hurt my lings just a little bit more.

It isn’t a debilitating thing, but it is something that has bothered me since then, that never bothered me before. This morning I did go on a walk but that wind, more than the cold forced it to be a shorter one. I think until it settles down I am going to look into more of the indoor exercises.

The stats:

Starting Weight: 246.0 lbs

Last Week’s Weight: 231.4 lbs

This week’s Weight: 231.4 lbs

Chance this week: 0.0 lbs

Lost thus far: 14.6 lbs

And so with that, I have to admit that i feel pretty good (minus a slight sore spot on my lungs. It will warm up soon enough and I will be fine. And then the world will continue. Have a great Friday everyone.

Weekly Weight: 232.4 lbs

No my darlings it is not Deja vu. This is the same weight as last week. To be honest, while I would always like to see the numbers shrinking, I am not terribly surprised. Last week I lost nearly three pounds which for me is a lot in a week. Usually I have a big loss and then not so big a loss the following week. I’m okay with that. If that trend holds up I will be fine.

This week was also very strange as far as exercise went. I managed to get a few walks in and I did about 40% of my indoor exercises. I know 40% is something I can work on but there was very little sun this week and with the flip flopping either my sinuses were running like a faucet. while I got stuff done this week there were days where breathing was sort of an achievement all it’s own.

So I am impressed there was no weight gain. That makes me feel good.

I owe that to keeping track of everything I ate. (I am using the My fitness pal app as my food diary.) I don’t know if this is a factor of getting older but if I just watch what I eat and limit my calories, I mange to not gain weight not lose it. It is only when I have a Wonder Twins Activate movement with exercise and calorie control that thigs start to move.

Perhaps that is another reason I am not terribly surprised there is no movement. It was more of a hold the line sort of week. with luck things will dry out next week and I can edge back into a decline in the scale numbers. For now, I feel content with what I have done. Part of that content may be the sinus meds kicking in and the ability to draw in deep breaths for the first time this morning, but I am not worried this week. It is only if the scale stays static for multiple weeks that i start to worry.

The Stats

Starting Weight: 246.0 lbs

Last week’s Weight: 232.4 lbs

This week’s Weight: 232.4 lbs

Lost this week 0.0 lbs

Lost this far: 13.6 lbs