Weekly Weigh In: April 20 (a.k.a., “What the hell is wrong with that scale?!?”)

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April 20 weigh inI knew I would have to pay the piper for that visit to IHOP. Oh yes, I tried to put it off with all of my strength training and daily power walks. But today the piper was determined to collect.

This week I was up 1.4 lbs.

Let’s be honest. It’s not just my trip to IHOP. I also ate delicious Indian food…and some pizza…OK a lot of pizza. Not exactly low carb fare. I tapped into both my weekly PlusPoints allowance and activity points – and then some.

Yet, I’m not panicked or upset. In fact, I’m proud of myself. Not for going off program. I’m happy I was able to face the scale knowing what I ate.

I used to be afraid of the scale. If I blew my points for the week, I would just skip my Weight Watcher’s meeting. I just couldn’t face the scale. But I found out the hard way that if you skip once it gets easier to skip another meeting…and another. Soon, I’d no longer go to the meetings and I’d be packing on the pounds.

I no longer fear the scale because I understand that it wasn’t the scale that I was afraid of. It was the self-doubt that would creep in. I’d be down 25 lbs, go up 2 and start thinking I’m a failure. Didn’t matter that I lost way more than I gained. I couldn’t see past the current reading on the scale. In any other aspect of my life, if I got knocked down, I’d get back up, dust myself off and keep moving forward. But when it came to my weight I never could see the forest through the trees. I’d just throw myself a big ol’ pity party (with lots of ice cream).

Well those days are gone. Now I’m determined to step on to the scale every week. I know I’m human. I will not always make the right food choices. And that’s OK, provided I learn from my mistakes.

So what did I learn from this week? Besides IHOP, Indian food and lots of pizza in one week isn’t smart.

1. Woohoo I’m down 66.6 lbs.
2. The scale is not my enemy.
3. I’ll have a better weigh in if I continue stay on program.

That scale is going down next Saturday!

Weekly Weigh In – April 13

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april 13 weigh inAnother good week. I’m down 1.6 lbs. That puts me at a total loss of 68 lbs. If I keep it up, I should be close to losing 25% of my body weight near the beginning of June. Very happy!

I do think I need to improve on my water intake. That started slipping towards the end of the week. Don’t know why, as I always have water with me. I had to play catch up last night. I ended up staying up a bit later than I wanted just to finish that last glass of H2O. I’m half way through my quota today, so I think I’m back on track.

When I told my hubby about my weight loss, he was surprised that it was “only” 1.6 lbs. I think the look on my face made him realize his faux pas. He quickly corrected himself to say, “that’s awesome.”

I wasn’t upset with him. It’s not uncommon for me to go to my weigh in feeling confident after a week of staying on program and working out, thinking I lost a tonnage but ended up “only” losing .2 lbs.

The truth is average weekly weight loss is up to 2 lbs. When I first started my most recent adventure in weight loss, I was losing 4, 5 and even 8 lbs. in a week. Why? Water. I needed to lose all the excess water in my body before I could burn the fat. Now I’m burning fat, the weight comes off at a slower pace (which is also much more healthy to boot!).

The most important thing is that the weight is coming off.

What In The Sam Hill Is Going On With My Spilts?

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April 12 WalkToday has been a bit stressful. So I decided I just needed to get out of the house for a nice 3 mile walk. My first 5K is tomorrow so I if I could average a 16:30 pace/mile I’d be happy.

I went fast right out the shoot. Stressful days require channeling that energy and walking fast was a better choice than punching. When I hit mile 2, I decided to slow the pace up a bit. I really wanted some gas in the tank for when I started going uphill on mile 3. I finally settled in on a really comfortable pace.

April 12 SpiltsFor my last mile, which was up hill, I got super hungry but otherwise I felt great.

When I checked my splits after the walk, I was surprised and shocked that mile 3 matched my mile 1 pace. And my average mile was 16:26 – 4 seconds under goal. I really didn’t feel as if I was going that fast. Maybe I needed to release the stress. Or perhaps my body is simply adjusting and soon, I’ll need to push myself again.

Either way, I am awesome!

Weekly Weigh in – April 6

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With this weeks weight loss, Dot to Trot has lost more than 20% of her total body weight.

With this week’s weight loss, Dot to Trot has lost more than 20% of her total body weight.

Despite battling an infection this week, I ended up losing 1.8 lbs. So it looks like the new trainer is paying off. That makes the total weight loss 66.4 lbs which means I’ve officially lost 20% of my body weight!

One Ring To Rule Them All…And It Doesn’t Fit

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The two rings needed to rule my household...and a hand much in need of a manicure!

Two rings to rule my household and a hand much in need of a manicure!

I bet Frodo Baggins never had this problem. My rings of power fell off my finger. Actually, they sort of flew off as I tried to air dry my wet hands. Luckily it happened at our Love Shack and I retrieved them before one of our pups got a chance.

Considering I still have more than 100 pounds to lose, I’ve decided to not resize them just yet. If I have to cut them, I should do it only once.

I guess that means a temporary wedding band is in order…as well as a manicure.

Alcohol, Homer J. Simpson & Weight Loss

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Trust the Tao of Homer!

Trust the Tao of Homer! Image courtesy of Simpson Crazy

I had dinner last night with my good friend Elizabeth. We went to the Dogfish Head AleHouse. What a difference a year makes. Miss E and I both worked together at a hellacious office. It was very common for us to visit the local watering hole after work and consume about 10-15 Weight Watchers points in our favorite wines or brews.

So last night after being seated Elizabeth asked if I wanted the beer menu. “Nope,” I replied. Without skipping a beat, she put it aside and we both opted for water and unsweetened ice tea. Then I thought of something that great philosopher Homer J. Simpson said:

“…Alcohol! The cause of and solution to all of life’s problems.”

He is so right.

Yes, alcohol may have helped in commiserating about the job, but it came at a cost.

A chunk of my weight gain came from drinking wine. I do love the nectar of the gods (Hell, I still want to open my own wine store). And Miss E knows her good brews. The difference today? Both of us are focused like frickin’ laser beams on our health (oh, and we both have quit our jobs).

During the last year, I really have limited my alcohol. I’m probably down to twice a month and when I do drink, it’s about 2 4-ounce glasses at the most now.

Never doubt the Tao of Homer.

And I Ran, I Ran So Far Away (Well, Not That Far)

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Today was a beautiful day. Unfortunately I was stuck in doors working on our budget. I planned to go on a walk early afternoon, but that just didn’t happen. I did convince my husband to go for a short walk (just a mile) this evening before sunset. Boy, it was cold and the wind didn’t help either. He’s having a bit of a problem with one of his baby toes. So the deal was if he was feeling up to it we could go more than the planned mile.

Now I haven’t gone on one of my dailies for a few days. Wasn’t sure if I was going to feel sluggish or not. Oh, and something you should know: Before the weight loss, I always struggled to keep up with my husband in parking lots, let alone walks. He’s got very long legs and has huge strides. I use to always complain about how fast he walked, but in reality, it’s his regular pace.

Tonight was a different story. I felt great and walked faster than the hubby the entire time. Before Easter, my pace was around 16:40/mile. Tonight try 15:10/mile. I just decided to go all out, thinking we would only go a mile (and I was right about that). So I wanted to maximize my workout. The most awesome thing, I actually ran for more than a block in the final stretch.

Now I’ve done little sprints previously, but 1) only about 10 yards and 2)being totally winded afterwards. Not tonight. I felt great and could have gone a little more, but I didn’t want to push my luck. I do worry that I might mess up my knees. I just don’t know what a safe weight would be to start running or if there is even such a thing. Part of me thinks I’m being paranoid and I should give it a try while the other thinks I should focus on my walking speed. Ugh!

Any thoughts from the peanut gallery?

Easter Weekend – No Weigh In, Renewed Commitment

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Thanks to how busy I was Easter weekend, I didn’t go to my weekly Weight Watchers meeting to weigh in. That’s probably a good thing. Saturday night we visited friends and dinner was delicious home made pizza and wine. I did a pretty good job of not chowing on everything in sight, but clearly it was very carb heavy. I did count my Weight Watcher’s points and ended up dipping into my weekly allowance points. So overall, I think I did OK.

I did step on the home scale this morning and showed no loss or gain for the week. I’m not recording that. I only record the official weigh in’s at Weight Watchers.

So that gives me 5 days of going hard core low carb, daily walks and 2 days of doing weight machines (something I’m adding this week) before stepping on the scale. I’m hopeful I’ll see continued progress in the right direction.

Before & After Photos

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As promised, here is a before and after photo. In the before photo, I’m not at my top weight, but I’m certainly heavier than I am now.

Dot to Trot in 2008 (I'm not the one in the fuzzy hat)

Dot to Trot in 2008 (I’m not the one in the fuzzy hat)

 

Dot to Trot today & 65 lbs lighter.

Dot to Trot today & 65 lbs lighter.

Kicking My Plateau’s Arse

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Dot to Trot's smooth yoga moves? Nope. An image courtesy of ponsuwan/ FreeDigitalImage.net

Dot to Trot’s smooth yoga moves? Nope. Image courtesy of ponsuwan/FreeDigitalImage.net

If you are trying to lose weight then at some point or another you will hit a plateau. Plateaus are my mortal enemies. The quickest way to spell the end of my diets – hitting that damn plateau. They are just so maddeningly frustrating to break through.

I experienced a hellish one back in January. For nearly 7 miserable weeks the scale seemed stuck at 280. Oh, it would tease me and dip to 278 only to sucker punch me the next week to 282. No matter what I did food wise, I was stuck.

My normal M.O. when a plateau crosses my path is to give up. Not this time. Why? Attitude.

My only thought was how bad I was going to kick this plateau’s ass. People were going to feel sorry for this plateau when they realized how far my foot was up its butt. I knew I was on the right path – my clothes were all loose, I had way more energy, I didn’t want to eat unhealthy foods. Nothing was going to stop me.

So how did I kick this plateau’s arse? Yoga.

Because of my injuries, I lost weight just by eating right. However, come January, my metabolism settled in and my body got use to what I was doing. I couldn’t cut back without feeling hungry all day – not good when you are a fat chick! Eating healthy was no longer enough. Thankfully my doctor give me the clear to do yoga. I started doing yoga 3 days a week. And then, like magic, the scale started to cooperate.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve added daily walks to my routine, kicking my metabolism up a few more notches.

Obviously, the closer I get to my goal weight, the slower the weight will come off. While I’ve been averaging a loss of 3.5 lbs the last few weeks, I don’t expect to keep that up. Also, I know my plateau will come back someday. So I plan to be better prepared to give it another ass-whupping.