1 Week Down, a Lifetime to Go

Okay, so I stuck pretty closely to my goals last week.  I did go out to my brother's birthday celebration Saturday night, and partook of some of his yummy home brew and s'mores.  But, other than that, I did pretty great, and my efforts paid off.  I dropped 4 lbs last week.  Now, that's not to say that I anticipate losing at that rate, continuously.  I think I was just storing some extra water weight because of my ridiculous eating habits.  I'm just glad to see the scales move that drastically in the right direction again, because my weight was entirely out-of-hand!

I laugh at myself because I feel my weight loss goals shifting, over time.  I weighed 115 (19% body fat) when I moved back to Abilene in 2005.  Then, I slowly gained weight, when I got out of the habit of regular exercise.  Then, I gained a LOT of weight with my pregnancies, and I was determined to get back down to 115.  Then....I thought, "Okay, I'll be happy to make it to 125."  And, now I find myself saying, "Okay, I'll be content if I can just get back down to 133 and comfortably fitting back into my current wardrobe."  LOL!  (Incidentally, after Jonah was born, I dropped from about 200 lbs down to 133, at the time we found out I was pregnant with Lexi.  Jonah was 1-year-old.  Then, I got back UP to about 200 lbs in that pregnancy, and dropped down to 133 by December of 2011, when Lexi was about 1-1/2 years old.  I've been off the wagon and ON the climb since the Christmas holidays. So, that's where the "133" weight comes from) :)

I exercised 5 out of my 6 "goal days" last week.  I ran a total of 7.3 miles last week.  I'm not quite on target for my Bridge to 10K, but it's not for lack of effort.  I just have to keep at it, and trust that I'll eventually be able to run 6 continuous miles, if I run consistently each week.

Here's the important observation that I made last week.  I felt hungry....a lot.  It wasn't like I went through the week expecting to never feel hungry, though.  Nor did I starve.  I actually ate decent portion sizes when I did eat.  I just didn't consume many empty calories (sugars, carbs, etc.).  I know there are lots of diets that tout that you can lose weight and never feel hungry, but the fact of the matter is that your body has to eventually pull from your fat stores to give you energy, if you plan to lose weight.  And, your body doesn't pull from your fat stores until your blood sugar drops, due to hunger, and doesn't have food to pull the energy from.  So, if you automatically keep yourself from feeling hungry all the time, then you are not going to drop weight -- er, well, not very efficiently, I'd imagine.  So, anytime I would feel just a little hungry, I would remind myself that my body would soon grab from my fat stores to feed my hunger, which translates to less fat for me!!  LOL!

I did skip a couple of meals last week, simply because I wasn't hungry.  That's really the only time I will skip a meal.  And, I know people frown upon that idea, and insist that you must eat 6 small meals a day to keep your metabolism up, yada yada, yada.  But, the fact of the matter is that if I try to eat 6 small meals/day, regardless of my hunger cues, I become utterly obsessed and focused on food and "when is the next time I'm going to eat?" which is completely counter-productive to me trying to lose weight.

So, there's my progress report for week 1.  Nothing profound, but I'm in a good place.  Summary of lessons learned:
1)  It's okay to feel hungry.
2)  It's okay to skip a meal if you're not hungry.
3)  It's okay to splurge for s'mores on a special occasion.
4)  It's okay to continue drinking coffee with sweetened dairy creamer every morning.
5)  A combination of good, subtle changes/choices will pay off in the long run!

Today's stats:
Weight = 142.5 (-4 lbs)
Body Fat = 36%