Bird Flight

Well, I made it through the second week of my weight-loss and fitness plan. I’m happy to report that I lost weight again! I’ve also come up with some new ideas for these blog post updates. I hope they will be useful and interesting. I describe them further below. In the meantime, please look at the above photograph of the sticks of butter. They are significant this week. Don’t worry, just looking at them will NOT make you gain weight. Here are my week’s results:

Week’s weight change:  – 1.2 lbs (- 0.54 kg) = weight of 4 ¼ sticks of butter (or a half kilo of lard)

Week’s exercise (above & beyond):  70 mins (down from 95 mins last week)

One full box (4, four-ounce sticks, plus a little more) of butter in weight is off my body this week. My Czech husband called it a half kilo of “sadlo”, which is “lard” in Czech. That’s how I will look at my loss. And then if you add last week’s huge 4.4 lbs, for a grand total of 5.6 lbs (2.54 kg), my to date weight loss is like one and a half standard bags of flour or sugar in the US. Every week, I’ll try to represent my total weight losses (or gains) in visual terms. I find that to be a powerful motivator.

I expect my upcoming weekly weight losses to be in the 1 to 2 lb range, as long as I stay within my daily calorie consumption range and get a decent amount of exercise. I regret that I didn’t exercise as much this week as last. It was my goal to do so. Blaming bad weather was not reasonable of me. There was plenty of exercise I could do in the house.

I know that my average weekly weight losses depend on factors beyond just calorie consumption and exercise. My starting weight plays a part, and even the fact that I’m a female. Though I won’t mention my starting or goal weights, I’ll reveal that I am overweight, but not very overweight. I remember when my parents both had a lot of weight to lose. It frustrated my mother to hell that my dad often had bigger weekly weight losses, especially in the beginning, than her. Read more about that in the WebMD article here.

Deep down, I would like to get slimmer for vanity sake, but that is maybe my third reason for starting this weight loss journey. Lowering my cholesterol is number one, and though this may sound strange, having my wedding ring again fit my ring finger is number two. It’s been some years since I stopped wearing it. It’s amazing how extra weight makes the fingers chubbier, even if they don’t look particularly chubby.

This week I went over my daily points (by a little bit only) about four of the days. Hunger and perhaps a little less determination played a part. I’m still trying to triumph over my late night/early morning, but it has eased. I still need to master choosing foods that are extra filling, but still fit in my day’s eating plan. My mood was also not as bright this week as it was last, though I am not depressed. I had my monthly period this week. Could that have played some part?

I mentioned above that I have new ideas for these update posts. The first was including a photo representation of my weight loss, which I’ve already done here today. The second will be including some photos of my dinners; dinners only for simplicity sake. That may serve a several purposes, including pressuring me to cook appealing, healthful and weight friendly meals, and giving others (and myself) an idea of how many calories, fat and carbs the meals represent. This could open eyes about portion sizes, too. If one is a particularly good original creation, in my opinion, I’ll post the recipe on my blog. Or if any seemed like high star online recipes, I’ll include the web addresses in hyperlinks.

As stated previously, though I’m aiming to eventually reach mid-way into my normal BMI range, I will create interim goals. It’s fun to reach them, and having interim goals is less intimidating. I even like to reward myself for reaching interim goals, whether it be a new blouse, bouquet of flowers, indulgent food/drink, or whatever. Below are my current interim goals.

Interim goals:  Reach a lower weight bracket, such as going from the 130s to 120s (just examples), by April 27, 2018 (next week). To do this I need only lose 1 lb this coming week. That’s doable! Normally I won’t set time deadlines, but getting back to the weight I was one year ago is motivating. I also want to increase my exercise to at least the level of my week 1, which was the equivalent of 95 minutes of walking per week, above and beyond general activity.

I look forward to reporting again next Friday!

To read about the weight loss plan and tools I chose for this effort, click My Fitness and Weight Loss Plan Described. You can also read my very first post introducing this effort at Long haul healthy weight and fitness efforts – creation of a Friday post series.