dianaschnuth

Funny that I’m sitting on a bench, blogging about weight loss, when I really should be out getting in my walk for the day. Anyway.

I was searching my blog for a link to the Three Amigos Chili recipe that Sheryl shared with me a good while ago, when I discovered to my chagrin that I was blogging about the same weight loss issues over a year ago that still plague me now. Needing to get to bed earlier, do more cardio, that sort of thing.

Actually, I stopped blogging weekly weight loss updates because I started just saying the same shit every week: same weight as last week, need to exercise more, getting discouraged with my lack of progress. It’s been quite a while since those weekly updates, and I think it’s time to reinstate them. Maybe, just maybe, being accountable to the entire Internet will give me a little more motivation to follow the guidelines I set for myself each week.

This is a new strategy — or, rather, the return of an old one. I set myself a few goals and guidelines under the category of “what am I willing to change?” This week, the main strategy is staying within my daily Points allowance in order to allow myself a tracking-free Saturday.

See, I’ve been a bit of a tracker slacker, especially on the weekends, and I know that’s been a big contributor to the length of this plateau I’m in. It started out as a normal plateau, back before the holidays… but it just kept going. I stuck to Program, and it kept going. So I stopped caring. Started slacking. And gained back six pounds. I’ve re-lost some of that — this morning, my scale said 192.8, and my all-time low is 189.

I’ll be checking in every week with my progress. I’m counting on my readership (that’s you) to keep me honest. Maybe I’ll even scan in the pages of my food tracker, so anyone can give me detailed feedback (including my WW leader). Who knows?

At any rate, it’s time for me to switch something up. Eight months is too long to be in a plateau that’s 20+ pounds from my goal.

When my Mom came to visit this past weekend, she brought along the family photo albums for me to hang onto. I mainly wanted to check out the photos of me as a little kid, of Mom when she was my age, of my Memaw when she was Mom’s age.

While paging through the later albums, though, I found some photos I’d rather have forgotten: me when I was obese, back in the early 2000’s. College graduation, wedding, that general era. It’s been a good five years since I lost 50 pounds on the Atkins Diet, and I’ve lost another 15 since. I’d almost forgotten how fat I looked and felt. Aaron, too: I literally almost didn’t recognize him in our family photo with Mom, Gary, and Philip.

I’d been complaining that I’ve “lost that lovin’ feeling” when it comes to my diet. If I needed motivation to get back on program (instead of tracking my food and watching my daily Points balance sail into the negative, and not giving a shit), this was the motivation I needed.

I have about 25 pounds to go before I reach my goal weight. That may not be quite as transformative as that first 50, but it will change me, for sure. My goal is to reach and maintain my ideal weight, so that my future offspring literally won’t recognize the “me” in that embarrassing family portrait.

(I look a lot like my Mom, and she was pretty smokin’ when she was in her twenties and skinny. Maybe I can do almost that well in my thirties…)

So, here we are, exactly one year later. How am I doing?

Considering that question around noon today yielded the following tweet:

After having revisited the Weight Loss category of my blog, and seeing titles like, “Mini Weight Loss Goals Work,” “A Red-Letter Day in Weight Loss,” “Feeling Fitter,” “Noticing the Little Things,” and “The Result Is Its Own Reward,” I’m reminded of how far I’ve come in the past year. I’ve lost 20 pounds and about one pant size (give or take). I’m looking and feeling better.

Still, though, I have a long way to go yet.

Today’s meeting topic helped me realize a couple of things. Number one: tracking what I eat isn’t particularly helpful if I never go back and revisit what I wrote down. It’s also less effective if I do it half-assed — like on the weekends, when I write things like, “lunch: Indian buffet = 14pts?” Number two: If I kind of do the diet right, it kind of works. If I really do the diet right, it really works.

Remember back in February, when I decided to regroup and set myself some short-term goals and means to accomplish them?

I’m going to shoot for a small and quite reasonable goal: 185 lbs by my birthday (April 22nd). Even if I only lose half a pound a week, I’ll get there. I can do that.

How will I do it? By drinking at least six glasses of water a day, eating at least five servings of fruits and vegetables, keeping up with my push-up program, and doing at least 60 minutes of cardio a week (not including lunch walks). I can do that, too.

Let’s recap how I did, shall we?

Today’s weigh-in was NOT 185. In fact, I gained four pounds in two weeks. (Easter itself was fine; it was the week after that I slacked.) My official weigh-in was 192; two pounds heavier than I was two months ago. Granted, I know from experience that, since I gained it fast, it’ll come off fast — likely by next weigh-in or sooner. Still, it’s disappointing not to have reached my mini-goal.

And how did I do on the means I’d set out to accomplish my goal? I only met my daily goal of six glasses of water 35% of the time during the month of March; my daily fruits and veggies goal was even more abysmal. I quit the 100 Pushups program not long after that February post, and I never actually managed to do any cardio.

Sounds like I need a new battle plan.

Finally, long after Weight Watchers launched their Momentum Plan, I went through my booklet and made a list of the Filling Foods that are most frequently on our shopping list and in our pantry/fridge. I’m making a two-pronged dietary attack: pre-plan an entire day’s worth of meals in advance the night before (not just lunch and a half-assed breakfast), and plan them around Filling Foods as much as possible; and meet all of the Good Health Guidelines every day (water, veggies, whole grains, dairy, lean protein, oils, multivitamin). And it’s totally doable, especially if I plan ahead.

I would love to lose five more pounds before our vacation on May 11th. Honestly, though, I don’t think it’s going to happen. Whether or not I lose any weight beforehand, I’ll be content with maintaining my weight over the two weeks that we’re eating delicious Japanese cuisine and walking all over the damn place.

One year down. Hopefully less than another year to go.

I’ve often felt like I’m a little anal-retentive about the things I track and record on a regular basis. But nothing I do holds a candle to Nicholas Felton.

In one sense, the Annual Reports started in 2004 with a single-page, best-of-the-year survey. While this “Best of Four” was filled primarily with items I’d enjoyed the most over the previous year, it also contained some smaller, objective items I could excavate from the year without trying too hard. These items, such as the “most-played song,” “air miles traveled” and “digital versus analog photos” formed the basis of the following reports, while the subjective elements have become much less prominent.

I looked at Felton’s most recent Annual Report, and found it both intriguing and excessively OCD. Then it occurred to me how many things I track in my own life:

• Music – tracking listening habits via Last.fm and iTunes
• Food – tracking eating habits for Weight Watchers by hand in a journal
• Weight – tracking daily/weekly weight over the past six years via Excel spreadsheet
• Photos – geotagging on Flickr, cataloguing and tagging via Adobe Bridge
• Concerts – via Last.fm Events (and physical ticket stubs saved)

I’m sure there are other data and trends I could extract from my online interactions (like Facebook and YouTube), and I know there must be daily actions that it would behoove me to track more regularly (like my sleep habits).

I’m sure it would also be helpful if I actually looked at the trends that the data reveal — do I gain more weight after a weekend including sushi or Indian food? Is there a correlation between amount of sleep and weight loss/gain? How does my diet directly affect my weight; how many Flex Points can I eat before I stop losing and start maintaining or gaining? What’s the effect of eating five or six servings of vegetables versus only one in a day? There are so many possibilities, depending on how obsessive I want to get about the various aspects of my life. (Right now, my weight loss and food intake is the most trackable and accessible, so that’s where my focus goes first.)

Might be worth some thought for me, as I’m already an anal-retentive bastard when it comes to tracking and listing certain things, anyway. Maybe dialing up the OCD will help me on several fronts.

Time for a reality check.

I haven’t lost any weight since before Thanksgiving. The trendline curve on my anal-retentive weight-loss graphs is starting to bow in the wrong direction, for the short term. Something needs to be done, and just complaining isn’t going to cut it.

I need some new, measurable short term goals.

And that means a starting point. Since my last officially blogged weigh-and-measure, the following measurements have changed:

Weight: 190.6 lbs (down 3.4 lbs in just over 6 months)
Chest (not bust): 35½” (down half an inch)
Hips: 46″ (down one inch)
Thigh: 25″ (down one inch)
Calf: 15.25″ (down 0.75 inches)

All other measurements have stayed the same. I’ve been flirting with the 180s since late summer, though — honestly, today probably wasn’t the best day for an official weigh-and-measure, due to monthly bloating. TMI? Perhaps. But that’s how I roll.

So, what’s my reasonable, measurable short-term goal, and how am I going to get there?

I’m going to shoot for a small and quite reasonable goal: 185 lbs by my birthday (April 22nd). Even if I only lose half a pound a week, I’ll get there. I can do that.

How will I do it? By drinking at least six glasses of water a day, eating at least five servings of fruits and vegetables, keeping up with my push-up program, and doing at least 60 minutes of cardio a week (not including lunch walks). I can do that, too.

I’m tired of being so down on myself. I’m ready to do it up right. I’ll feel so much better, physically and mentally, once I get back on track.