I have two pairs of too-small jeans that I try on almost every single day. I imagine that they are closer to fitting me than ever before. Today I wore one out and about, which was a bad idea, as it turns out. I couldn't breathe by the end of night. I am happy that they zip up and everything, but I think I'll wait before I try to wear them again.

My exercise routine is sloooowly expanding. I've started doing crunches (25 per night) and leg lift things (10) and tricep curls (20 on each arm) fairly regularly. I know it's not much, but: baby steps. I don't want to do too much too soon. I read an article last Sunday about the benefits of anerobic exercise, and how if you exercise very intensely in short bursts (within a larger workout) it can help build your endurance. I am going to try it next time I go bike riding, because I've built muscle, but not really endurance.

Today, I was jumping invisible rope at work. I am having a string of high-energy days, and it would be very nice if this feeling was permanent. I would like to be capable of bouncing around every day like I did today.

I don't want to jinx myself, but I've been having a great week. It's been so easy to stick to the program. It would be nice if this was permanent too!
- posted by mo @ 10:39 PM

 
No wonder I was feeling so fat and bloated last week-- it was PMS! (Mr. Ointy. Bringing news of my menstrual cycle to the people.)

I weighed in on Thursday at +1.8 pounds and for once, this hasn't fazed me at all. (Every other time I have had a gain, I have put some pithy, positive spin on it and then had a bad week of overeating all the same.) The thing is, last week I weighed in first thing in the morning, instead of my usual time of 5:30 p.m. Body weight fluctuates during the day, and I know that's almost certainly what it was. This puts my loss at 14.2 pounds over all and that seems about right.

Today I am happy to report that I have tons of energy. I feel absolutely fabulous today, sweetie, darling. I am wearing pink! This seems significant. I had a very good week last week and am on track (mentally) to do likewise this week. I did a relatively short (4.3 mile) bike ride this morning, and maybe it was the distance-- not too long, about half an hour's ride-- that gave me the boost of energy instead of wiping me out.

I hope to get some stability in terms of these numbers (down seven! up six! down nine! up two!) but I can tell what's really going on by paying attention to my body, and that's all to the good.

I was thinking today of putting up a "before" picture, except it will be one in which I look fabulous. You know, as opposed to those ones where the "before" picture is this badly-dressed, depressed, miserable looking person. I want people to look at "before" and "after" and think there's something to be said for both states of being. (Curvy and slightly less curvy.) Curviliciousness is beautiful!

But I will admit that the extra energy is a good feeling. As is the prospect of lower cholesterol next time I make it to the doctor.
- posted by mo @ 12:20 AM

 
I did that thing-- you know, I bought a pair of jeans that is super cute but too small. I was going to get the size that actually fit, but it was too big and it was all baggy in the ass area. That is an unappealing look unless you are a waif. I need jeans that hug my ass just right.

A-ny-way... so I got the jeans, and they are really cute with the funky fading and all. I can zip them up, but they make my thighs look unfortunately like sausages, and the words "camel" and "toe" might not be completely off the mark. Plus, I can't bend in them. (I guess "they're too small" would have been a much easier way to convey all this.)

But I bought them as a sign of confidence that, at some point in the near future, I will be able to fit into them. In hopes of achieving this goal, I went for a short bike ride today, a 5-miler. My next ride is scheduled for Wednesday, and I might go even shorter than that. The one thing about the Point Isabel trail is that quite often, there's a strong wind blowing off the bay. It's a more difficult ride than the Way of the Mighty Chicken, or at least it seems that way because of the wind. I may cut my rides down by time-- just do a 30 minute ride instead of a 40 minute ride.

Of course, if I got road bike tires, I'd be able to go a hell of a lot farther in 30 minutes than 4 miles. I didn't know much when I got my bike, and god knows that Britney has served me well, but if I had it to do all over again, I'd probably just get a road bike. As it is, all I need to do is find a magical $60 to pay for the tires. I could use the $100 that my mother gave me (which is specifically for anything to do with me losing weight-- the woman has a goal, people) but I can't bring myself to spend it quite yet. I'm not sure what I'm waiting for.

In other news, I think I might get a scale. The WW scale is so erratic, it might be kind of nice to have my own data. On the other hand, this is the type of thing I am wont to obsess over. There's a reason I don't own a scale, and it's possibly a very good one.
- posted by mo @ 11:08 PM

 
I missed my Thursday meeting because of my birthday (!) so I dragged myself out of bed this morning to go to a different meeting. I am dedicated, yo. I don't know if it was the different time of day, the clothes I had on, or the fact that I had a really good week, or last week's weigh-in being off, or... seriously I give up on trying to figure it out. Last week I gained six pounds! This week I lost nine. What the hell kind of sense does that make? Shouldn't I have been retaining water from Giant Birthday Feast Dinner?

I can tell that I have lost this week, though. I can tell in my body, and I guess that's the important thing. I also got a bookmark for having lost 15 pounds overall. That sounds about right.

I decided to get the day off to a good start with a bike ride as well, did about an hour, 7.1 miles, gorgeous day, etc. I am back in the lower point range, and will eat accordingly. I think I'm just going to try to have as good a week THIS week as I did LAST week, and see what happens at the end of it. These numbers are just confusing me.
- posted by mo @ 4:37 PM

 
I had a really terrible day (in my real life, not in WW world) today... the kind of day which requires a reward of food, right? Well, I stopped by the local health food store and got some breadsticks to munch on (three for one point) and the best little organic plums I have ever had. I also got an organic chocolate bar, flavored with lavendar and organic blueberries. For dinner I had a salad, then I had the plums, then I had the chocolate bar. I felt very decadent, but came in under points all the same.

So far I have saved 11 points this week for my birthday dinner. I think I might be having two days of birthday feasting, but I will spend next week (post-birthday) banking in reverse. And I will also make an effort to stick with smaller portions. I feel very in control and good about the whole thing.

In other news, I have been having serious computer problems. I could only do a very limited number of things without crashing my computer. (Typing in the Address bar of Explorer? Crash. Searching for files? Crash. FTP-ing? Crash. After three days of this, (and doing everything from a surface scan, to scanreg /fix, to updating windows, to upgrading to IE 6) I finally figured out the problem was my CD burner. I uninstalled it (and the software) but this didn't help. Until I had the bright idea to take out the blank CD that was in there.

Voila! Now it's fixed. (She said, with cautious optimism.) I should be able to write a real entry now.
- posted by mo @ 12:31 AM

 
Yesterday was a bad day also, but sort of a bad day in reverse. I ended up eating only 22 points, which is below where I need to be, point wise. It is below my new, higher point range (28 points minimum) and also below my temporary, scale-malfunctioning point range (26) and so, it was too few. Too few points. And I did not eat my veggies and calcium and stuff. I did drink my water though.

Today, I haven't eaten very much yet (only 7 points, and it's 6:30), but I did go for a nice long bike ride (as opposed to yesterday's rained-on bike ride). It was a 7.2 mile ride, but a relatively easy one. Rather than bike to Point A, I actually put the bike on my car's rack and drove it to Point A. This allowed me to avoid one giant hill (mua ha ha) on the way there and two, two giant hills (mua ha ha) on the way home.

You see, when I do the ten-mile bike with all the hills, I am very wiped out afterwards, and it also takes me more motivation to get going, because I know I'm going to have to face the hills. So I only manage it once a week, and this has been bad for me overall. My new goal is more frequent, shorter rides. So I did 3 yesterday, and 7.2 today, and I feel fabulous. Now I have some work to do, but I can go do it over a nice big dinner. I think I am going to get myself a turkey burger or something, something with protein in it. And a side salad, to hook up all those veggies.

Maybe I will also get a chance to go to the supermarket and buy some supplies (such as fruit and other healthful snacks). So that I have something to snack on later when I need to eat my points for the day. One thing, though: NO COOKIES. Never again cookies. They are my nemesis.

Oh, I haven't yet mentioned: I have to bank points all week, because my birthday is on Thursday. I am going to have a big, delicious, indulgent meal on my birthday, and I am going to save up points every single day so that this is possbile without my falling off the wagon. You'd be surprised how motivational that thought can be. Mmm, pasta. Garlic and bread. Tiramisu. Wine.

Okay, it's time for a damn turkey burger.
- posted by mo @ 6:35 PM

 
Well, I gained weight this week. No, I mean a lot of weight. Overall I still have lost, but... yeah. It was a bad week.

I know exactly where I went wrong-- not just one or two overeating nights (which happened, but it is okay) but I did basically everything wrong. I didn't drink my water, and I only exercised once. (I have determined that more, shorter rides will be better than fewer, longer rides, so I am going to try that this week. I am also going to drink my water.) I went out a couple of nights and ate basically whatever I wanted. Which was actually okay, and would have been, if I had banked my points the rest of the time. But...

I bought bad snacks (such as squeeze cheese and Oreos) and ate them all purely out of stress and depression. I had a horrible week at work, and ate and drank a lot of crap. I maybe had one salad all week. And I could feel the difference in my body, and I don't particularly like it.

It's hard to see Janis continuing to EFFORTLESSLY lose weight. (Or seemingly effortlessly. Her worst week, she lost a pound and a half. She's lost almost 50 pounds in four months. She looks awesome.) On one hand, it's inspiring. On the other hand, I feel like a big fat (ha! ha!) failure. But then again, I haven't exactly been the queen of chipper kingdom lately.

I feel reinvigorated. When I weighed in, the WW woman said, "Well, you've had a lot of success. You know what you need to do." And I do. This week, I'm going to do it.
- posted by mo @ 7:22 PM

 
Another Thursday! I was very anxious for tonight's weigh-in because of the whole seven pounds thing last week. As I expected, I did gain this week: 1.2 pounds to be precise. But I feel like that was a reasonable adjustment (rather than representing an actual weight gain) and it brings my two week total loss to approximately six pounds. That is far more reasonable than seven pounds in one week, so I am quite fine with it.

I am going to do a few things differently in the coming week (for instance, I am definitely doing my bike ride tomorrow), and I am going to continue to eat in the new, lower point range, although I am technically back in the old one. I think things should be stable at this point, and next week's weigh-in will again show a loss-- even if it is a minor one. I am also looking forward to two weeks from now (or thereabouts) when I will be able to take measurements again.

I love data. I want more of it!

In other news, I saved up my points and had a turkey burger for dinner. It was absolutely delicious.
- posted by mo @ 6:54 PM

 
I finally figured out (today) that my alleged loss puts me in a new point range (which means I get to eat less). Two nights ago I was well within points until I went out drinking. Unless my five drinks were only a point each (um, a pint of Guinness? no.) I am sure I was over my points, especially in the new range.

Then there was yesterday, where I didn't eat anything except, in the middle of the day, a big meal of Ethiopian food (which I have never had before, and am completely clueless as to what it even contained, let alone if it had many points in it) and dessert of the Best Ice Cream on Earth, "cake batter" flavor ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery. I am hopeful that I was within points anyway, especially since I didn't eat the ice cream all by myself.

Today I've had a good day. At work, I went around reading labels on everything for cholesterol content. I think that on the whole, I just need to stay on program and lose weight, and that will help my cholesterol. I am also trying to eat some Fiber-All every day, since that is both very low point and good for the cholesterol. But it is good to know that if I eat a scone, it has something like 80 mg of cholesterol in it! I have switched to soy milk for now (which is supposed to lower cholesterol) and dark chocolate (cholesterol-free) if the need for chocolate arises.

I ate a muffin today with 0 cholesterol, and Janis said "well, those have a lot of sodium." As I said to her, I think you have to choose your battles. If I start watching everything: cholesterol, sugar, sodium, fiber, point-value, caffeine, and on and on, I will be limited to piles of spinach leaves and handfuls of peanuts, and how long could that possibly last? I think it's good that I am incorporating Cholesterol-Watch into the program, but I'm not going to lose my mind over it.


- posted by mo @ 10:41 PM