Exercise for weight loss
My exercise was mostly derived from a hike that Jason and I took on the Appalachian trail. As I mention in the post that I linked, it was a hot hike but it was full of climbing and exercise. It was a good way to start out my weight loss week. I was on track!
Through out the week we were pretty religious about taking our evening walks after work. We enjoy them because it gives us a chance to talk without the distractions of life (making dinner, straightening the house, tv, phones, etc) but it also affords me a bit of activity. Working from home has severely limited my activity levels (step count).
One of my monthly goals....(oh heavens , I just realized that I haven’t written a post yet with an update on my monthly goals for last month and this month and it is already the tenth of the month...shucks I better get on that!!). But one of my Monthly goals is to walk 5k steps a day. Yes I know that 5k steps is very low! But I’m struggling to make that! Even with our walks, I am barely (hahah never) reaching my daily goal on the week days. I usually make it to 4700 or so. Just shy! Luckily, my goal is actually an average of 5k steps. So long walks and hikes on the weekend help pick up the slack. BUT....I could be doing better!!!
Eating for Weight Loss
This week was a mix of good and bad. At the beginning of the week I was not doing well at all! I was filled with some stress. (Nothing too major, just job worries and worry about what to do with our vacation that is booked at the beach...is it safe to go or should we change our plans?). Stress causes me to want to run to the kitchen and shovel food in as fast as I can! And I did that. At one point I even asked myself the question, ‘do you want to eat this and be fat or do you want to not eat this and be thin?’ At one point I actually said I don’t care if I’m fat...I want to eat this food to feel better! (Yes that is an addict speaking for sure!)
Midway through the week two things happened. Number one I saw the number on the scales go really high...like three pounds higher! And number two, I saw a video of myself while I was editing the footage of our hike for my YouTube channel. I didn’t like the huge pudgy stomach that I saw! Those two things sparked me to get back on track!
Now let me say that I wasn’t way off track. I wasn’t eating cakes and pies and cookies! I wasn’t eating ice cream! I didn’t have anything like that! But I WAS eating over my food budget that I have set for myself. I count calories and I KNOW that I have to eat 1200-1300 calories to show a loss. 1500-1700 calories SHOULD be enough for a loss, but not with my body. 1500-1600 calories is maintain and even gain territory for me. I admit, it makes me sad, but it is what it is. So for the first part of the week I was eating 1600-1700 calories. Not good...for me!
I turned it around and cleaned up my eating on about Tuesday! But would it be enough to erase the negative affects that my apathy had created on the scales?
Weigh In Time
As I said earlier about mid way through my week I was up about 2-3 pounds! On Thursday I was starting to feel hopeful that maybe I could pull out a maintain! And on Friday I got the official results.
Drum roll please......
I showed a loss of 0.6 pounds! Not a huge loss...but a loss!!!. And it only recouped my 0.6 pound gain from the week before, but I’ll gladly take it!!!!!!!
I am proud of myself for cleaning up my act and turning the ship around. I could have had a really bad weigh in! I could have given up! I could have allowed so many excuses to derail me from losing weight. Instead, I changed my behavior and I changed the outcome of my weekly weigh in! It just proves that this journey is still possible for me!!’
