Back on Track – and 26 Pounds Down!

You’re talking to a member of Loseit‘s 25 Pound Club!

Remember that weight-loss roller coaster we talked about a while back? It got me again! I didn’t get off track – I stuck with my plan (with a couple of deliberate and small detours), stayed within my calorie budget, and kept exercising. In fact, I broke my personal record for fastest pace in running TWICE. But my weight went crazy!

However, I stayed the course, and yesterday, I passed the 25-pound mark. This morning, I weighed in at 233.6 – 26.4 pounds down.

Here’s what happened: I hit 237.8 pounds on Wednesday, April 17, and a low point (a good thing in the weight-loss world!) of 236.2 pounds on Thursday, April 18. (That’s down from 239.8 the previous Thursday – 3.6 pounds.) Here’s the kind of pattern my journey has followed for the last month or so – I’ll drop two pounds over two days in the middle of the week, and my weight will stabilize – perhaps go up slightly – until the middle or end of the following week. Well, I went up about 3 pounds on Friday, April 19. I thought, “That’s really unusual.”

Then, it felt like nothing happened (in reality my weight was gradually going back down) until the middle of the following week, when I was back down in the 236 range. I was a little discouraged, but I managed to stay on track. That Saturday, April 27, I was down to 235.6 and stabilized there.

I essentially kept up with my goal of losing 2 pounds a week, but the way it happened was pretty discouraging for me because it felt like things came to a standstill. I lost nearly four pounds one week, gained almost all of it back, and lost it again the next week without really changing anything! If not for my increased speed in running/jogging (I’m now down to 12:23/mile), I’d have been really discouraged.

The pattern seems to have reasserted itself this week. My weight’s been stable since Saturday – until yesterday. In the last two days, I’m down 2 pounds. We’ll see what the rest of the week holds.

I hope that you find ways to stick with the plan when your journey becomes discouraging!

A Day of Breakthroughs

Only 64.8 more to go!

I’d like to give some props to my scale today. We are often at odds, but it has always supported me – at least for a few seconds each morning while I’m standing on it.

It told me this morning that I have officially broken the 15-pound mark! I’ve lost 15.2 pounds!  Given the amount of food I ate on Easter Sunday, this is a real victory for me.  I was able to get back on path and continue the journey on Monday without letting that one day of celebration defeat me.  Thank you God!

Hey, I’m slow, but I’m fat, too!

Not only that, but I achieved my fastest running/jogging pace yet: 13:09/mile!  My previous record was 13:29/mile, which I hit on April 18 of last year. I took a six-week break from running in May-June due to some back issues.  I was never really able to get back on track after that.  Then, I was laid off from my job at Johnson Space Center in September, got discouraged, had some foot problems, and quit running until February 11.

So this feels like a great victory for me.  I really thought it would be some time before I was able to top my best pace, but then today, it happened!  And I beat it by 20 seconds!  Granted, RunKeeper – or any other app, for that matter – may not be the most accurate way to measure my pace, but it’s clear that I did go faster today than I’ve gone before.

Small victories are victories nonetheless.  Revel in them, and eventually, they will lead you to the larger victories.

Oh, Easter!

Copious amounts of food

Easter is perhaps my favorite time of year, and as a worship leader, it’s also one of my busiest times of the year (Christmas being the other). And let me go on the record as saying that Easter is one of the most difficult days to stay on a diet.

You don’t want to know how many calories worth of food I consumed yesterday. You don’t. And if you do, I won’t tell you.

We all stumble from time to time when trying to lose weight. Personally, I’m past the point of giving up over one bad day. Sometimes, I think, you have to recognize that particular days – like holidays – are going to be difficult. But those days are still to be enjoyed, so don’t stress over it. Do the best you can and get back on track the next day.

I ate too much yesterday – though I never felt stuffed – but this morning, I got up at 5:10 a.m. and jogged 2.2 miles, just like I do every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Yes, yesterday set me back a little, but that doesn’t mean my journey is over.

How do you cope with these kinds of days? What helps you get back on track after a stumble? Let me know in the comments.