It's been a while, hasn't it?

Yeah... so, everything has been fine for the last month or so. After I hit my 5-pound goal, I basically decided I was cool with my body, cool with the number, and I wasn't going to try to change my weight anymore. For the first couple of weeks I bounced between 127-130. Then I got my period around the same time I had a wisdom tooth bothering me and dropped down to just under 125 in a few days, then hovered around 125-126 for somewhat over a week. I kept counting calories for a bit and figured that, eating intuitively, I take in about 1600 calories/day during the first half of my cycle and 1900 calories/day in the second half, and a 2500 or so day about a once a week - all averaging out to about 1850/day. Then I dropped the calorie counting, and pretty soon after that I dropped the exercise tracking because I know whether I'm doing enough exercise without looking a spreadsheet of it. The reasons I exercise have nothing to do with weight anymore and everything to do with mood regulation. Finally when I hit the middle of my cycle, I shot up to 129 in a few days, and have dropped back to 126-128. So, I guess I lost a pound or something on average during that first month "maintaining". I'm still writing down what I eat, and weighing every day - not so much because I need to monitor it that closely, but to establish a baseline and to assess when I've "really" stabilized at a static average weight, which may take a few months.

I figure as long as my weight stays below 130 it can do whatever it wants. Past 130 I'll start paying attention, 135 I think is my definite action level, and 145 should be about my max. Of course, this could change if I actually get into some strength training and it pays off, or further in the future when I get pregnant, but for now those are the graduated ceilings I see for my weight.

Anyway, I'm actually thinking of quitting this blog. Nobody's reading it, I'm doing fine, and it's been suggested I create a web-based presentation of my weight loss process, but I don't really want to just open this anonymous blog to all the people who know me. So I'm going to take the data, re-work it up, and start a new blog that will actually be associated with me and have readers. 

Adios, amigos!

Plans and updates

After watching a few more days, I think I need to revise that to "my weight has stabilized around the 133 range." Which means the 5 pounds now only go down to 128. That's fine anyway; that'll be about 2 pounds back to my birthday weight, and 3 pounds after that. I realized that I haven't been watching a graph of my weight since my birthday, and today I put my post-birthday weights in a graph and could see exactly what's been going on. For about two weeks I basically stayed steady, then gained about a pound in the last two weeks of classes, and then with the end of semester party and my period hitting just after I got a big spike in my weight, so I had to wait for the water retention to level out, but it looks like I gained about a pound for real over that weekend. Anyway, my weight has been edging slowly down for the past few days, and I think I've been on the right track (if chipping a little slowly) for the past week and a half or so.

I've been following that pointlike plan I described last time with 33-222-111-zeroes-dinner as the target. I may stick with this plan on some days for the summer but I was also thinking of a new template. The idea would be, eat a sensible breakfast, eat a normal dinner, and plan on often having after-dinner treats or beverages, but during the day, bring a protein bar and 500 calories' worth of fruit and vegetables, of which I can eat as much as I want. There will be a fridge at work, so I can just keep track of what I have there and top it off to 500 each morning. I'll try to get some cardio most days, which can be before either breakfast or my protein bar. I think the 500 calories' worth of fruits and veggies is brilliant, because if I eat it all that's definitely 5 or more servings, and 500 calories of fruits and veggies is really a lot of volume, so it shouldn't feel limiting. It also keeps my calories around 1100-1200 before dinner, which leaves room for a nice dinner and a drink or a dessert all within 1800 or so, and my exercise will basically be my deficit. I'd like to keep doing yoga, but I'm not sure where I'd go. I don't know if I want to keep doing Bikram - although once-a-week or so would probably kick my losses up a bit - but any other type of yoga I'd want to do more often than I can probably afford.

Lose 5 more pounds

After waiting for my weight to stabilize, it looks like I'm back to the 132 range. I've done a lot of exercise the past couple days - gotten back on the elliptical since I found my Sansa cable again, and really pushed it, a whole 60 minutes today, plus some yoga while cooling down.

I'm sort of back to counting calories. It's actually a little like a WW points system, only with big points, and I think of them more as levels - plus it all translates back into calories at the literal end of the day, just a much rougher estimate than I was working with before. The benefit is being able to think about my meals and snacks as "chunks" in the plan of the day. I assign foods or combinations of foods I often eat to levels:

1 - under 100 calories
2 - 100-200 calories
3 - 200-300 calories

There are then "zeroes", which are under 30, and the idea is to account for a piece of hard candy or a bite of someone's food without using up a whole level 1. My typical target day plan is eat 2 "3's", 3 "2's" and 3 "1's" apart from dinner, then about 500 calories for dinner (counted normally), and less than 100 calories' worth of zeroes, estimated according to how many and what they actually were at the end of the day. Estimating 1's as 100 calories, 2's as 150, and 3's as 250, this totals about 1750-1850.

I'm making it a goal to lose 5 pounds from here. So, I want to see 127.x.  I'm not sure what the timescale will be, but I'd say a month would be ambitious and it should definitely be done by the end of the summer. Maybe by 4th of July.

Weigh-in, body fat goal, gotta go

Oh, right, I have a blog. No, I'm not avoiding you. I've just been insanely busy this week.

Yesterday I was 133.8 and 25.2% body fat which is what, -0.8 from last week? Not bad for a week when I only had two workouts at all. Yesterday I broke my pseudo-Lent-fast slightly, as I had decided in advance I was allowed to for that particular day, by drinking some wine with my cast-mates. I made these super delicious vegan chocolate coconut cookie bars and also these things that are like mashed potatoes and vegetables in cups of pie crust, ate a lot of them, and had wine, but actually, the cast party was way less intense than I thought it might be, so I didn't do any other drugs or even eat anything off-Lent. Just the wine.

Anyway, this morning I was 24.7% fat, which means I've met my second body fat goal. Awesome sauce. And now I gotta go - lots of schoolwork still to do this weekend.

GOAL PARTAAAAYYY!!!

This shit is bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s... okay, no.

This morning I'm 134.6 pounds (2.2 down from last week) and 25.6% body fat. So I've hit my goal right on the dot, and my lean mass is still in triple digits. I now get to see what my ticker does when you hit goal, which turns out to be: nothing interesting. It just says 0 lb to go. And 50 pounds lost. Which is pretty awesome - 50 pounds lost. Annika Q and the whole 50 pounds... that she got rid of. Not to mention 3 compounds of 10% of my body weight. I tripled what they usually get in those obesity-and-dieting studies. Woohoo!

I took my measurements as well: waist 26 3/4, hips 37 1/4, thigh 21 1/2, arm 11. My waist hasn't changed a ton lately and my arm measure has been totally stalled for a while, but my hip and thigh measures have dropped a lot since I last measured. That helps to explain why my pants are getting baggy. However, considering it's currently subfreezing outside, it's actually rather useful to be able to wear an extra pair of yoga pants under my jeans.

I'll do a more thorough debriefing and where-do-we-go-from-here reflection on my birthday, when phase 3 is officially over. However, for now what I'll say is - I'm happy with my weight, and I wouldn't mind if this was the end, but I don't think it has to be, and I think my ideal weight/fat content is still lower. I haven't met my <25% body fat goal yet. I think in the future, my ceiling weight should be around 145. That's when I really began to feel like I looked good and felt good, and it's within normal BMI. At the moment, I'll keep exercising and calorie counting, but think less about weight, more about body fat %, and most of all about fitness. I'll probably go for a bit less calorie deficit than I have been, inching toward a more maintenance-oriented version of this lifestyle. For example, I have my aerobics class certain days and I might choose to do yoga on the alternate days, rather than doing them the same day and then other hi-cal workouts the other days. I would try to get back into running, but I think I'll wait for the weather to get above, oh, fifty Fahrenheit. It just sucks futzing with layers and the air freezes your throat and if your ears aren't warm enough you get a terrible headache and so on...

Oh, and one last thing - I'm dropping sugar and refined flour from my pseudo-Lent restrictions because I feel like it is a) not really a big issue for me in the first place, b) hard to enforce, and thereby c) being a pain in the ass in a way that is not useful. Just a few examples to justify my choice: I can't eat the honey roasted peanuts my boyfriend bought because they have regular sugar in them too, but I can make cookies with honey. If I want to go get a yogurt for a snack, most of the time I'm out of luck because I don't want to eat plain yogurt or yogurt sweetened with Splenda, but all other yogurt is sweetened with sugar except maybe those awesome Fage cups. I ate a salad the other day from the salad bar and used this orange ginger dressing, and it didn't even occur to me to think salad dressing might have sugar, but when I got to the bottom of the bowl I realized it was really sweet. Anyway, so I'm still excluding milk, cheese, butter, and intoxicants, but I think the whole thing might have started out too broad.

Weigh-in with the LAST MICROGOAL

Well how's this for progress: 138.0 and 27.6% body fat! Actually, I'm extremely skeptical of this number since that means I lost 2.4 pounds since YESTERDAY. But then there was the time I lost 4 pounds in less than a week after breaking through my 170 plateau, so who knows. If you frame it as 3.2 pounds since 3 weeks ago, it sounds a little more reasonable. At any rate, I'll count myself as having cracked my last microgoal. The LAST ONE, before my final goal. As in, I have less than 5 pounds to go. Oh, and my ticker is now so close to the end that the current number is overlapping with the goal number. This is really amazing.

Push up victory?

So this morning I did a push up.

I know, I can't really believe it either.

In fact, right after I did it, I was so disbelieving I asked my boyfriend if that looked like a real pushup. I mean, I must have collapsed my form or something to do that, right?

But he said it looked like a real pushup.

I've been trying to do another one since, and it hasn't worked. I guess I have to believe the witness.

Vacation

Tomorrow I am leaving for my trip to Europe. I'll be back on the 19th which makes me gone from my spreadsheet, and regular computer access, for 15 days.

I'm  not going to count calories, however, I have decided to keep a rough record of what I eat. I'll probably look at nutrition information (which will be in kilojoules!) if I buy snacks that are labeled, but I won't record it. I won't be measuring anything. I will simply jot down what I've eaten each day, and visually/intuitively police how much. When eating in restaurants and at hosted dinners, my guideline will be: try anything that looks good or is necessary to be polite, but you don't have to finish everything that is served. Insofar as the meals are fairly high calorie anyway, I will hopefully be walking a lot, doing exciting things that will distract me from the idea of snacking, and I can do things like have a cafe-creme for a snack or a snack for lunch. I understand that the way "French women don't get fat" is they have lots of moderate daily activity and don't eat much between meals.

My grandpa is 72, but I believe he walks a couple of miles each morning at home, so hopefully I can convince him to walk most places. That will be most of my exercise, but I'm going to also bring my yoga mat and do a little yoga and strengthening routine most mornings (it probably won't happen on the days I'm flying):

10 sun salutes
Standing Bow/Dancer
Warrior II, I, and III
Pigeon, Boat, Forward Stretch, and Cobbler
Rocking, Wind Relieving, and Floor Twist

3 x 5 knee pushups or best effort
2 x 10 regular crunches
2 x 10 oblique crunches

I'm not sure how long this will end up taking, but I figure this might burn 100 or 120 calories. I'm going to go ahead and make it my goal to lose 1 pound from whatever my weight is tomorrow while on break. I think that should be possible, and if I overshoot it, I might do as much as break under 140 by the time I come back.

I'll post my leaving weight tomorrow.

Skinny fat and the next two weeks

I'm still fat.

I don't mean that I'm big, wide, or round. Definitely not. I look thin enough that overweight people tell me I shouldn't lose any more weight, my mom told me I carried 150 pounds very well, and would probably start looking skinny by 135. Shirts that fit my B cup chest hang loosely over my abdomen and I wear "petite" pants. I'm relatively small, apparently, and shapely enough - it's just that a lot of that shape is made up of fat.

I think "skinny-fat" is the appropriate term for my condition. It's odd that it's easier to see how fat you are when you're actually less fat. It's not a body image distortion, either - it's the fact that you can actually feel bones and muscles, so you can tell where the texture changes and you have a fat roll. When no matter where you poke there's an inch or two of fat cushioning, held in tightly by the skin, you don't realize how small your lean core is.

I have 10 pounds to go before the end of this weight-loss project. I suspect that when I get to 135, though, I will just switch my focus from straight weight loss to finer tuning of my body composition. The next two weeks, there are at least four undoubtedly high calorie days: Solstice (bread and cheese and wine), Christmas Eve (likely celebration dinner), Christmas (lots of chocolate), and New Years Eve (alcohol). Since two weeks from now will be New Year's Day, I don't expect the reading to be terribly reliable. So I want to say in the next 17 days - until I leave on Tuesday the 4th to travel - I want to lose between 1.0-1.8 pounds, for a leaving weight of 143.6-142.8. That keeps me making measurable progress while allowing for the season, y'know. Then I'll probably set something like 1 pound for my vacation loss goal, but we'll see a little later about that.

Quick weigh in

144.6, 30.1% body fat. Up some irrelevant amount from last week, but down 3.0 pounds since 2 weeks ago, before the cleanse. I'm satisfied with that. Hopefully I'll read a few more 29-point-somethings for body fat soon.

Gotta go, more thoughts later.

Oh yeah, and MICROGOAL. Another 5 pounds down. Only 10 left! Pretty exciting.

First body fat goal!

Aiee! Today I'm 144.6 pounds, which has me straddling the 40/10 line, and 29.4% body fat, which (1) IS LESS THAN 30% and (2) gives me an mLean of 102.1 pounds, making me think I'm probably at the top of my rebound curve. We'll see about that one, but as per my usual policy, the first day I see the number I like is the day I count it. I'm less than 30% fat now!

Am I back up?

So I'm back up to 144.0 today, back within my usual lean-mass range at 99.6 pounds, and my ticker says 40 point something pounds lost. I'm going to hold off declaring that microgoal, though, since water might want to bump me back up into the 145 range: I consider 99-103 to be my typical lean-mass range, but 100-102 comprises even most of that. Once my weight either stays steady for several days or goes down again, I'll consider the cleanse rebound over and celebrate if warranted.

I'm tantalizingly close to breaking under 30% body fat. I weighed in at 30.8% this morning and a) I might get another pound of free lean-weight from water, b) even assuming no more lean, that means I only have to lose about 2 more pounds of fat to break under 30%. Can I do it before Christmas? Possibly maybe!

I had super low calories all last week during the cleanse, and I ate up yesterday, having a delicious greasy breakfast and lots of yummies at my parents' house decorating the tree. Now it's time to buckle back down, eat right, eat light, and work out during finals. Don't let up in this last stretch toward the holidays - there will be a couple of particular days that will be sacrificed as break-evens or even surpluses, but that doesn't mean the whole week has to be a stall-out. Let's say 143-142 by the time I go traveling in January, eh?

MESO GOAL #2 MET - plus waist!

Finally, today I weigh 149.6 pounds! SOO amazing. I am now Cute Normal-Weight Girl! Good superhero name, huh? I've also met my waist goal of 29 inches. Now it's to be expected that I'll waver a bit - I'd like to avoid bouncing above 150 for morning weights as much as possible because the 150s are lame, but I'll certainly be seeing them any other time I step on the scale for a bit. After that inevitable period though, MAY THEY NEVER BE SEEN AGAIN, except possibly in case of pregnancy some years from now.

I can hardly believe this. Not only am I not overweight anymore, but I'm only 15 pounds away from my original, way back in the past weight loss goal, which is exactly how much weight I was able to lose easily then. If circumstances were equivalent (which they aren't, being 35 pounds into the process already) I could just implement one of my qualitative tricks, wait 3-4 months, and be done.

I'm really eager to get away from the overweight boundary now, so I think I'll be extra motivated over these next 5 pounds. I obviously can't peel off 5 pounds before Thanksgiving, but I should be able to get down to the 148, maybe high 147 range. I definitely hope to be below 145 by Solstice and close to 140 by January 4.

Why January 4? Because I will be traveling! I'm going to Europe between January 4-19, just over 2 weeks, which will give an excellent opportunity to test my intuitive-eating skills. I won't be weighing myself because I won't have a scale, and I won't be calorie counting because I will undoubtedly be eating meals the contents of which I cannot monitor. I'm still debating over whether to keep a general log of what I eat. I will also not be able to do the cardio I usually do, but can definitely work on strength exercises, and may do a lot of walking. I'll definitely have to come up with a plan for that before I leave. Then, it's a matter of exercising my ability to think "what's a reasonable portion of this? Which of these foods do I really want and which ones might I skip? What, in a general sense, have I eaten recently? What does my body feel like it needs?" Two weeks, then, is long enough for the effects to build up and I'll see whether I've largely lost, gained, or maintained - but if I gain, it won't be too much damage, not gonna gain 5 pounds or anything.

I've restyled the blog to celebrate this new goal. This is definitely the more important of my two meso goals, and may end up feeling more important than even the final goal. From here on out, everything is new! Every new low I hit will be the lowest low I've ever seen (at this height).  I'm already thinner by inches and sizes than I've ever been - though let us not forget that I'm still over 30% body fat. Anyway, looking forward just can be nothing but good at this point.

MICROGOAL and weekly summary

I did it! Today I weigh 153.2 at 34.7% body fat. I was 153.0 yesterday, but since I'd lost 2 pounds in one day I wanted to give it another day and make sure it stuck. So I've now lost over 30 pounds, and have less than 20 to go. I'm pretty happy about that and I'm also SO CLOSE to my meso goal, the big big step of being no longer "overweight". It seems like it's taking a long time, but at the same time it doesn't seem so long ago that I'd only lost 7 pounds and wondered if anyone would notice (not on a 180 pound person doofus). Well, rawr! I've got about three and a half pounds left so I think that can happen in 2 or 3 weeks? I will definitely be in the 140s by Thanksgiving.

Quick stats: average kcals/day 1671, 2 yoga, 1 mixed, 1 very long walk, avg balance -435, -2.6 lbs.

Exercise:
Sa: 0
Su: 0
M: 0
T: Mixed CSF workout (40 min, 200cc)
W: 15 min yoga
Th: 1/2 hr yoga and 5 hr walking-trip
F: 0

Food:

Friday 10/22

Eggs and potatoes (175+150=325)
1/2 cheese sandwich and apple (110+110+100=320)
Sweetened yogurt and granola (90+25+15+70=200)
Slice of gorgonzola cheese (60)
Cabbage, potatoes, black beans, and chicken (40+100+115+200=455)
Little bit of granola (70)

325+320+200+60+455+70=1430

Thursday 10/21

Oatmeal with toppings and 1/2 grapefruit (150+25+50+15+40+30=360)
Chicken, potatoes, and broccoli (340+150+50=540)
Ice cream (350)

360+540+350=1250

Wednesday 10/20

Bagel with cream cheese and eggs (260+70+160=490)
Grapes (100)
PB and Nutella sandwich (220+200+195=615)
1/2 cheese sandwich and apple (110+110+100=320)
Black beans with corn, tomatoes, onions, and cheese (115+50+30+110=305)

490+100+615+320+305=1830

Tuesday 10/19

Oatmeal with Nutella & PB, and 1/2 an apple (150+100+50=300)
Slice of processed cheese (50)
Chocolate soymilk (130)
Half cheese sandwich and an orange(110+110+60=280)
Nibbles while making dinner (60)
Pasta with sauce and salad with toppings (200+75+2*[30+50+40+25]=565)
Glass of wine and 16 oz Pabst (125+205=330)

300+50+130+280+60+565+330=1715

Monday 10/18

Bagel with cream cheese, scrambled eggs, and grapes (260+105+140+50=555)
Stir-fried tofu, rice, and cabbage with miso and a plum (100+60+160+30+20+50=420)
Grapes (50)
Rice and beans with cheese, corn, and tomatoes (160+115+220+50+30=575)
Nutella (100)

555+420+50+575+100=1700

Sunday 10/17

Bagel with cream cheese, tomato, and spinach (260+150+30+20=460)
Bread with Nutella and an apple (110+200+100=410)
More Nutella, sigh (200)
Miso soup with tofu (30+10+100=140)

460+410+200+140=1210

Saturday 10/16

Oatmeal with walnuts, dried cranberries, and  cream, and 1/2 grapefruit with sugar (150+50+25+40+30+15=310)
Grapes (100)
2 spoonfuls Nutella (200)
Cabbage soup, bread, cheese, and wine (80+75+80+200=435)
Nibbles while making dinner (50)
Flatbread, hummus, brussels sprouts, and cider (300+165+50+200=715)
Ice cream with Nutella on top (340+200=540)
Flatbread and cheese (100+110=210)

310+100+200+435+50+715+540+210=2560

Weekly summary and monthly averages

Today I'm 155.8 and 35.2% body fat. It's also the first weekend of my fall break, and I'd really like to hit 154.6 and break underneath 35% body fat by the end of the break. Sound doable?

It's also passed the 11th of October so I can tell you how much I've lost each month so far:

June-July: 10 lbs
July-August: 4.4
August-September: 8.6
September-October: 5.4

Based on this pattern, I hope to have another good loss this coming month. If I can lose just 7.4 pounds in the next 11-to-11 period, then I will meet my current meso goal! That would put us at November 11th and I could still probably expect to lose 5 pounds the next month, putting a little space between me and 150 before even hitting Thanksgiving. Even if I do nothing but maintain over most of the holiday season, I'll be in good shape by the time I go back to school.

Quick stats: average kcals/day 1771, 2 cardio, 2 strength, 2 yoga, avg balance -360, -1.0 lb.

Friday 10/15

Scrambled eggs with cheese and mini bagel with butter and jam (140+110+110+65+10=435)
Banana (100)
Coffee with cream and sugar (30)
Mini bagel with cheese, apple, and cabbage soup (110+110+100+40=360)
Vanilla wafers and Junior mints (200+40=240)
Black Boss Porter (280)
Spoonful of peanut butter (95)
Cabbage soup, bread, and cheese (80+600+220=900)
Clif bar (240)

435+30+360+240+280+95+900+240=2680 + Elliptical (18m, 226c) and 1 set pull-ups

Thursday 10/14

Yogurt, granola, and 1/2 grapefruit with sugar (90+140+30+15=275)
Apple and peanut butter (100+190=290)
Handful of Goldfish crackers (30)
Spinach-cranberry-walnut-gorgonzola salad with dressing and a mini bagel (20+50+50+100+90+110=420)
Salmon, rice, and peas (340+115+70=525)

275+290+30+420+525=1540 + 1 hr yoga

Wednesday 10/13

Mini bagel with cream cheese and an egg (110+35+90=235)
Banana (100)
Pasta with sauce and tuna (300+75+75=450)
Coffee with cocoa and dry milk (110)
Pear chunks, almonds, and honey (25+100+60=185)
Gorgonzola crumbles and dried cranberries (50+50=100)
Lentils and rice (230)
Espresso with cream and sugar (55)
Mini bagel with butter (110+50=160)

235+100+450+110+185+100+230+55+160=1625

Tuesday 10/12

Yogurt and granola (90+140=230)
Pear (100)
Chicken Caesar salad and coffee with cream and sugar (550+95=645)
Grocery store samples (50)
Pasta with sauce and spinach-cranberry-walnut-gorgonzola salad with dressing (250+50+20+25+50+50+50=495)

230+100+645+50+495=1520 + 1 hr yoga

Monday 10/11

1/2 ciabatta roll with Tofurky sausage and egg (75+100+70=245)
Banana (100)
Tofurky sausage and cheese sandwich on a roll and an apple (150+120+110+100=480)
White grape juice (160)
Cabbage soup, Tofurky sausage, and ciabatta roll (80+180+150=410)
Ice cream (125)

245+100+480+160+410+125=1520 + Elliptical (16m, 202c) and 1 set pull-ups

Sunday 10/10

Breakfast at my parents' (740)
    Scrambled eggs
    Veggie sausage
    Baguette slices with goat cheese and olive spread
    Cantaloupe
    Milk
Mini bagel and cream cheese (155)
4 Twizzlers (120)
Cabbage soup, Tofurky sausage, and ciabatta roll (80+240+150=470)

740+155+120+470=1485

Saturday 10/9

Scrambled eggs, buttered toast, and cantaloupe (140+20+40+110+100+100=510)
Ice cream (75)
Rice and beans with cheese (340)
Ice cream (75)
Sparkling lemon green tea (90)
Chunk of mozzarella (80)
Pizza (800)
Espresso with cream and sugar (55)

510+75+340+75+90+80+800+55=2025

Day 99 - conclusion of Phase I

Well it's day 99 and what do I weigh? 162.8. As I updated in my sidebar earlier, that means that in the first 99 days I lost:

21.8 pounds
3.5 inches off my waist
1, almost 2 pant sizes

and for a bonus:

at least 1 cup size
at least 2 band sizes
3.5 inches off the part of my hips that might not be where I'm supposed to measure, but at least I'm consistent
1.75 inches off my thigh

Here's my weight data over time in eye-candy form:

"Adjusted" simply means that weight entries from the analog scale were multiplied by 1.026 to align them with entries from the digital scale. See 7/23 for a more detailed explanation.

So, I'm excited about my progress so far and I'm also excited about new features in my spreadsheet for Phase II! I've added a column that calculates my BMR based on my body weight and then another one that multiplies by 1.3 for what I call my LMC, lifestyle maintenance calories. This assumes that, before the exercise I track, my basic lifestyle of being a student, walking around campus with books, and riding my bike to and from school is in between "sedentary" and "lightly active". I may tweak the multiplier on weekends or other days that I am noticeably less active. I'm also going to start estimating my calories burned during exercise, since so much of it lately is on machines that calculate it. For now I'll count running as 100/mile, and a yoga class as about 200 (harder than walking for an hour, but less aerobic & rhythmic, plus, the internet said no). Finally, my last handy dandy column puts it all together and calculates my estimated deficit. So each week, I'll now be able to compare the deficit I think I had to the weight I lost. It'll be fun!

And now, it's time to start over. My "high weight" is no longer 184.6, it's 166.2. I've gotten a little ahead already, but the name of the game is to get further away from that reminiscent-of-8th-grade number and close in on that juicy normal-weight number, 149.6. I'm really looking forward to breaking 160, although it could still be a few weeks away. Bring on the 5's!

Quick update

Started school Monday so, posts will be less frequent now. Crossed 20 pounds again yesterday, forgot to update the ticker then but just did now (had another fairly dramatic drop today). I also changed the goal on my ticker to 134.6 because that's really how I'm thinking of it and I can always modify it again later if I want to but I was tired of mentally adding 5 pounds onto what my ticker said. I want to be able to go throw a little party in my head when it says 25 lost, 25 to go.

MESO GOAL #1 REACHED... coincident with weekly summary and other milestones

I HAVE LOST 10% OF MY STARTING BODY WEIGHT YAY!


Hahahaha. Anyway, since I've been gone from the scale for six days, I don't actually know which day I passed 166.2. But I'm going to count it as yesterday because when I stepped on right before bed, I saw exactly that number. I'm not even going to try to guess when it would have popped up in the morning.

It's funny how the clavicle likes to pop out way before anything else. It looks all bony, yet you can see in the shoulder that my arms are still plump and round. Some other bones are starting to come out by feel, but aren't visible yet.

Today's weigh-in: 164.6 lbs, 36.6% body fat. Incidentally, this means I've lost exactly 20 pounds as well. And it is quite lovely to see my BMI dip to 27.4. It means I've crossed half of the "overweight" range.

Also, my parents finally noticed I'm losing weight. So, somewhere between 16.6 and 20.0 pounds is what it takes. Good to know? Eh. I'm looking forward to the double take... somewhere around Christmas, when they go "you've lost MORE weight, haven't you?" and I get to quote some number near to 30 pounds cumulative.

Quick stats: average kcals/day 1771, 2 regular cardio, 1 strength workout, 2 insane hikes, 1 walkadoo, -4.2 lbs.

It's like my body is making up for the time it spent dawdling at 170-171. I've lost 7.4 pounds in the last 2 weeks! But if you go back 4-5 weeks, then it averages out to 1.6 lbs/week.

Data:

Sunday 8/22

2 instant oatmeal packets and a tofu dog (260+60=320)
Powerbar (230)
Taco Bell burrito and a few drinks of Pepsi (490+50=540)
Piece of green pepper (20)
1/2 Powerbar (120)
Baked potato with cheese and broccoli (250+220+50=520)

320+230+540+20+120+520=1750 + no exercise

Saturday 8/21

Tofurky sausage, potatoes with ketchup, and tea (270+200+30=500)
Half bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon, and a slice of Edam cheese (135+70+70+30=305)
Vanilla milk (190)
Chili with cheese, corn on the cob, beer, and 1 peanut butter cup (270+110+120+155+60=715)

500+305+190+715=1710 + Leisurely hiking (~1 mi and ~3 mi)

Friday 8/20

Lentil/cheese/caponata medley and a few bites undercooked potato (300+20)
Powerbar (230)
Provolone, Tofurky, and tomato sandwich (200+140+80+15=435)
Powerbar (240)
Risotto, lettuce, and wine (500+175=675)
18.5 jellybeans (75)

320+230+435+240+675+75=1975 + Intense hiking (6 mi, +500 ft, -2000 ft)

Thursday 8/19

Veggie and cheese scramble, toast, juicebox, and tea (300+100+120=520)
2 peanut butter cups and 1 Emergen-C (180+20=200)
Caponata sandwich (400)
2 Powerbars (230+240=470)
Lentil/cheese/caponata medley (300)

520+200+400+470+300=1890 + Intense hiking (6 mi, +2000 ft, -500 ft)

Wednesday 8/18

2 instant oatmeal packets and yogurt (340+85=425)
Juicebox (120)
Open face tuna melt, apple, and a slice of Tofurky (100+100+110+100+20=430)
Powerbar (230)
Lentil potato curry and 3 peanut butter cups (300+180=480)
Partial slice of provolone (60

425+120+430+230+480+60=1745 + Mixed running/hiking (2 x ~1.5 mi)

Tuesday 8/17

Scrambled eggs with sauteed onion and cheese, toast with butter and jam, and canned apricots (105+40+10+110+80+50+25+50=470)
Clif builder bar (270)
Cinnamon bread and drink of Pepsi (200+20=220)
1 kalamata olive (10)
2 veggie dogs and 1 bun with condiments, potato chips, beer, and 1 peanut butter cup (220+110+30+200+155+60=775)

470+270+220+10+775=1745 + no exercise

Monday 8/16

Cottage cheese with canned apricots and toast (110+100+80=290)
Chunk of cheese (110)
1 egg cooked with oil (70+20=90)
Powerbar (240)
Grocery store samples (150)
Tofu, avocado, tomato and onion sandwich (160+120+105+30+15=430)
Iced green tea with honey (60)
Drink of Mt. Dew (15)
Celery and cottage cheese with cocoa in coffee (20+110+70=200)

290+110+90+240+150+430+60+15+200=1585 + Elliptical (42 min, 537 cals) and pull-up practice

Microgoal #2 reached!

Today I weigh 170. Even if it bounces back up a little before the next drop, I've touched it. To celebrate I changed my background - I figured it could be a little lighter and brighter.

170 is the top of acceptable weight for me. Along with the mortifying discovery of "fat people health issues," one of the things that made me decide enough was enough was looking at my backside in the locker room and realizing my butt looked like a caricature of obesity. ("You're supposed to tell me that!" I exclaimed to my boyfriend that night.) Today I looked in the mirror and thought it looked reasonably tight. At 170, my butt doesn't look obese, my upper abdominal fat doesn't protrude more than my lower abdominal fat, and there isn't a roll of back fat creeping around from my breasts. It's good.

I also felt my arm today and it seemed a lot harder that usual, although the size doesn't seem to be changing. My trapezius has become noticeable and my triceps perceptible. Funny thing though, my veins are becoming way more visible than I remember them ever being. They don't protrude or anything but I see the little blue threads more clearly all over, especially on my feet after I exercise.

I'll post yesterday's calorie count with today's stats later. At any rate, my "weight vs. time" chart is long enough to look pretty good, so I'll post it:

Yeah baby keep it going strong

Weighed in at 174 again, yay! For yesterday:

Cereal, yogurt, and espresso (100+160+140=400)
Apple (100)
Sandwich (2*100+100+50=350)
Soaked almonds and 2 Coke Zeros (200+2*0=200)
Popcorn and iced tea (140+60=200)
A little milk to take away the hot pepper burn (20)
Rice and beans with cheese (200+200+100=500)

400+100+350+200+200+20+500=1770 (w00t under 1800)

and some "above legs resistance training", which is basically the same as the "weights and crunches" I've been reporting, but more general. I changed my description because I'm not just using weights anymore (I started using some of the machines) and I did some leg lifts in addition to crunches for my abs. What's really cool is I found a machine that allows you to do pull-ups with assistance weight. So, I can do my pull-ups with a net 30 pounds and build strength that way until I can actually lift my body weight.

I've decided I'd like to be fit enough to do push-ups, pull-ups, and crunches in virtually unlimited capacity, and to run 3 miles in 30 minutes 3 times a week. Then my lean-maintenance routine will be very simple - I just do a large-ish set (like 50) of each strength exercise every day, which I know doesn't take long when you can actually do those things. If I get to the 3 miles in 30 minutes point, I might try to push it to 5 miles in 45 eventually, which would keep me in the shape to undertake any bike trip I want and train for a competitive footrace if I wanted to.

You know what's dreamy? It's getting easier. It's getting easier to say no thanks, just a little, just one, this instead. Yeah, progesterone was fueling mad cravings (not even specific ones, just the feedmefeedme urge) but I feel that lifting up. I put a cup of cereal and 1/2 a cup of milk a bowl this morning and thought, that's not a bad serving. I ate two anyway because 180 calories isn't enough for breakfast, but I always used to think cereal box servings were ridiculous. A quarter cup of nuts, if you actually measure it out and put it in a jar to take with you, is plenty. A half cup of ice cream does not constitute pitiful deprivation. It's getting easier.