Friday Fun Post

Weigh-in: 143.5 lb (+1.2)

Weigh-in day again, and I am up 1.2 lb. Not a surprise, since I do the daily weigh-in thing I generally have an idea of what's coming.

I want to thank the ladies who left encouraging comments for me yesterday. This is so frustrating, but I am going to keep at it.

I decided I needed a little change of pace here on the blog today though. Something a little more cheery. It seems like everyone is sick of winter, myself included.
With that in mind, I dug up some favourite photos from my garden last year, and of course a picture of my Fabulous Felines just because I can't help myself; I love looking at them!

Holly Blossoms

Lily of the Valley

Catmint
      

My beautiful boys
       

I didn't want to...

But I did.

Exercise that is.

I really wasn't feeling it last night. I wasn't feeling great yesterday, and last night the idea of staying on the couch was very attractive. But I convinced myself to do an easy walk on the treadmill (45 mins), then 10 minutes with weights. Maybe not much of a workout but better than no exercise, right?

I am struggling with this whole process of losing weight and it just seems to be getting harder. I'm trying to get some perspective, to be realistic in my expectations. I sat down with my day planner today and looked at my weigh-ins for the month of January. Starting from Jan 4, and going to Jan 25 (Fridays being my official weigh-in day), I lost 1.6 lbs. Not a whole lot for all of this whining and complaining...uh, I mean hard work...is it? It's still a loss, so I'm telling myself that is good.

If I could lose a pound a month for the rest of the year, that would be a little more that 12 pounds gone. I won't pretend that rate of loss thrills me, it seems painfully slow. On top of that, it still doesn't put me inside the ideal weight range for my height. But I would be moving in the right direction.

What scares me is knowing from past experience that losses seem to slow down even more over time. So if I only managed 1.6 pounds in January, where am I going to be a couple of months from now?

I feel like this is a bit of a downer post today. That wasn't my intention. Believe it or not, I am actually trying to convince myself this is not a lost cause; that I can do it, it will just take time. Better to accept right off the bat that it is going to take a while to get to my goal than to expect to be all trim and svelte by the time summer rolls around.

I am trying to believe. I really am. But it's nowhere near easy.

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Daily Record
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Weight: 143.7

BF: 1/2 grapefruit, 1/2 cup yogurt, coffee w/cream
Lunch: WW Pita Pizza
Supper: ????

Reasons To Lose Weight - #5

A doctor told me to.

I will preface this by saying that I don't visit the doctor very often. In general I'm pretty healthy. Or at least I think of myself as being healthy. I do have asthma and allergies, but they don't trouble me all that much. My asthma kicks in during cold, damp weather or when I stay overnight at my parents' house (sadly - I think it must be because it is such an old house, something must trigger my allergies). So I usually only go to the doctor for something specific.

A couple of years ago now I had called to make an appointment and found out that a new doctor had taken over the practice. When I went in for my appointment with the new doctor, the receptionist weighed me before I went in to see the doctor. This was something new.

I had been wondering about my weight for a while. At the time I was around 136 lb and I had been stuck there for a long time (like, years). I was working out at least 5 times a week. I tried to eat a healthy diet most of the time. I counted calories. The weight wasn't budging. I'd been at this weight for a few years, and I'd started to wonder if this was just where my body wanted to be. I won't say I was happy with that weight. I knew it was outside the healthy weight range for my height. But I was also frustrated with trying to lose weight and I didn't know what else to do. So I wondered if I should just accept it. I hadn't lost any weight, but I also hadn't gained, so maybe I was OK at this weight.

So I went in to see the doctor and we discussed the reason I'd come in; then before I left, I asked him about my weight. He looked at my file, then looked at a chart on the wall and told me to lose weight. He said I should be within 120 - 123 lbs. I presented my defense - I work out, I try to eat healthy but my weight stays the same. He didn't budge. I had to lose weight. He told me to exercise and not eat fast food and I would lose weight. That was the extent of his advice. I found it quite frustrating to be honest.

I also found it interesting that I was the one to bring it up. Obviously he didn't look at me and immediately think: this girl needs to lose weight.

But still, there it was. And around that time it seemed that everywhere I turned I was seeing articles that said being overweight by even 10 pounds was a health risk. So apparently I had to suck it up and keep trying to lose the weight.

Nothing changed for quite a while. Which is not to say that I didn't try, because I did. But I didn't get anywhere.

I'd hate to go back to the doctor's office and step on that scale now. I'm not sure what has happened over the past year that suddenly caused me to gain, but here I am. I have to tell you, 136 pounds is looking pretty good to me right now.

It seems to be getting harder. I'm not sure if it's age-related. But now I am even farther away from where I am supposed to be, where I would like to be. I'll keep trying though.

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Daily Record
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Weight: 142.6

BF: Grain Shop High Fibre Crisp Cereal w/milk, coffee w/cream
Lunch: Tomato Lima Bean Soup
Snack: Yogurt w/strawberries & raspberries
Supper: WW Pita Pizza & salad

Pancake Tuesday

I am not religious at all, so I hope I won't offend anyone by using Shrove Tuesday as an excuse to eat pancakes for supper. I love pancakes. Possibly because any holiday/vacation or otherwise special breakfast when I was growing up usually involved my Dad making pancakes for breakfast (My Mom is a wonderful cook, but not a morning person, so breakfasts were more often Dad's thing).

Yesterday The Bag Lady posted a list of favourite things...For me, pancakes would have to go on that list and they would be connected to other favourite things - holidays, sleeping in, family, camping at Kejimkujik National Park. My family has gone camping at Keji every summer for as long as I can remember. Going to Keji almost feels like going home. And the traditional camping breakfast is....you guessed it: Pancakes! With bacon of course.

So, today I intend to eat my pancakes and enjoy them. I can worry about the scale tomorrow.

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Daily Record
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Weight: 142.9

BF: 1/2 grapefruit, oatmeal w/brown sugar & milk, coffee w/cream
Lunch: Lima Bean Tomato Soup
Snack: Yogurt w/strawberries & raspberries
Supper: Pancakes! And probably sausage to keep poor Moon from fainting away due to lack of meat.

Would you like chocolate with that?

Don't feel much like talking today. Not much on my mind besides work I guess. Busy day, which is good, but now tired.

Serious chocolate cravings going on. Seriously. This morning, thought about adding chocolate chips to my oatmeal. Went with milk and a little brown sugar instead. Lunch time - had vague notions of something chocolate, possibly with caramel. Ate my soup instead. Sadly, caved this afternoon. Decided to have a Mochaccino; I try not to have coffee in the afternoons, but those cravings just weren't going away. Got to the coffee shop and saw Caramel Chocolate Fudge Brownies...Hmm...Spoke to those vague lunch time cravings I'd had...So, I had regular coffee and the brownie. Which was ok. Not fabulous. Homemade brownies are always better and I should know this by now.

Hopefully that has ended that craving for now and I will be good for the rest of the week.

It could happen.

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Daily Record
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BF: Oatmeal (Steel cut, leftover from yesterday) w/milk and brown sugar. Coffee w/cream.
Lunch: Lima Bean Tomato Soup w/cottage cheese
Snack: Caramel Chocolate Fudge Brownie
Supper: Chicken Spezzatino

A Day Off

I gave myself the day off yesterday. That might sound funny, since I work a Mon - Friday, 9-5 job. Well, theoretically anyway. But sometimes you just have to give yourself permission to do nothing.

Now, let me state for the record, that I have seriously lazy sit-around-on-the-couch tendencies. I can easily fritter away an evening, a weekend, maybe even a vacation reading novels, watching some tv, flipping through magazines, and just generally whiling away the hours. But most of the time, there's stuff I need to do, so I try to divide my time between pursuit of laziness and getting things done.

Yesterday, for some reason I just felt exhausted. I went to bed at my usual week day time on Friday night. I slept in - well, after I did the usual morning routine of having George poke me awake at 6:30 am so I can drag myself out of bed, give the cats morning treats, stumble down to the basement and open the window so they can get out into their enclosure for a morning breath of fresh air. After that, seeing no reason to be awake at 6:30 on a Saturday morning, I went back to bed and slept soundly until 9:30. I woke up to find Fred back on his pillow by my head and George sleeping on my legs.

Spoiled? My cats? Can't imagine why you'd think so.

Anyway, I just felt like I was dragging myself around and everything was an effort. I brought in some wood, started a fire in the stove, came back upstairs and my heart was pounding like I'd just been out for a run or something. I had this list in my head of the million things I wanted to do yesterday and I felt so overwhelmed. So, I finally decided to give myself the day off. I would not do anything that I really didn't want to do.

I did not turn on my computer. I did not do any job-related work. I did not clean the house. I did make myself a pot of soup to freeze for lunches this week, because it didn't take long and I knew it would make today easier for me. I did change the sheets on the bed, because I knew I'd be happier going to bed last night with clean sheets. By late afternoon I was starting to feel a bit better and I did a workout, because I wanted to do it. I did a sculpting DVD, then I got on the treadmill. I only intended to walk for 30 minutes or so, but once I got going I started feeling good and I was enjoying the CD in my stereo, so I ended up doing an hour walk. At that point I decided I should stop, or I might be sorry later.

Was in bed by 11 last night and had a good sleep. Woke up at 9 am this morning (well, after a repeat of the usual morning routing with the cats). My house is still a mess, I still feel like I'm behind on some work, but I feel a million times better than I did at this time yesterday.

This seems to be a lesson that I have to relearn every now and then - sometimes you just have to cut yourself some slack.

Fabulous Feline Friday

Weight: 142.3 (-0.6)

Yes, it's weigh-in day. I had a strong urge to ignore it this week, but I can't do that. So instead I decided to invite The Fabulous Felines along to keep me company. They always cheer me up and perhaps they will serve as a useful distraction ~ who wants to look at my weekly weigh-in numbers when they could gaze upon my beautiful boys?

But wait...if you were paying attention, you may have noticed that I actually managed a little bit of a loss this week. Unexpected, but I'll take it!

Since I already had this post drafted, I figured I'd go with it anyway. Who doesn't like looking at cute cat pictures?

In a bit of a rush this morning, so that's it for now. Maybe more later.