Dietbet Sprint Into Shape -- Day 1

Day 1
Goal: 143lb in 4 weeks (134lb ultimate goal)
Start weight: 149lb
Weight: 149lb (67.59kg, 10.64st)
Gain from yesterday: 1.75lbs (.8kg, .12st)
Steps: 6870

Daily goals:

Tricep dips or pushups: none
Ab exercises: a few
Walks: Morning & lunch none, after work 1.2mi
Medical exercise: 4 reps
No sweets: yes
No grains: yes
No cow dairy: yes

Today's food:

Eggs & pork links
Goat yogurt
Apple
Goat yogurt
Carrots (4)
Hamburger patty w/ketchup
Spinach w/mayo

So I weighed in at 149, or 150lb in "Airport Security Attire", so 4% of that 150lb is 144lb (143lb without extra clothes/cellphone), or a 6lb loss in 4 weeks.  It costs $25 to join in the "game", and if I am able to lose the 4%, I will get a share of the pot of money.  It's only 1.5lb a week.  I have to focus on keeping my portions low and not cheating, plus walking a lot. 

Spring Challenge Week 1 Weekend

Day 4 & 5
Goal: 134lb
Start weight: 147.5lb
Weight: 147-147.25lb
Gain: 1.5-1.75lbs
Steps:  6990 (Saturday)  2107 (Sunday)


Weeks to reach goal: 12 weeks (that's a little more than 1lb a week)

Daily goals:

Exercises: none
Walks: Saturday afternoon 3.2mi

No sweets: Sunday I had some Starburst jelly beans
No grains: yes
No cow dairy: yes

Saturday's food:

Several servings of goat yogurt
Apple
Shish kebab w/bbq sauce
Carrots
Pork roast w/vindaloo sauce
More food, can't remember what though
Belgian ale (24oz)

Sunday's food:

Bacon (8oz)
Several servings of goat yogurt
Apple
Carrots
Hamburgers w/ketchup (I should only have had one)
Wine (one glass)

I'm sure there was additional food that I've forgotten about


Where did my weight loss go?  Maybe I misweighed myself, it can happen on a medical scale if the large weight is not exactly in the right place.  Sunday I overate, I think from boredom...

I was reading one of the weight-loss blogs, and saw a mention of Dietbet, so I decided to join!  Starting tomorrow, Monday, I have 4 weeks to lose 4% of my weight, based on the number is tomorrow morning.

Spring Challenge -- Week 1 Friday

Day 3
Goal: 134lb
Start weight: 147.5lb
Weight: 145.75lb (66.11kg, 10.41st)
Loss: 1.5lbs (.68kg, .11st)
Steps: 7372

Weeks to reach goal: 12 weeks (that's a little more than 1lb a week)

Daily goals:

Tricep dips: 1 set of 10 reps
Ab exercises: yes
Walks: Morning .4mi, lunch 1.4mi, after work 1.2mi
Medical exercise: [9] reps
No sweets: yes
No grains: yes
No cow dairy: yes

Today's food:

Eggs & pork links
Goat yogurt
Apple
Oh no, I can't remember what else I had...


I lost 1.5lb!  Just under 12lb to goal.  My system is cleaning out the dairy I had over the weekend. 

Spring Challenge -- Week 1 Thursday

Day 2
Goal: 134lb
Start weight: 147.5lb
Weight: 147.25lb (66.79kg, 10.52st)
Loss: .25lbs (.11kg, .02st)
Steps: 6,756

Weeks to reach goal: 12 weeks (that's a little more than 1lb a week)

Daily goals:

Pushups: 1 set of 10 reps
Ab exercises: yes
Walks: Morning 9 blocks (.4mi), lunch (.8mi), after work to 72nd street (1.2mi)
Medical exercise:  6 reps
No sweets: yes
No grains: yes
No cow dairy: yes

I'm changing to no sweets instead of no sugar/sweets, as I'm not strict about avoiding sweetened ketchup, for instance.

Today's food:

Eggs & pork links
Goat yogurt
Apple
Walnuts
More goat yogurt
Carrots (4)
Mesquite chicken wings (Costco)
I keep thinking I had something else, could have been more yogurt

I need to go back to what worked, which was daily posting.  I can't ignore when I'm going in the wrong direction when I have to post all those numbers!

Getting back on track: Day 1

Day 1
Goal: 134lb
Start weight: 147.5lb
Weight: 147.5lb (66.90kg, 10.54st)
Loss: 0lbs (0kg, .0st) 
Average weight this past week: TBD
Average weight the week before: TBD
Milestones: none yet :(
Steps: 6,584

Weeks to reach goal: 12 weeks (that's a little more than 1lb a week)

I'm going to start a new checklist of things I want to achieve daily:

Pushups:  2 sets of 10 reps
Ab exercises:  yes
Walks:  Morning 9 blocks, lunch 14 blocks, after work (?  I can't remember!)
Medical exercise:  7 reps
No sugar/sweets:  yes
No grains:  yes
No cow dairy:  yes

I did another college tour to look at the colleges that my elder DD was accepted/waitlisted to.  There was a lot of driving, but we had a campus tour on both Saturday (10,788 steps) and Sunday (7,754 steps).  Saturday there was also a long walk to dinner and back to the car.  I did OK with food and stayed gluten-free, but ended up having ice cream and candy several times starting Saturday after dinner, then Sunday and into Monday.  I had delicious lamb chops w/asparagus & sweet potato fries on Saturday for dinner.  Yesterday (Tuesday) I had a granola bar and several caramel squares, but that's it for the bad behaviour!  I have to take advantage of the good weather and get down below 140lb before my summer vacation. 

I am posting this now, even though I don't have the information re: walks at lunch & after work, just because I feel I need to publicly post this to get back on track, so I will be updating it later today with my afternoon activities. 

Trying to stay focused during an ankle injury

Well, I wish I could tell you that this will be the type of post where I stayed completely focused and lost weight, but sadly that is not the case.

I'm now up to 144-146lb, which is a 5lb gain from early February, prior to my trip.  Since my return from Paris, in March I started occasionally eating poorly, which I'm sure is partially responsible for a health issue coming back to bother me.  I was able to determine that there was no major illness going on, all scans were clear, which was a relief, but which was time-consuming and stressful.  Then on St. Patty's Day morning, I twisted my ankle on my way to one of my medical appointments, and of course I've been unable to walk properly since then.  I finally went to the doctor on Monday (a week later), and x-rays yesterday showed no bones broken, so it's just a bad sprain.  I have an ankle brace on order, and it should arrive on Friday.  I have already bought an ace bandage roll, two different ankle support socks, and two different ankle braces, tring to find one that would be supportive enough, but only the one I purchased 2 days ago is stiff enough.  This brace on order I hope will be a better fit than the one I am wearing now.

All this stress and lack of activity has resulted in several days when I had a "who cares, what's the point?" attitude, like yesterday when I had several servings of jelly beans.  However, it's time to get focused again, and not cave into cravings.  I have to go back to only 2-3 servings of alcohol a week, and no candy/sweets.   As I can't burn off enough calories, I have to cut back so that I don't add any more weight.  Once I am able to be fully mobile again, I'm sure I'll be able to bring my weight down rather quickly, now that the weather is getting better, but I can't keep letting the situation get worse.  I am still only 10lb from my goal!  Keeping daily records and blogging regularly, even if no one is reading, helps me stay on track, so back to regular, maybe even daily posting.  I can do it! 

Pre-vacation and my trip to Paris

With all the crummy weather in NYC since my last post, I wasn't really able to enjoy my favorite exercise, walking.  I continued in "maintenance" mode through the second half of January and the first two weeks in February, even though I would have preferred to lose something, but at least I didn't gain!

On Valentine's Day we flew to Paris, and just got back last night.  One week ago I weighed 142.5lb, and this morning I weighed 143.25lb!  One reason for that is we walked A LOT!  My daughter's pedometer said we walked 25,000+ steps every day.  The first few days I was pretty sore, and self-medicated by having some wine at lunch and at dinner.  I kept the wheat and potato quotient down in the first few days, and made a pilgrimage to a gluten-free bakery on Monday or Tuesday, and wouldn't you know it, it was closed!  I was so disappointed.  After that, I just decided what the hell, I'll have some bread.  French baguettes are delicious!  But of course I overdid it.  Yesterday's breakfast was 1/3 of a baguette.  As the day progressed, I was feeling worse and worse, so lunch was just some apple.  I drank a Coke at the airport, but I eventually barfed on the plane (in the WC, I was neat, I don't think anybody knew).  I had to basically stick with small sips of water and some of a Bobo's Oat Bar on the plane so it wouldn't happen again.  I'm sure that helped keep my total gain down.

As I said, I kept the wheat and carb quotient low in the beginning.  I chose Tarte tatin, which is an apple dessert with a thin crust, and had Crème brûlée several times.  For breakfast on the first two days, instead of having the croissants etc they provided for breakfast, I had an apple, walnuts, and a Bobo's Oat Bar.   Tuesday morning I had an omelette, but Wednesday I had a croissant, and Thursday I had a third of a baguette.  Lunches and dinners tended towards steak.  I also had escargot 2x (lots of bread with that though), and oysters one day.  The first few days I had mostly vegetables with my meals, but later had frites a few times.  Several times instead of dessert w/dinner, we had gelato.  Every day I had 1-2 glasses of wine, and one night we had champagne too.  The last night I had 3-4 glasses of wine, and also had a 1/2 a pint of Murphy's Stout.  Maybe that added to my queasy stomach on the plane.

So, we had a wonderful time.  On our next trip, I'm going to continue to keep down the wheat and carb quotient.  Having my alternate breakfast really worked for me, I'm going to keep doing that.  Today it's back to the same old menu.  We'll see what my weight settles into next week.