Fifteen

I put my weight into the Weight Watchers online tracker this morning and was rewarded with a bouncing star which meant that I had lost 15 pounds! (15.2 to be exact.) I have a ways to go but I am practicing aparigraha, which is the sanskrit word for non-clinging. I'm not clinging to the weight, and I'm not clinging to an outcome. I'm not clinging to the fact that 2 summers ago I was a lower weight than I am now. I'm just doing the things I need to do each day that keep my body healthy and happy and properly fueled. I'm just doing this for myself.

Last July I posted about How I Lost Zero Pounds With Yoga (and more). It's true. I didn't start losing until I joined Weight Watchers and really cut back on my food intake (and moved out of the house I hated.) What yoga does do is make all my pants too big even if the scale isn't moving much. And it makes biking better and easier. And it makes life better.

Yoga last night was lovely. We stared with some core work that my teacher loves, then moved to gomukasana (cow pose) to open our shoulders and then worked on pincha mayurasana. My right shoulder felt very good in it, and the teacher helped me balance for a bit. One of my favorite things is watching my friends get up into pincha mayurasana. (Shout out to Sprouts!) It is such a gorgeous pose and too see other people float up into it just brings me such joy.

I have a dozen and a half eggs in my fridge from my sister's chickens, and some asparagus and kale. I'm envisioning a fritatta for dinner. Lunch - leftover chicken and rice from Pa, along with the remaining bits of amazing potato salad that he makes with homemade mayonnaise. And some cut up oranges. Breakfast - english muffin with almond butter and banana.

Check Check Check!

Gym?: check! 42 minutes on the treadmill at 3.5-3.9 speed, elevation between 4 and 7 (if it had gone much higher I think I might have hit my head. I was under a low beam.) And I joined so now I have to go.

Calories within range?: check! So 2 days ago I was famished. Today, I'm totally full and have eaten 800 calories less than I did the day I was famished and couldn't stop eating. I guess my body is doing its own calorie cycling, and the week will average out to normal. I had kashi & milk for B. My homemade chile with a last bit of pulled pork and cantaloupe for lunch. Then dinner was: 2 hot dogs, 1 in a bun, hummus and pita and a pickle.

Freakish gained pound gone?: check! Actually 2 pounds are gone for a net loss of one. It's not so much the 1 pound, it's more that I want things to generally move in a downward direction.

Now I'm sleepy and want to lie on the couch and watch 90210 and maybe lift some weights. But there are evening chores to be done. Hopefully by 8 I'll be back on the couch, or on the floor lifting heavy things over my head.

169.8

Down 1.4 pounds and out of the 170's baby!

And this is my thought - this process has been fairly painless. I'm well fed, I'm exercising how I want to, when I want to and the weight is coming off slowly but surely. So what they heck was I doing before? Was I really eating that much more? Was I that much of a slug (ok, the answer to that might be yes) but I don't feel as though I've made drastic changes and yet changes are happening.

Still no need for new clothing sizes, and I bought a new bra (love!) and have not gone down a size. And not one person has noticed that I've lost weight. Or if they haven't they haven't said anything.

I guess that's the down side to being tall, you can carry a lot more weight, but you need to take off a lot more weight before anyone notices.

Still blowing my nose a lot but feeling much much better.

Plan for the day: more coffee and breakfast, decluttering, cleaning, trip to the dump/recycling, farmer's market for some flowers (last week's bunch lasted all week!) and then we'll see.

Aaah, Sleep

I slept through the whole night! What a joy. I wonder if it was because I listened to the Yoga Nidra relaxation from Drops of Necter. Whatever the reason, I am very pleased to have slept all night and I woke up feeling much better. This cold has moved out quite quickly, I will remember that and be sure to head to the acupuncturist at the first sign of illness and not wait until it has a chance to settle in.

Sunny weekend in store. Maybe an early hike tomorrow before some decluttering at home?

Still losing weight despite lack of exercise. Down .6 pounds this week. Almost out of the 170's.

- .2

Hey, I'll take it. Considering I only exercised twice this week, I couldn't really expect more.

10 pounds?

Early poll results are showing that I have lost 10 pounds.

Which just goes to show that if you have a big tantrum and then have over 100 grams of fat in one day (and do zumba), you will finally lose 2 pounds in one week and be back on the downward track.

Yay.

Thank you and have a nice day.

Plan for the Day

Today's Plan:

1. Coffee (in progress)
2. Bike Ride (on road bike, unless roads are wet, then on hybrid)
3. Recycling & trash to the dump
4. Buy light bulbs (2 in my living room burned out this morning.)
5. Help Pa clean out the house with the fam, and have yummy food. I have some beets, fresh onions and zucchini to bring for roasting.
6. Not sure what the tides will be like for swimming down there, may need to go this evening after I get home.
7. Laugh at the fact that the scale is down to the lowest number yet on this journey. Down 1.4 from last week. Finally. When I looked back at Sparkpeople to figure out what was going on, I noticed that the calorie differential report (the difference between my intake and output) showed that during the weeks that I hadn't lost, my average calorie intake per day was about 200 calories lower than on the weeks that I had been losing. So, I guess upping my calories this week, in addition to cycling them, worked.

Bodies are weird and funny.

Still Stuck

Day 21 of the scale not moving.

Whatev.

Thanks for nothing you little fucking piece of plastic and metal and wire.

Glad I've been taking so much care with what I've been eating because clearly that has worked really well.

Have a nice day.

Progress Report

The scale-loss has slowed to a crawl, the kind of crawl that just lies there and doesn't move. Yes, my legs are getting stronger (not sure about my arms yet) but the fact remains that there are still 25 extra pounds on my body that don't need to be there. That have not always been there. And I want them gone. They can come off 1 pound at a time, but I would like them to please go.

Anyway, to that end, I will add in a couple of bike rides this week, and maybe an afternoon swim towards the end of the week depending on what the tides are like.

Positive changes:

- I am no longer sore after hiking.

- My legs are getting toned and stronger.

- I wake up early in the morning, more refreshed & ready to go.

Things to do:

- stock up on sparkling water

- organize kitchen again to make meal prep easier

What do you do when the weight loss slows or stalls?

So Long, Farewell

...to another pound! I think that's 8 now. I'm always a little fuzzy on the exact starting weight, but I can safely say it is at least 8 pounds gone! And while the number on the scale is not the be all and end all, it's like a progress report every week that says "Doing great!" and I'm a nerd who loves good grades so it makes me happy.

The other things that I'm noticing are that my Paschimottanasana (seated forward bend) is getting lower and lower, when I lean forward in eka pada rajakapotasana (pigeon pose) my head can rest on the ground instead of needing a block, my legs are much stronger in Warrior pose, and my practices have naturally progressed from 20 or 30 minutes to 50 to 60 minutes.

Plan for the day: work in the morning, massage at 1:30 then working on my business plan.

Plan for tomorrow: hike in the Blue Hills.

And another one bites the dust!

Down another pound this week, for 6 pounds total since the begining of June. I've kept at this - tracking my food each day, planning, figuring out a Plan B on the day I made the best lunch ever and then left it at home with all my water, going for hikes in the rain, crawling out of bed with one eye still closed to walk the dog in the morning - and have not once felt deprived or like I couldn't enjoy something.

A few times I've been hungry after dinner, but then I look at what I ate and it was totally adequate fuel for the day and I just remind myself that breakfast will be coming shortly and we are in no danger of starving and we aren't actually hungry and I've moved on to something else. I think that is the helpful thing about tracking - I know for a fact that my body has received everything it needs that day so I don't need to eat more with the belief that maybe it's missing something.

And I know that the scale is not the ultimate tool for measuring how successful I am at this, but it is the most convenient since I don't own a machine to measure my lung strength and don't have any body fat calipers. So, I'll keep using it.

Moving in the right direction

My scale and I, that is. Down 4 pounds. 30 to go.  And I seem to have hit the nice stride where I'm able to plan my meals and know what works to get me through the day (and what doesn't.)  

I have a gigantic leafy cabbage sitting in my living room. It's a thing of beauty, and now I get to figure out some cabbage recipes. Maybe moo shi something. Or kim chi. I had one leaf chopped up in a veggie fajita last night, but I'll need to eat more than that.  No wonder so many cultures have fermented cabbage as part of their diet. They had to preserve it since it grows so large.  It appears as though I need some sort of crock and perhaps a wooden mallet to pound the fermenting cabbage.  If I drew or was a photographer, I think I would draw a lot of pictures of this cabbage, or take its photo. It's weird to think that it started as a tiny seed and turned into this giant thing just from dirt and compost and sunlight.  I am not sure why this cabbage has touched me so, but it has. 

I haven't really been exercising too much. I do my sit ups and lift my hand weights most mornings, and I walk with the dog in the morning. The sun is back out after a week of grey and rain so there might be a bike ride in the works. And I have to see if I can remember how to heave the kayak up onto the top of my SUV without having it fall on me like I was Brett Michaels at the Tony Awards. 

For now, I'm finishing my coffee and then I'll go and see if there are any eggs at the farm (my landlady put the kibosh on my chicken project, she's getting on in years and the idea of chickens made her "uncomfortable"...) so I'll keep supporting my local farm for now.  

Better Days

So, after my dinner last night where I pretended I was French, I headed over to the Boy's. I brought him the rest of the bread, and some cheese (which I just realized I left at his house. drat.) He is going on a 50 mile bike ride today so I figured he needed the bread more than I did. He was pretending to be French, too, but without the wine.

Bread, some stinky Spanish goat cheese, avocado with Balsamic Vinegar, olive oil with salt, pepper, and herbs de Provence.  I was full from my early dinner so the Boy ate all of it, but not all of the cheese. 

The Dog looked at us pleadingly, but we did not give in.

Today's plan: try to not get excited about the fact that when I weighed myself this morning the scale said 175.6 (which is what I weighed last year at some point), do yoga or walk somewhere (or maybe bike), figure out what time the party at my Mom's house is, hope that someone there notices I've lost weight. And clean the kitchen.

Two Point Two

These are the amazing noodles my dad makes. They are whole wheat shells, carmelized onions, a mix of cheese (chedder, asiago and parmesan) and then cooked until they sort of stick to the pan. Oh, and they have butter and a little sugar in them.  These are not something to be made at home. These are a special Dad Treat. 


This is broccoli. And the Christmas table cloth. 


This was my little bowl. It had some noodles, some broccoli dabbed with a little homemade mayonaise, some pork loin, and a few small beet cubes. I had a second bowl with a few more noodles, more broccoli, and pork. It was just the right amount of food.

I did not get a photo of the ice cream, but it was chocolate. I did not get a photo of the lovely rose wine, but it was delicious - dry and cold.  Nor did I get a photo of the niece who was covered in chocolate or the nephew who was giving my biceps another workout since he likes to be held and bounced. I have to figure out a way to get my triceps done while holding him, but that didn't seem quite safe since it would involve holding him over my head.  

My leg still hurts. My ankle hurts. My foot hurts. And my massage therapist is on vacation. I'm going to do yoga this morning instead of walking and see if that helps.  It feels like if someone could pick me up by my right leg, and give a good shake, it would fix things.  

And the organic farm stand is open! I drove by yesterday and they had asparagus, so I bought a bunch and will have it for dinner tonight.  

And I just weighed myself -  down 2.2 pounds from last week. Happy happy, joy joy.  

Breakfast

I still have not decided on my workout, but I had to post about breakfast because it was SO GOOD!! I knew I wanted eggs, and didn't want a tortilla, but I wanted something else in my eggs. And there was the 1/2 a zucchini from Fajita Night. So I had 2 eggs, 1/2 tablespoon of butter, 2 mushrooms and 1/2 a zucchini. I chopped the veggies up very small and cooked those first, and then scrambled the eggs with them. A little salt and pepper and oh my goodness they were so good.  Total calories: 225.   

Just Plugging Away

Nothing new and exciting to report.  Dinner last night was beets, salad and a little couscous. It was perfect for a lovely summer eating with the girls.  As I was driving home, I realized that if I still had english muffins in the house I would eat one when I got home, but since I didn't have any, I wouldn't be eating anything.  I wasn't hungry and didn't need more food. 
I got up at 6 and walked with the dog in the yard for 10 minutes and now I'm having coffee and getting ready for my own walk, and planning my lunch for the day. I'm think of brown rice, arugula, and curry with some spicy sausage.  Maybe beets. All of those things are prepped and in my fridge, so it's very easy to just mix and match depending on what I feel like eating on any given day.

ETA:

Went walking. Thought I had picked a nice long route but it only turned out to be 30 minutes. Did about 15 minutes of hand weights and sit ups. Tried to do some exercise from a tear-out from Self Magazine, but couldn't figure them out.