2 more weeks!!!

Sort of...I think I mentioned that I count the week "over" for this journey when it starts. :-)

Anyway I am halfway through Week 14 at this point.  Still ZERO cheats!  I am really proud of that.  However, I do agree that it is pointless to beat yourself up if you do cheat.  On the other hand I don't think it is OK to give yourself permission to cheat just because nothing bad happened this time.  First of all, as a nurse who has worked with patients at risk for referring syndrome I have seen electrolytes go nuts when you re-feed too fast.  It's not a good thing!  Also, the fact that nothing showed up on the scale this week doesn't mean that what you ate today won't show up next week!  I let myself get away with binging for too many (6) years because I would have a "bad day" and then I wouldn't have a gain on the scale so I allowed it to continue.  And then in 2 weeks I would be up another 2-3lbs and all those 2-3lbs added up to 100!  So, for me personally I need to remember that cheating is only cheating myself and that there is a reason I gained all this weight in the first place.  I will use that going forward into maintenance as well.  I was always a healthy weight and when I think back during those healthy years I would MAYBE once a month eat a little extra but in general I didn't overindulge.  I think one thing that helped me stay there is that I lived with a mother who was overweight and had several extended family members that were obese.  I never thought I would join them in those ranks.  Then, I became a travel nurse, worked crazy rotating shifts and was mostly surrounded by people of healthy weights.  Sounds silly, but I truly think that was part of it-I just stopped paying attention!  Of course, our facilitator has brought that up a few times-that people who are a healthy weight actually do think about what they are putting in their moths even though you don't hear them do it. :-)  Lessons learned, right??

So this week I weighed in at 200.8lbs!  So, that means this Thursday I will be under 200 for the first time since January 2008.  Thank goodness.  The last time I remember weighing myself besides right before I went to Boston.  I remember because I went to Seattle that Sept and weighed in at 198 and I remember telling someone that I was dangerously close to the next century of weight and that I was terrified of getting there.  I met the same people in Vegas that January and I was still the same weight.     So anyway, I am very excited to hit 197 and feel like I am losing the 35 or so pounds that I gained on night shift in San Diego. :-) Sometimes I think back to my time in San Diego and it makes me sad that I left when I did, but I am so glad I went home and spent the next year with my best friend as she was dealing with her cancer and later passed away.  It is frustrating though that when I left SD I was finally getting active again!  Ah well.  I'm finally get back there again!!

Today I did my C25K run.  It was week 8 day 1 and was a 27min run.  I was finally under a 15min pace for the run portion and I know it would have been slightly faster without the pups, but I'm not ready to leave them behind.  ;-) They enjoy it too much.  Plus Lucy still has weight to lose.  Ha!  And Lola just needs the exercise.  She is still crazy after our 40min (total with the warm up and cool down.)  I think I will be back in the 12min/mile range soon enough.  And that is probably where I will hang out forever. :-) If anyone is thinking of doing it, I just want to say that you can run at any weight!  Of course you should probably be walking first, but when I started this my run was a shuffle, literally.  It was not what anyone would ever consider a run, and actually it was probably slower than my walk.  BUT it uses different muscles and it def got my heart rate up higher.  If you do it right you aren't necessarily at risk for more injuries (all about form and not landing on a straight leg.)  I actually recommend wearing a chest strap HR monitor to force yourself to only go at a pace that isn't too much and to follow an interval program.  It has worked great for me this time.  And worked wonderfully for me in the 2001 when I first started running!

Ok, that's it!  Next 2 weeks of group are all about food and transition so they should be really interesting!

Halfway there!!!

And by halfway I just mean halfway through with the full fast or "active weight loss" phase.  Yeah!!  It feels good to be there!

So here is a summary:
Optifast products:  6 per day...I typically have 4 shakes, 1 bar and 1 soup
Cheats:  ZERO!!!!!!!
Water:  at least 64oz per day, often times 72oz plus the fluid from the shakes.  :-)
Weight at start:  241.6
Todays weight:  215.8
Total weight lost: 25.8lbs
3.7lbs/week
Weeks of product:  7

I'm somewhat surprised that I'm averaging 3.7lbs/week.  I thought I would stay closer to the 2-3lb range.  I do know that I lost more the first week so it ups the average, but I guess I thought it would even out by then.  :-)  Yeah!

I took the dogs on a walk this morning.  I can't seem to make myself run/walk on Thursdays.  I just don't get enough sleep because I need a couple hours to wind down at night and I don't think I get it when I don't get home til 8.  Ah well.  As long as I walk!  I also parked at the free lot for the hospital that is about a 10min walk away.  Doing both of those things brought me very close to 10000 steps per day so I think I'll keep that up.

I still feel like I should be more nervous to either go back to food or maintain, but I'm really just focusing on getting the job done! I've lost weight counting calories before so I'm not too worried about that part especially since I think I will have momentum going into it.  As far as maintenance goes, I'll see when I get there!

A running coach came to talk to us last night.  I've seen his car around town and I've been curious.  During the maintenance phase Kaiser has lifestyle courses.  One is going to be a running group.  I have a feeling I'll be joining that one.

Other than that not much is going on.  I suppose that's a good thing!!

Any new blogs out there??

When I was looking into this program I was on a hunt for blogs, specifically success stories.  I read the ones that I could find, but I'm finding that this blog doesn't even show up on searches.  Does anyone know how to search in a better way?? Or maybe there really aren't new blogs?  I think what is hard about the old ones is that many stop at some point after the blogger enters maintenance and then starts gaining weight.  I'm sure it would be hard to continue to blog at that point.   I hope I succeed and a year after maintenance I start blogging about all of the benefits to losing the weight and keeping it off!  Or something similar!

If anyone out there is reading this and has found any other newer blogs that appear inspiring let me know!

After Wednesday I will be halfway through full fast!!  If I go buy my current weight I am in the upper 210s and will hopefully cross below 215 in a week and a half or so!  I know I shouldn't set deadlines for weight loss goals, but I'm thinking of it more like a prediction.  :-)  I'm really hoping to have lost half of the weight by end of phase 1!  If I can dip below 200 before transition starts I will be super happy.  I remember a few years ago after I left my travel nurse assignment in San Diego I went to Seattle with some of my nurse friends from SD and I told one of them that I was horrified that my weight had ballooned up to almost a new "century." That number was 190-something.  I remember being devastated and miserable.  I thought my weight would never get that high.  Previously when I had thought I was "fat" my weight was around 165-175 which really isn't too far into the overweight range for my height of 5'8".  I never thought I would enter the obese category.  I feel like I have lost the last 5 or so years of my life being at this weight because it has held me back from doing things I enjoy and meeting new people in the cities I traveled to.  Even here it has kept me from going out and enjoying what I want to!  There is so much to love about the bay area and I need to get out and explore more!  Anyway, I didn't come here to write about any of that.  And I can't think about what I haven't done, but I can focus on taking this 1 day at a time and think about all of the physical things I want to do when I meet my goals!  I even took my bike out the other day (to ride to the movies) and I was so much more comfortable on it then 20lbs ago.  I'm still a chicken and afraid to fall, but feeling lighter definitely helped!!

Signing off...keep up the hard work and let me know if you know of any blogs for people starting out on this journey or recently transitioned and successfully maintaining!!

Angie

Hungry today...

I have only had a few moments where I would say I am really truly just hungry.  I've had regular, it's about time for me to eat hunger and I have a product and all is good.  But today for some reason I'm having stomach growling, headache hunger.  I wonder if it's about T.O.M cause I know that in general your metabolism goes up around then.  It could also because I did week 4, day 1 of the C25K app first thing.  I think I ran faster than usual and it was job 3m, walk 90s, jog 5m, walk 2.5m, jog 3m, all 90s, jog 5m.  So a total of 16min jogging vs 9min previously.  So it's entirely possible I was hungry, or didn't drink enough water first.  The water part would explain the headache, of course so would hunger.  Who knows...I am trying to get some fluids in and have moved my products to 2hrs apt for the most part today.  I've also been skimping on the fiber the last few days which I know can make me feel less full.  I'm trying to make sure it's true hunger and not mouth hunger (from boredom, emotions, etc.)  I'm not really feeling stressed about anything.  I might be a little bored, but I truly feel like it is real hunger.  So water it is!  If I'm hungry 20m after the water I think I'll make a tea.  I really like to save my soup for at least 5pm.

It is lab/med check week at Kaiser.  I went today to get the labs.  Hopefully they are all good.  The HH is back and totally fine, on the high side of fine so that also leads me to believe I might be slightly dehydrated.  We'll see what the rest show.

I weighed myself this am (before the exercise madness) and I'm 219 this am.  Whoop!  Of course it only really matters what my weight is on Thursday am.  I have a feeling it will be about 219 or maybe even 218.  That would be great!  If I'm at 220 or less I get to buy new bowls to eat my soup in.  I'm pretty excited.  Silly I know, but I never really let myself buy cute dining things hurrah!  We are supposed to come up with a goal for group this week.  It's supposed to be a smart goal and we are going to tell everyone.  I think instead of doing an exercise goal I'm going to sit at my table to eat my soup.  The obvious benefit is to stop mindless eating.  The secondary benefit will be no more dogs staring at me hoping for a drop of soup.  :-)

Not much else is happening.  I feel very fortunate that I get to do this in an apt all alone and not surrounded by people all the time.  Good thing I'm somewhat of an introvert or I would be going bananas.  :-)