It's Fri-i-i-day

As you may have seen in my update last night I lost at weigh-in yesterday. I was pretty surprised by that. I weighed in and the receptionist said, "you're down 1.8". A second later he said, "wait, I miscalculated" and I thought - oh, here we go, a gain. "You're actually down 2.2". What?! So I went on the Weight Watchers community message boards and asked if anyone else ever has a loss that they think is a fluke. After all, I ate a lot of bacon, graham crackers, chips, etc while camping this weekend. Not to mention the vodka tonics. Anyway, one of the answers was this:

"Yes, often. Usually what happens to me in those weeks is I'm surprised at the loss I don't feel I "deserved" and then I go nuts trying to keep it a reality. I exercise more, eat better, drink more water, etc., just so I get to "keep" that loss. It's funny how we psych ourselves, isn't it?"

Hey, that's a good idea. I want to "keep" this 2.2 pound loss so I'm going to kick some ass this week to do it. See I'm worried that since my weight training has been nearly non-existent that maybe I'm losing muscle and that's why I had a loss. Plus I had on unusually light cycling clothes. Oh, and I had a really light lunch. Not calorie light, weight light, as in my food didn't weigh much. Yes, I'm that pathetic neurotic. Anyway, the point is I'm going to work hard this week to get back to my full (pre-surgery) workout routine (and tracking) so I can have a great week!

Alright, this is a multi-purpose post so on to the next thing. I have been calculating my monthly weight for a while. It was suggested in a meeting where we talked about dealing with gains. The leader said if we plot our monthly loss it can remind us that the gain is a moment in time but overall we're going down. Looking at my monthly log I had the idea to share it. Here it is, month-by-month since I started WW:

February 2007 = -2.2 pounds
March 2007 = -5.8 pounds
April 2007 = -5.6 pounds
May 2007 = -3 pounds
June 2007 = -4.2 pounds
July 2007 = -4.6 pounds
August 2007 = +1.8 pounds
September 2007 = -.8 pounds
October 2007 = -1.8 pounds
November 2007 = -4.4 pounds
December 2007 = -8.2 pounds*
January 2008 = -7.4 pounds
February 2008 = -3.6 pounds
March 2008 = -5.2 pounds
April 2008 = -6.2 pounds
May 2008 = -7.2 pounds

*the record so far and also the first full month of exercise (I started exercising on 11/15)

Well, there you have it. Did you notice I actually gained weight one month? In August '07. Yeah, not trying so hard at that time, I was hanging out waiting for my motivation to come back, and it did, in November. Keeping this log has helped me in difficult times, especially when I'm tempted to focus on one week. I've averaged 4.275 pounds lost per month. Slowly but surely.

Remember, multi-purpose post. On to the next thing. I went to the gym after work. I was having some motivation issues today, which usually happens when I finish work early and have to go home before I go to the gym. If I work out less than 3 hours after eating it usually bugs me, I'm burpy and just don't feel right. I was done with work only 2 hours after lunch. But I came home and fiddled a bit and then did something that usually gets me out the door - I put on my gym clothes. It kinda forces you to go once you're dressed for the occasion. I had the thought of riding my bike to the gym and then decided not to, but then thought, "why not? the weather's great, you have nothing but time." So I rode my bike, that's a pic of my bike in the rack at the gym. Sometimes these little victories are what it's all about.

Well, Miguel went to a baseball game so I've been hanging out watching the Scripps Spelling Bee and blogging. You know what time means...more wacky images...here's my food today:

click for larger image


The "leftovers" are chicken & rice with a side of spinach from dinner last night. I don't know if I got enough fruits/veggies today but this is definitely an average day in terms of that. Dinner is wacky, Butternut Squash soup and frozen corn. That's what happens when I don't have to "make" dinner.

Alright, gonna wrap up this multi-purpose, slightly wacky, probably too long post. Oh wait! One more thing. Just kidding...Night All.