Week 15 Progress Report: A Diet Holiday

Let’s begin with yesterday’s numbers:

Starting Weight:	259.4
Original Target*:	275.6
Adjusted Target:	257.6
Actual Weight:	257.2
Loss/Gain:	– 2.2
Total Loss:	45.4
% of Goal:	32.8%
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 3.0
*Original target calculated from a starting weight of 302.6 lbs. and an average loss/wk. of 1.8 lbs.

Yesterday was Memorial Day, of course, so taking care of my usual chores plus preparing for the evening’s feasting meant little time for writing. But, as I posted on Facebook, I’d mentally prepared for the day by declaring a “diet holiday” (see Rule #11 of the weight-loss plan).

The whole point of the “diet holiday” is to allow an occasional day of splurging without guilt. Holidays like Memorial Day, when we Americans traditionally overindulge in food and drink, are good days for this sort of thing because they’re few and far between. Big family get-togethers, too. Birthday parties, meh, not so much — it depends on how many parties you really attend; otherwise, you could probably pass on the cake they brought to your office. Unless it’s your birthday.

So last night’s feasting was Latin-American themed: chicken and steak fajitas, tablitas (technically costillas marinadas, marinated pork short ribs), Spanish rice, pintos with jalapeños, mojitos, and flan for dessert. And with fajitas, you have to have sour cream and guacamole, right? I pigged out, not feeling guilty in the least; I even had a couple 100-calorie snack packs of Oreos before bedtime.

This morning, the scale told me I’d lost 3/5ths of a pound. I tried four times; the only variance was 0.2 pounds up. There are days when getting a consistent reading out of my scale is like trying to find the beginning of a song on a cassette tape (boy, did that reference date me!). Then there are days like today when the scale says pretty much the same thing every time I step on it. And this morning it said I’d lost weight. Unless I seriously misread the scale yesterday morning, I have to believe I really did lose weight.

Assuming I lose or hold the next three days, this means I’ve achieved the 3% loss that was the May challenge. Score! It also means I’m ± 1 week from hitting my next intermediate goal, ≤ 255 lbs. and ± 1 month from my next primary goal of breaking 250 (two months early). However, the June challenge is 10+ lbs. by 6/30; if I can hit ≤ 245 by then, that would be a heckuva feat!

It would also leave a lot of room for the Independence Day feasting ….