Week 36 Progress Report: An Epic of Excess

Image source: Flickr

So I’m a couple of days late. My sister’s family was in town for the inurning of my mother’s ashes. More on that in a bit; first, the week-ending numbers:

Starting Weight:	222.6
Original Target*:	237.8
Adjusted Target:	220.3
Actual Weight:	220.6
Loss/Gain:	– 2.0
Total Loss:	82.0
% of Goal:	59.2%
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 2.3
*Original target calculated from a starting weight of 302.6 lbs. and an average loss/wk. of 1.8 lbs.

I knew that at least Saturday would be a “diet holiday” because Peggy, my sister, had found a “Tacos and Margaritas Tour” of downtown Dallas for us to try. You see, the last few trips she’s made out here, we were constrained to a very small radius of travel due to Mom’s health issues. Now that Mom, for better or worse, is not a limiting factor, she wanted to do something fun that wouldn’t require us to stay within five miles of Denton, which for all its charms is not especially noted for visitor-attracting entertainment.

And so, the Tacos and Margaritas Tour. Because tacos and margaritas.

Week 35 Progress Report: Sleep and Cookies

Image Source: Flickr

Let’s first look at the week-ending numbers:

Starting Weight:	226.0
Original Target*:	239.6
Adjusted Target:	223.7
Actual Weight:	222.6
Loss/Gain:	– 3.4
Total Loss:	80.0
% of Goal:	57.7%
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 2.3
*Original target calculated from a starting weight of 302.6 lbs. and an average loss/wk. of 1.8 lbs.

Note first that the adjusted target reflects a 2.3-lbs./week loss rate rather than the 1.8 lbs./week I originally planned on. As I discussed in the month-end report, I’m shooting for less than 200 lbs. by January 1 as part of a 90-Day Challenge, so the adjusted target reflects the rate at which I need to drop to make that goal. It’s early days yet, but so far, the 166-kcal cut I had to take in my calorie budget has only slightly inconvenienced me. In fact, I’d say that as well as I’ve done over the last eight months, I’ve probably hindered myself more by not sleeping enough than by overeating.

For most if not all of my adult life, I’ve been a night owl, going to bed in the wee hours of the morning without even the bare excuse of partying all night. When I was younger, this was because I most often worked night shifts, whether it was at fast-food restaurants or call centers. More and more as I got older, though, either the nature of the business I was in or pressing financial concerns demanded varying shifts, extra hours, twice a second job. At the same time, my friends and family all eventually had regular day jobs with regular hours, so my social life often demanded that I wake up after minimal sleep, often as little as 3½ hours. Not surprisingly, this meant I occasionally overslept when my overtaxed body and mind demanded it.

Month 8 Progress Report: Challenges and Milestones

This is actually the first time I’ve reported the month-end numbers separately from week-ending numbers:

Starting Weight:	232.8
Target Weight:	225.1
Actual Weight:	224.8
Loss/Gain:	– 8.0
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 1.9

A friend of mine started a private 90-Day Challenge group on Facebook to end the year strong. Members could pick their own challenge and the others would cheer them on. For my challenge, I chose what had been a “stretch goal”: under 200 lbs. by New Year’s Day.

For the purposes of the challenge, I chose Oct. 3 as the start date so Day 90 would fall on Jan. 1, 2020. But because I waited to take off the weight I gained in the hospital, I didn’t actually sit down to do the calculations for the challenge plan until Oct. 7. Achieving the goal, I found, would mean shaving another 166 kcal off my daily budget.

On paper, my budget was already close to the recommended 1,500 kcal/day minimum recommended by the NIH for men. Over the last 4 weeks, however, I’ve averaged about 1,643 kcal in my actual intake, due to my activity. The Lose It! app subtracts calories burned in activity from your intake. So long as I maintain a certain level of activity, then, I can still eat over 1,500 kcal/day and remain within my budget.

Enter Challenge #2: maintaining that “certain level of activity.”

Week 34 Progress Report: More Medical Matters and Some Compliments

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

Here are the week-ending numbers:

Starting Weight:	231.2
Original Target*:	241.4
Adjusted Target:	229.4
Actual Weight:	226.0
Loss/Gain:	– 5.2
Total Loss:	76.6
% of Goal:	55.3%
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 2.3
*Original target calculated from a starting weight of 302.6 lbs. and an average loss/wk. of 1.8 lbs.

I blew the diet Friday night, when we had tamales (gotta have chili on them), frijoles charros (which I prefer to refrijoles), and Mexican rice. Too much jalapeño — I suffered all of Saturday, and it may have contributed to the resolution of my distribution problem. Alas, the effects of aging. I can no longer eat spicy foods with gastric impunity. But the resolution of that problem is 95% of the 5.2-lb. drop. I finally earned my Lose It! 75-Lb. Club badge.

Speaking of the distribution problem: I spoke with my “Indian mom” (my primary care doctor) on Thursday, during a post-hospital follow-up. She listened with concern to my problem. She gave me a couple of four-pill bottles of Linzess, recommended more fiber in my diet (natch), recommended a fiber supplement, and referred me to a gastroenterologist.

Why the GI doctor? Well, there’s a certain procedure that’s recommended for everyone at age 50 and about every 5 years afterward. Doctor Chandi, however, knew that I had been laid off shortly after my 50th birthday and had no insurance for almost four years afterward, so she never made an issue of it. And if she wasn’t going to bring it up, neither was I. But now I’m insured, so I don’t get to put that procedure off any longer.