Week 27 Progress Report: We Now Return You to Your Regularly Scheduled Weight Loss

Here are the numbers from Monday:

Starting Weight:	239.0
Original Target*:	254.0
Adjusted Target:	237.2
Actual Weight:	240.4
Loss/Gain:	+ 1.4
Total Loss:	62.2
% of Goal:	44.9%
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.

Last week, I wrote on Monday as my mother lay dying in her bed. She passed the next morning, surrounded by her family. My sister had come in on Sunday; two uncles and an aunt arrived in the wee hours of Tuesday, just in time. More family arrived in the next three days. And the eating and drinking commenced.

Despite my good intentions, calorie tracking went out the window for a week. Thank God I stopped drinking to excess in my twenties; otherwise, my weight gain would have been much more. Moreover, I still managed to keep a limit on my intake — except for the first night, when we had fried chicken from Babe’s Chicken Dinner House (which, if you ever visit the DFW area, you have to try). Still, by Sunday morning, my siblings and I were “fooded out”; we were all ready to go back to our weight-loss regimens.

And the food just would not stop coming.

Week 22 Progress Report … and Nothing Else

I’m on time for once! Here are the box scores for this last week:

Starting Weight:	248.8
Original Target*:	263.0
Adjusted Target:	247.0
Actual Weight:	244.8
Loss/Gain:	– 4.0
Total Loss:	57.8
% of Goal:	41.7%
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 2.6
*Original target calculated from a starting weight of 302.6 lbs. and an average loss/wk. of 1.8 lbs.

It seems that over the last month or so, I’ve been trading weeks of good drops with weeks of marginal losses: 0.8, 2.4, 1.0, 2.6, 0.8, 4.0. But then, the low-drop weeks had special events which involved a feast of some sort. From Memorial Day through today, I’ve been averaging about a 1.8 lbs./week loss rate, which is what I’d planned for all along, so the fluctuations even out. I don’t expect another family feast episode until mid-August when some family comes in from Arizona. Even then, I’ve got so many delicious recipes with low calorie counts that I can keep everyone happy while still managing my plan.

On the clothes front: The khakis I bought three months ago are now a tad bit loose. The belt I bought to go with them is now on the fourth notch. My closet-dive didn’t produce much in the way of pants with smaller waists, and all but two of my slacks are now way too big for me. So I figure by the end of August, I’ll have to buy not only a couple more pairs of khakis but also some slacks and a pair of jeans—with 40" waists. (I do have shorts—which I can fit into now—but I haven’t been keen on shorts since the year I burnt the hell out of the backs of my knees working a pushcart in Gene Leahy Mall. Some things just stay with you, like crabgrass.)

I’m sorry I have no deeper thoughts or interesting stories to share this time. But hopefully, I’ll have a couple of recipes posted later this week. Until then, feel free to share your own successes and concerns, or to write to me with questions. Have a great week!

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.