Week 33 Progress Report: Medical Matters and Not Too Much Information

So here are the weekly numbers, and we have a bit to talk about:

Starting Weight:	230.0
Original Target*:	243.2
Adjusted Target:	228.2
Actual Weight:	231.2
Loss/Gain:	+ 1.2
Total Loss:	71.4
% of Goal:	51.5%
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 2.2
*Original target calculated from a starting weight of 302.6 lbs. and an average loss/wk. of 1.8 lbs.

Thursday, I weighed in at 227.2, which took me past the 75-lb. loss mark. Yay me, right? Except that I noticed the right side of my face had swollen to the point that it was starting to creep into my visual range. I had had a little swelling for a few days, but I had thought it was an impacted sinus, which I’d had before. So I called Teladoc and paid $45 dollars for the doctor to tell me to go to the ER.

The ER doctor treated the swelling, which was cellulitis, as almost a side issue — he was much more concerned about the polyp in my right nostril which I’d had for several years. The doctor was concerned because my blood oxygen was down to 88%. So he ordered a CT scan and called in a local ENT to consult on the case. Turns out the polyp was only “benign” so far as cancer goes. Over the last 5½ years, it had been slowly growing inside my face. So the ENT ended up removing the mass in an endoscopic examination.

When I was discharged, my blood oxygen was at 98%, my BP at 112/72, and my pulse a slow but healthy 48 bpm. Amazing what having two working nostrils can do, huh? Ah, lovely oxygen! Two morals from this: 1) Never let financial concerns keep you from taking care of a health issue; and 2) No matter how smart you are — if you’re not a doctor, you shouldn’t try to guess which health issues are serious and which aren’t. Being smart is not the same thing as being wise.

While I was there, I began to notice that something else was wrong ….

Weight Wackiness and Envy: Competition vs. Comparison

On Sept. 11, as I told you in the last post, my weight dipped below the 50% mark on my weight-loss plan — for the first time. Yes, you read that right. The next day, for some unfathomable reason, it shot up again a whole two pounds. I’ve said before that fluctuations like this can happen even when you do everything right. So, after screaming in my head about the unfairness of it, I shrugged and went on with my program. On Friday, it dropped back down 1.6 pounds, which was good even though it didn’t completely erase the jump up. Back a little across the halfway line.

The people on Lose It! cheer every little drop, no matter how small, and offer encouraging thoughts for holds and upticks. One friend, Marjorie, joked that she was “totally jealous” about the drop. When I said I didn’t know why she was jealous, she replied, “Because I get excited when I lose 0.5 lbs. in one day so to drop 1.6 lbs. is wishful thinking for me and totally awesome that you did!” (I have to think Marjorie is an age peer because of her use of ’80s lingo. When I’m not writing and with my friends, it all comes out: totally, fer sure, excellent, bogus, gnarly, “I’m like”, dude (regardless of sex or gender), etc. Totally for us is what literally is for young millennials — a clean all-purpose intensive.)

I reminded Marjorie, “If you lose [an average] 0.2 lbs. per day, you’re losing 1.4 lbs. a week. That’s a great, safe rate to drop. Again, I don’t know how much of the ± 1-lb. fluctuations I sometimes (SOMETIMES) get are scale wackiness and how much are body wackiness. Don’t envy me; you’re doing great!”

Wackiness … what a terrific word to describe the effect of imprecision on weight loss. It’s like playing blackjack: Even if you don’t cross the (objective) “bust” line, you still have to beat the dealer, whose hand is also variable. Nevertheless, there are winning strategies that don’t guarantee victory in every hand but can generally lead to leaving the table with more than you sat down with.

But in sensible weight loss, you’re not really competing against another person. The complete set of physical, emotional, and social or environmental challenges each person faces in weight loss is unique. Put differently, we all play against different dealers under house rules that vary slightly from table to table. That’s why, while group goals and challenges can be motivating and fun, you should never take them so seriously that you interpret someone else’s progress as an implicit reflection (and judgment) against you.

Week 23 Progress Report: Staying Honest and Marine Fitness Goals

Late again. *sigh* Monday was a day of doctor’s office visits for my mother; Tuesday and Wednesday full of other writing obligations; Thursday was spent doing some housecleaning. So here, at last, are Monday’s numbers:

Starting Weight:	244.8
Original Target*:	261.2
Adjusted Target:	243.0
Actual Weight:	242.6
Loss/Gain:	– 2.2
Total Loss:	60.0
% of Goal:	43.3%
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.

That’s right—60 pounds in 23 weeks, or 18.6 pounds ahead of where I’d planned to be. There’s an oddity, though: My scale gives different weights at different places on the bathroom floor. There’s always a bit of temptation to play with the scale any way you can to eke out another couple fifths of a pound or to zero out a gain. There have been days I’ve weighed myself about a dozen times, looking for the “sweet spot” on the floor where the scale registers the lowest. And the variation is pretty wild, as much as 5.2 pounds. (No fooling—while choosing a permanent spot for the scale this morning, I registered a high of 245 and a low of 239.8.)

It’s ridiculous to game the system for a pound or two. Cui bono? If all I’ve lost is 55 pounds, that’s still far better than I’d planned to have done by now. In any event, I’ve chosen a spot where two lines intersect as a reference point; there the scale stays. It added a pound to my weigh-in, despite my activity and economies yesterday, but fluctuations are part of the game. I’m still on track for the month.

To tell the truth, if I had my druthers (and the money), I’d have a professional scale. The best one on the market offers full body composition reports. It’s also 100 times more expensive than an el-cheapo digital scale you can get at Walmart. Not having an extra $4,000 to spare, I guess I’ll stick to my spastic old model.

Week 20 Progress Report: Ordeal and Triumph

The last two weeks I missed my updates,  partially because I’ve been in a writing slump and partially because my mother slightly cracked her pelvic bone, the latter of which demands more physical assistance from me. But I’m happy to report some very good news:

Starting Weight:	252.2
Original Target*:	266.6
Adjusted Target:	250.4
Actual Weight:	249.6
Loss/Gain:	– 2.6
Total Loss:	53.0
% of Goal:	38.2%
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 2.7
*Original target calculated from a starting weight of 302.6 lbs. and an average loss/wk. of 1.8 lbs.

When I started this project, my first major goal was to get under 250 lbs. by Sept. 1. That goal has now been officially achieved—two months ahead of schedule.

Week 16 Progress Report: Plateaus Aren’t Really Flat

Here are today’s numbers:

Starting Weight:	257.2
Original Target*:	273.8
Adjusted Target:	255.4
Actual Weight:	256.4
Loss/Gain:	– 0.8
Total Loss:	46.2
% of Goal:	33.3%
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 2.9
*Original target calculated from a starting weight of 302.6 lbs. and an average loss/wk. of 1.8 lbs.

This last week is hard to describe. There wasn’t a day since Tuesday that I went over-budget; yet on Wednesday, my weight shot up a discouraging 2.6 pounds, wrecking my effort to achieve the May challenge goal of 3% loss.

I’m almost certain that much of the fluctuation depends on how much sleep I’ve gotten when I weigh in, as well as the vagaries of estimating some portions and the calories I’ve consumed. For instance, yesterday I got up at 3:30 am to pick my cousin up from DFW International Airport, so I weighed in shortly thereafter. After taking him to Gainesville, a 1½-hour trip with a 45-minute stop at Cracker Barrel for a 500-calorie breakfast, having consumed my normal travel mug full of coffee (with a little extra at Cracker Barrel), I weighed again for the heck of it when I got back home. The scale told me I had neither lost nor gained anything. I should have expected at least a fractional difference because I was wearing street clothes rather than pajamas. Weird.

(How do you get a 500-calorie breakfast at Cracker Barrel, where carbs and fat abound? Simple: A side of two eggs — I prefer “over medium” — and a side of their Loaded Hashbrown Casserole. A lot of their breakfast entrees are under 550 calories, so long as you don’t get “All the Fixin’s.”)

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.