An Episode of Weight-Loss Infidelity

Happy New Year! — as belated as this is.

The good news is, if I stay on top of things from here on out, I’ll still be able to make 164 by August 1, my original goal date. The bad news is, I won’t hit 196 by my birthday, and probably not by Feb. 11 … just not enough time left.

Yeah, I put on weight for Christmas.

I stopped tracking my intake. And I found it hard to start again. I lost some of it after Christmas morning, only to put it back on for the new year. Since New Year’s Eve, I’ve been hovering between 215 and 216.4. Three weeks ago, I was 13.8 pounds ahead of my original plan. As of Monday, I was only two pounds ahead. As of this morning, I’m 12.8 pounds over the monthly goal line.

Yesterday was the last straw: For reasons I can’t quite remember, I made a ham and cheese omelet sandwich. Seven hundred and ten calories, which I didn’t think about until I got around to logging my intake. When I finally crunched the numbers and saw the result, I said, “Okay, that’s enough! Get back to your program, Layne!” Sometimes, you just have to get mad at yourself to get over yourself.

Week 38 Progress Report: Travails with Leftovers

I apologize for missing last week. Frankly, it’s hard to think of a plausible excuse, other than that I’ve been obsessed with restarting my insurance business. Also, the last couple of weeks have been a little rough in the weight-loss department. More on that below; right now, let’s get to the week-ending numbers:

Week 37:

Starting Weight:	220.6
Original Target*:	236.0
Adjusted Target:	221.6
Actual Weight:	220.6
Loss/Gain:	+ 1.0
Total Loss:	81.0
% of Goal:	58.4%
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.

Week 38:

Starting Weight:	221.6
Original Target*:	234.2
Adjusted Target:	218.7
Actual Weight:	219.4
Loss/Gain:	– 2.2
Total Loss:	83.2
% of Goal:	60.0%
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.

By the monthly progress line, I was 1.9 lbs. over target; by the 90-Day Challenge line, I was 0.7 pounds over. (As of this morning’s weight, 218.4, I’ve returned to the line on the 90-Day challenge, but I’m still 1.2 lbs. over the month line.) On the positive side, I’m still almost 15 lbs. ahead of the original plan and have lost 60% of my excess. Moreover, the weight is heading back down again after a week or more of fluctuations, and I’m back within the range where I spent most of my twenties and thirties.

But why the fluctuations? Simply put, leftovers and a boss who loves a particular Italian restaurant.

Week 30 Progress Report: In the Backstretch

As I promised yesterday, here are the week-ending numbers:

Starting Weight:	237.6
Original Target*:	248.6
Adjusted Target:	235.8
Actual Weight:	234.6
Loss/Gain:	– 2.2
Total Loss:	68.0
% of Goal:	49.1%
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.

And here are the month-ending numbers:

Starting Weight:	239.2
Target Weight:	231.2
Actual Weight:	232.8
Loss/Gain:	– 6.4
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 1.4

As I said yesterday, I missed the month-ending goal by 1.6 lbs. However, it’s a new month with a new goal: 225.1 lbs. I’m five pounds away from completing the Halloween challenge; I should have that knocked out by the beginning of October. The next secondary goal is the 2/3rds mark, ≤ 210.2, which is only slightly above my year-end goal; more than likely, the weigh-in that achieves one will achieve the other as well. Already, I’m close to the weight range in which I spend most of my twenties and thirties — still obese, but far less so than when I was in my forties. (My ideal range is something I passed when I was a young teenager and shorter than I am now.)

By the way, I didn’t tell you I have hypothyroidism. Not taking your hypothyroid medication does make it harder to lose weight. That partially (but not sufficiently) explains the period from 8/23 to about 9/6, when my weight went back up and wouldn’t come down: I had run out of levothyroxine and put off picking up the refills. No more of that.

Just shy of 70 pounds in seven months. That’s quite a feat, no matter how you look at it. And it all began pretty much on a whim.

A PSA and a Reflection

Tomorrow, Sept. 11, will be the end of the August plan month and the beginning of the September plan month. (It’s also the 18th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. So I’ll be off social media from 8:46am to 10:28am EDT.) I’ve put off the weekly progress report until tomorrow so I can include the numbers for this last month.

I repeat, tomorrow ends the plan month. This month, due to the funeral week and the problems I had regaining diet discipline, I’ve already missed a secondary goal, which was to have lost at least 69.3 lbs. by Sept. 1, and will almost certainly miss my month-end goal of ≤ 231.2 lbs.

That’s okay.

First, I am back to the program discipline and am losing weight again. Second, because I shed weight so fast at the very beginning of the program, I’m still well ahead of where I originally expected to be. The most important thing about all the goals is that they help to keep me focused. Missing a goal does not make me a bad person. And besides, behind many great successes are a lot of small failures. (Let that be your aphorism for today.)

Third, and most important, tomorrow also starts a new plan month, with a new month-end goal. The month-end goal always reflects where the month began, not where the plan began. So the problems of this month will have little if anything to do with the challenges and successes the next month will bring. Tomorrow or the next day, I hope I'll have passed the 50% benchmark in my overall plan. By the end of the month, I expect I’ll have met and surpassed the Halloween challenge. And I still expect to meet my year-end goal of ≤ 210lbs., even with the temptations the Thanksmas season tends to bring.

At the end of the day, though, it’s not about “losing so much weight by such-and-such a date.” It’s about controlling your eating rather than letting your eating control you.

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 26 Progress Report: Life Changes Ahead

So here are today’s numbers:

Starting Weight:	238.6
Original Target*:	255.8
Adjusted Target:	236.8
Actual Weight:	239.0
Loss/Gain:	+ 0.4
Total Loss:	63.6
% of Goal:	45.9%
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 2.4
*Original target calculated from a starting weight of 302.6 lbs. and an average loss/wk. of 1.8 lbs.

And yesterday was the end of the plan month, so here are those numbers:

Starting Weight:	247.0
Target Weight:	239.0
Actual Weight:	239.2
Loss/Gain:	– 7.8
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 1.8

In six months, 26 weeks, I’ve lost 63.6 pounds, a little under 46% of my surplus weight. It’s quite an accomplishment. I should be happy.

In the next room, as I write this, my mother is dying.

Week 24 Progress Report: The Forest and the Trees

So I’m late again, but it’s all for the best because I have something to add. First, Monday’s numbers:

Starting Weight:	242.6
Original Target*:	259.4
Adjusted Target:	240.8
Actual Weight:	241.6
Loss/Gain:	– 1.0
Total Loss:	61.0
% of Goal:	44.0%
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 2.5
*Original target calculated from a starting weight of 302.6 lbs. and an average loss/wk. of 1.8 lbs.

As I reported last week, I “gained” about a pound from choosing a permanent spot for my scale, so I wasn’t disappointed by losing only a pound overall. However, I did entertain the hope that today, Aug. 1, would find me ≤ 240. It didn’t happen.

In laying out the Project Nemesis plan, I wrote, “One week, you’ll do everything right and gain 1.5 pounds. The next week, you’ll blow your diet big time one day and your weight at the end of the week is down 1.5 pounds.” It can happen daily, too. Tuesday was full of activity and I had plenty of calories to spare on the budget when I went to bed. When I woke up, however, my wonky scale informed me that I’d jumped from 240.8 to 243. What. The. Hell. Yesterday was full of activity as well; however, I got hit with the late-night munchies and polished off half a bag of Rold Gold pretzels “off the books.” This morning, the aforementioned wonky scale said that I was back down to 241. Fine, except the 2-pound spike had spoiled my small hope to be under 240 today.

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 17 Progress Report: Should I Keep Cutting My Calorie Budget?

Sorry I’m late again; I’ve overslept the last couple of days. First, the weekly progress report:

Starting Weight:	256.4
Original Target*:	272.0
Adjusted Target:	254.6
Actual Weight:	254.0
Loss/Gain:	– 2.4
Total Loss:	48.6
% of Goal:	35.1%
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.

As you can tell from the monthly progress chart, the scale says I went backward near the end of the week, but I still ended up doing better than my planned loss rate.

Yesterday was the end of the plan month. Here are the numbers:

Starting Weight:	262.4
Target Weight:	254.4
Actual Weight:	253.8
Loss/Gain:	– 8.6
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 2.0

Overall, I think I’m doing better. Yes, I still tend to take advantage of my daily steps and weekly bowling because subtracting the calories burned gives me leeway on the budget. But the most that gives me is about 240 extra calories on a busy day (about 400 on a busy Sunday).

Last night, for instance, I overdid it a bit on dinner — at least, as close as I could estimate it — so I ended the day without my usual bedtime snack to keep the numbers in the green. (Besides, I still felt full by bedtime, so it was no hardship.) When I weighed in this morning, I’d lost 0.8 pounds, so I figure my estimate was a little high but good.

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.”)