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.

Week 14 Progress Report: A Couple of Observations

This will be a short report:

Starting Weight:	262.4
Original Target*:	277.4
Adjusted Target:	260.6
Actual Weight:	259.4
Loss/Gain:	– 3.0
Total Loss:	43.2
% of Goal:	31.2%
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 3.1
*Original target calculated from a starting weight of 302.6 lbs. and an average loss/wk. of 1.8 lbs.

As I was logging my weekly weigh-in, I noticed that on the spreadsheet I created to track my weekly progress, I had originally stated my first goal to be at or under 250 lbs. by Sept. 1. At the time, it seemed reasonable because I’d only planned to lose 1.8 lbs./week. Besides, the last time I ran this program, it had taken me from Valentine’s Day to September 1, 2009 to lose 47 pounds. Fifty-three pound in roughly the same amount of time seemed optimistic but not unrealistic.

Now I’m on track to pass that goal by mid-June, a full two and a half months ahead of schedule. This also implies that I’ll meet my second original major goal, ≤ 225 by Jan. 1, about the beginning of October.

Week 13 Progress Report: Settling Down for the Long Haul

I’m only a little overdue for the weekly report:

Starting Weight:	264.2
Original Target*:	279.2
Adjusted Target:	262.4
Actual Weight:	262.4
Loss/Gain:	– 1.8
Total Loss:	40.2
% of Goal:	29.0%
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 3.1
*Original target calculated from a starting weight of 302.6 lbs. and an average loss/wk. of 1.8 lbs.

It’s also past time for the monthly report, which is graphed in the upper left. On the monthly charts, the target weight is calculated from the first day of the month, while the master chart is calculated from the starting weight. Unlike last month, in which the “actual” line was far more often above the “target” line than below it, this month the “actual” was consistently below the “target”, though not always as far below it as I would have liked. This next month is already off to a rocky start, as I’m almost a pound over where I should be. However, since the target drops a little less than 0.3 lbs./day and my weight can fluctuate as much as 1 lb./day, I can get back on track pretty rapidly.

To date, I’ve lost 40 pounds in three months, or about 13.3 pounds a month. Not bad when you only plan to lose about 7.7 – 8 pounds a month. I now have about 98 pounds to lose in order to achieve a BMI of 24.9, which would be in the “healthy” range. However, as I’ve noted before, the rate has slowed down; I can’t plan on big drops now any more than I planned on the big drops in the first six weeks. This is where patience and determination have to take over and get me through the long haul because at just under 2 pounds a week, it’s going to take a bit more than a year to shed all that weight. Probably longer, because I fully expect the rate to slow more once I pass the halfway point.

And that’s not thinking about any plateaus.

Week 12 Progress Report: No Longer Morbid

First, apologies for missing Week 11; it was another hectic week. So let’s give the numbers for Week 12:

Starting Weight:	265.0
Original Target*:	281.0
Adjusted Target:	263.2
Actual Weight:	264.2
Loss/Gain:	– 0.8
Total Loss:	38.4
% of Goal:	27.7%
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 3.2
*Original target calculated from a starting weight of 302.6 lbs. and an average loss/wk. of 1.8 lbs.

It was a weird week. There were no days of egregious overeating; yet for a few days, I was going backward, gaining about half a pound a day. Contrast this with Monday, when I blew the calorie budget out of the water with a slice of a humongous deep-dish Dutch apple pie baked by a local chain called Emporium Pies and named “Lord of the Pies”, yet managed to lose a pound. (To account for this on Lose It!, I counted it as two slices of an ordinary Dutch apple pie — it really is that big!) As I’ve said before, we who count calories work with all sorts of uncertain numbers, so there’s nothing for it but to trust the process.

But even more pleasing than having lost the pound after the Epicurean delight of the pie was stepping on the scale this morning: 262.4! In two days, not only have I lost almost 2 pounds, but I had also achieved the first of my secondary goals — a BMI of 39.9, which takes me out of the “morbidly obese” category. I still have 66 pounds (plus or minus) to go before I’m merely overweight, but I’m about 38% of the way there. It also means I’ve lost just over 40 pounds in less than three months, which is a significant accomplishment.

Week 10 Progress Report: Easter Victory

Start Weight:		269.4
Original Target*:		284.6
Adjusted Target:		267.6
Actual Weight:		267.6
Loss/Gain:		– 1.8
Total Loss:		– 35.0
% of Goal:		25.3%
Avg. Loss/Wk.:		– 3.5
	*Original target calculated from a starting weight of 302.6 lbs. and an average loss/wk. of 1.8 lbs.

Resurrexit sicut dixit, Alleluia! Christ is truly risen!

Easter Sunday was great, but not the way I normally want to do things. A big cup of coffee and a Reese’s snack-size cup carried me through the morning to mid-afternoon, when we had an Easter early dinner that couldn’t be beat. Ham, potatoes, candied acorn squash (plenty of butter and brown sugar), marshmallow salad, rolls, and a brownie for dessert. Plus a shot of Catch Fire cinnamon whiskey (“That’ll wake ye up in th’ mornin’ lads!”). It was my one meal yesterday, and I blew my budget on it. And then some.

And I still dropped a pound. In fact, despite seemingly hitting a plateau earlier this week, I had lost the 1.8 pounds I had originally set as my weekly goal. My best guess is that I burned more calories preparing dinner and helping Mom than I thought I had.

That was my Easter victory.

Week 9 Progress Report: I’m Back

Start Weight:		272.4
Original Target*:		286.4
Adjusted Target:		270.6
Actual Weight:		269.4
Loss/Gain:		– 3.0
Total Loss:		– 33.2
% of Goal:		24.0%
Avg. Loss/Wk.:		– 3.7
	*Original target calculated from a starting weight of 302.6 lbs. and an average loss/wk. of 1.8 lbs.

Sorry I didn’t post a progress report last week. Other than my usual household duties, I was also writing for other people and fulfilling my editorial obligations.

Back on March 11, I decided to chart out my daily progress against my original targets. As expected, the “actual” line dropped well below the “target” line. Today, I did the same for the period 3/11/19 to 4/11/19, but this time, I recalculated the targets to reflect my 3/11 weigh-in rather than the original targets for the month.

The difference was striking … and somewhat embarrassing. Most of the month, the “actual” line was above the “target” line. The overall trend was still down, but the peaks and valleys were more exaggerated.

It’s a good thing I focus on weekly results rather than daily numbers.

Fat-Shaming, Self-Loathing, and Demons

I had thought that today I’d share a recipe with you folks. However, Tuesday night, a friend shared a Facebook essay written two years ago on the subject of fat-shaming and weight loss. It’s a profoundly disturbing piece; while I agree with many if not most of the author’s observations, I cannot and do not agree with her conclusions. I’ve copied the essay into a .pdf file; assume that the essay is protected by copyright law and be careful how you use or re-publish it.

Ijeoma’s Story

The writer, Ijeoma Oluo, tells us she decided to lose weight after a boyfriend sexually assaulted her. This wasn’t her first assault experience; she had been sexually abused as a child and had already left an abusive husband. “And when I tried to figure out why — why someone who so many people had repeatedly said had so much going for her would be hurt so often, I settled on my weight. I decided that as long as I was fat, nobody who wasn’t abusive was going to want to be with me. … So much cultural messaging says that if you are fat, you should be grateful for whatever love you can get — even if that love isn’t love at all.”

Week 7 Progress Report: “Cutting Calories Doesn’t Work!”

Image source: lapbandsurgery.com.

Start Weight:		276.0
Original Target*:		290.0
Adjusted Target:		274.2
Actual Weight:		274.2
Loss/Gain:		– 1.8
Total Loss:		– 28.4
% of Goal:		20.5%
Avg. Loss/Wk.:		– 4.1
	*Original target calculated from a starting weight of 302.6 lbs. and an average loss/wk. of 1.8 lbs.

Compared with previous weeks, 1.8 pounds doesn’t look so dramatic. However, if you look at the bottom of the progress table, you’ll see that 1.8 pounds a week is exactly what I’d hoped and planned to lose from the beginning.

When my article on the deadly sin of Gluttony published on Catholic Stand, the first commenter argued that diets which depend simply on cutting calories are doomed to fail. Why? Because of hunger! Sooner or later, the hunger drives the dieter to overeat, and before you know it, they’re right back where they started! “Why don’t you see reunions on The Biggest Loser?” he asked rhetorically. Because just cutting calories doesn’t work.

Well, yes and no. Many people, when cutting calories, set a drastically low calorie target. For example, one friend of mine decided that she would not only start running again but eat no more than 500 kcal/day. Of course, hunger defeated her, despite her being a very strong-minded woman. The calorie target was much too low!

Week 6 Progress Report: Eat the Barbecue!

Image source: Wikimedia Commons.

Start Weight:	281.0
Original Target*:	291.8
Adjusted Target:	279.2
Actual Weight:	276.0
Loss/Gain:	– 5.0
Total Loss:	– 26.6
% of Goal:	19.2%
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 4.4
*Original target calculated from a starting weight of 302.6 lbs. and an average loss/wk. of 1.8 lbs.

About six months ago, my brother Ted decided to buy a new gas grill to replace one that had done yeoman service for close to a decade but was slowly falling apart. However, between one family crisis and another, plus his normal workaholic ways, it sat in its box by the back sliding door to the porch. Finally, this last Friday and Saturday, Ted made the time to put it together.

Friday night, we discussed what we would make for Sunday evening’s dinner to inaugurate the new grill. My initial suggestion was to try a recipe I’d found for a variety of chicken we had got from Central Market in Southlake the previous week. Ted thought about it and replied, “You know what I haven’t had for a long time? Barbecued chicken. I really enjoy it, but for some reason, I just haven’t had it or made it.”

He had me at “barbecued.” So I spent some time on Saturday looking up low-calorie barbecue sauce recipes. They’re out there.

Some Thoughts on Becoming Sexier

Image source: vectortoons.com.

The last time I successfully lost weight for any length of time was in 2009, ten years ago. From February of that year to September, I dropped from 324 lbs. to 280, a 46-lb. drop. Then I tried to quit smoking ....

On Friday, I weighed in at 278.4. This morning, the scale read 276.6.

It wasn’t part of my intermediate goals to break 280. After all, that was only a drop of 22.6 lbs. from my starting weight. Having lost 46 lbs. before, I was morally certain I could lose a mere 22. 

Thinking about it now, though, my inner smartass can’t help but quip, So okay, it took you 10 years to lose 50 pounds!

So what? It’s still 50 pounds. Another 112.6 to go. It would be nice to get there before I turn 60, though. Even better if I’m slim before my high school class’ 40th reunion. Talk about goals!