This entry is to record my weigh-in for SingleMa’s challenge.

Saturday morning I weighed in at 168.5.  Sunday I flew to NYC, had very little water all day and ate two slices of pizza.  Too much sodium, too little water, a flight…  Throw in a nighttime weigh-in after a full day’s worth of meals and there you go…I’ve gained 4 pounds!  I doubt it but what can you do until things settle down?  I swear I’m not playing with the numbers of purpose SingleMa!

Yes my scale is cracked. It still works!

I set a goal to lose 6 pounds every month for the next 6 months and Month 1 is over.  I started the month at 175lbs and ended at 168.5lb for a total loss of 6.5lbs!  My measurements are down slightly 42-41.5 in the hips, 32.9-32.8 in the waist with bust holding steady at 37.  Yes!

This month has been really refreshing.  I am re-doing Precision Nutrition and everything is really sticking this time around.  I’m trying to follow the program wholeheartedly and not slack off on the ideas that I don’t like (like keeping starchy carbs to the post-workout period only).

I’m also not counting calories or tracking my food at this point.  I couldn’t tell you how many calories I eat per day and I still lost my target weight for the month.  That is a welcome change from my obsessive tracking days.  I tracked calories burned using a heart rate monitor.  I input every morsel I ate into my SparkPeople food journal.  It was what I needed to do at the time and it helped me a lot.  My time is just so limited now that I can’t do it.

I don’t see anything wrong with tracking, but I’m starting to come to the conclusion that tracking isn’t really necessary for me when:

1. I’m eating mostly good wholesome foods that I prepared for myself.  I’m not talking about homemade fried chicken or apple pie, but health-conscious foods made up mostly of fruits green leafy veggies and lean proteins with much smaller infrequent amounts of starchy carby stuff like rice, bread and pasta.  This is really automatic portion control because I can only eat so much broiled tilapia with green beans and summer squash.  On the other hand, I can scarf down a whole pile of rice like its nothing!
2. I’m losing some amount of weight or inches over time.  If after 4-6 weeks nothing has changed, I might start tracking because something might be out whack.  Either I’m not eating being honest with myself and need a wake up call.

Maybe I will feel differently next month, but so far this is really working for me.  We’ll see if it carries me through Month 2.  I might be dusting off my heart rate monitor and downloading the SparkPeople app.

I’m joining SingleMa for her September “Punk My Plateau” challenge for Month 2.  I’m not (fingers crossed) in a plateau, but I like to support and stay on track!  Plus, she keeps her financial game tight so she’s giving away prizes! LOL!

I won the Biggest Loser contest at my office!  I ended up losing a little over 12% of my body weight over the contest period.  I can’t seem to remember when we started but it has been about 4-5 months.  Not too shabby!

My week of strict eating paid off with a scale loss of 3.8lbs.  I doubt that I really lost that much during one week but that was what the scale said during contest weigh in.  I was down from 181 the week before to 177.2.  My home scale reading that morning (the one I count) said 174.5!

I finally feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel here.  Even if I do not quite reach my intermediate goal of 155 by Sept 12th, it will be just around the corner.  I’ve lost 60lbs since having the baby.  60lbs!  When I went back to work in late October, I had only lost about 18lbs so having the baby didn’t do that much for me.  The next 42 pounds came off due to hard work.  I drag my butt out of bed 5-6 mornings a week for intense exercise and watch my diet very closely more often than I do not.

I’m proud of myself because it isn’t easy.  It simply isn’t.  Trying to lose 80+ pounds has taken a totally different level of mental and physical effort than trying to shed 10-15 pounds.  I falter – constantly.  I keep on getting back up too.

One of my Lean Eating lessons from last week really hit home for me.  I hope you get something out of it too if you are struggling with weight loss.

“Always something” is better than “all-or-nothing.”

The “all-or-nothing” approach, which is how most of us approach change, at least initially, is the opposite of the habit-based approach. The habit-based approach can be easily summed up as “always something.”

There is always something you can do.

Sure, it will be less than everything you can do, but you can’t really do everything, can you? Not for long anyway, and most of us would prefer to change for good, not just for a few weeks or months…Do “something” for long enough, and anything is possible.

Cue the music from that corny 80’s (?) song!

This is a big week for me.  Our office Biggest Loser contest is coming to a close on Friday and what was once a blowout with me in the far lead has become a close contest.  I’m at a loss of 9.77% and my next closest competitor is at 8.65% which is too close for comfort!  $300 is on the line and I am claiming that money as mine.  Not an ounce of off plan food will cross my lips between now and Friday AM….not a candy corn, not a 1/4 cup of rice.  I mean it!

My Precision Nutrition program is coming to a close as well.  One of our assignements at the beginning was to set up a photo shoot to show off of transformations.  Well, the time has come.  Is my transformation complete?  No.  Does my body look a whole lot better despite losing only about 20lbs?  Yes!  I naturally want to look as good as possible for the shoot even though I’m not going the bikini photo route.  So I have yet another reason to be 100% compliant with my nutrition this week.

I was totally slack last week – maybe I was slightly rebelling because I knew there could be no messing around this week?  My company celebrated a huge milestone with a suite at the Braves game on Sunday.  The hospitality crew bought in every sinful baseball food you could imagine and I partook in almost everything!  They set out hotdogs, burger sliders, nachos, pizza, ice cream sundaes, a dessert tray, beer, wine – no expense was spared and there was nothing healthy around.

That was yesterday though and today is a new day.  I’m off to a good start so far and I plan to continue doing good works.  Here’s to winning the jackpot Friday and doing  my “Top Model” thing on Sunday.  I’m “smizing” as I type this LOL.

Cue up my favorite disco song of all time…

I stepped on the scale this morning and it said 178.5! Welcome to the seventies!

To be fair, I spent the last 24 hours fasting (I did it y’all!) so maybe that number was a bit out of the norm but I’ll enjoy it while it lasts.  Even if I go up a pound in the next day or so, I’m still out of the 80s where it seems like I was stuck forever.

Fasting yesterday wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.  I have yet another nasty cold though so that probably helped.  I started the fast after dinner on Wednesday.  I didn’t work out the next morning because I was feeling sick and very sleepy so sometimes you just need to listen to your body.  It was odd not eating breakfast at work the next morning, but I got over it by actually focusing on work.

I started getting a little hungry at 3-ish but I drank some green tea (yuck!) and got through it.  At 4:30 I started to feel really terrible and nauseous.  I don’t know if that was a lack of food thing or part of me being sick.  The feeling eventually passed and it was time to go home!

The time between when I come home and when I have dinner is a big munchy time for me.  It was tough not to grab something out of habit.  I just kept drinking water and busied myself with cleaning since The Mister’s sister is coming to town.  I fed Lewis some kind of apple cinnamon mixed grain stuff and I could smell the cinnamon (through my stuffy nose!).  I was getting really antsy for something then.

Once 8PM hit, I knew that I wouldn’t fail in the last hour.  At precisely 9PM, I pulled my broiled tilapia out of the oven and feasted.  Maybe a little too much too fast though, I felt really gross after eating.

I can’t say this is something I will do again.  There is the whole thing with intermittent fasting that I have not delved into yet.  But right now, I’m fine with focusing on the basics to lose the bulk of this weight.  When I am down to that last 10 pounds, I might need to try drastic techniques.  At this point though, sticking to my program is producing results.  No need to change something that is working!

I try to limit my weight loss focus to trimesters (ha!) so I started this tri on 3/12 at 189 pounds with a perfectly reasonable goal of getting to 169 pounds by 6/12.  Well, that date is about 3 weeks away and I’m only down to 181.5.  All weight loss is good but 8 pounds lost in 2-1/2 months was not quite my goal.  It would be different if I had lost 8 pounds and I knew I was doing everything that I could be doing…but I know that haven’t been on my game.

Homeostasis refers to the tendency of a system to maintain a stable condition (hey I was on the science track back in college for a while LOL).  It is Greek for “standing still” and that is exactly what I have been doing this past few months.  I haven’t been eating so poorly that I gained weight but I’ve been on that “two steps forward, two steps back” track long enough to find myself just maintaining.  This stops today and I mean it.

I need to change things up and quick so here’s my plan to reclaim my motivation and focus.

• Reset my weight loss goal: The 169 goal on 6/12 is not going to happen.  I’m resetting this to 177 by 6/12.  That will still be a challenge but I need a challenge right now.  And if I get crazy focused, I can still reach my major goal of 155 by Lewis’ first birthday.  This will be a good jump start.
• Start tracking calories again: I’m going to start calorie tracking on SparkPeople.com again.  Sometimes I stop tracking out of laziness (it is really annoying to have to input your custom recipes etc) but sometimes I stop tracking because I’m eating Starbursts and cupcakes.
• Get connected with the “fitosphere” again: It really helps me out to read about what other people are doing!  I lurk read so many different blogs and I need to up my fitness blog rotation again.  When I am dealing with my own struggles I sometimes want to avoid this world when connecting with others is exactly what I need to do.
• Do at least 5 of the 10 Precision Nutrition Habits daily:  There are 10 habits I’ve learned to follow.  Some are easier than others but I am committing to doing 5 of the 10 each day.  I will up this number each week.
• Strive for 90% compliance:  I eat 4-5 meals/snacks a day depending on my hunger level.  That is 35 opportunities to do the right thing.  If I slip up and break the rules (by eating rice outside of my post-workout carb window for example) during 3 of those meals that is not a big deal.
• One cheat meal per week: I will allow myself 1 cheat MEAL (not day!) a week.  I have a few weekend activities and some travel coming up that will make a strict diet challenging.  I don’t want to stress over perfection, so a cheat meal might be in order during these times.  If I eat mindfully the rest of the week this won’t be a big deal.
• Blog at least 3 times a week:  Blogging for me can be a bit like food tracking.  If I’m real quiet for a long time it might be because I’ve got a cupcake stuffed in my mouth LOL.  The simple act of putting out something for 3 people the world to see helps me feel accountable.

• This was a light week.  Down a mere .5 pounds to 182.0.
• I am really starting to stress about meeting my mini-goal for 169 by June 12th.  That means near perfect weight loss of 2 pounds/week for the next 6 weeks.  I don’t know if that is going to happen.
• My mojo was missing this past month.  I never really have a problem with exercising but I’ve been allowing too many “non-compliant” foods to slip into my meals.  I rarely feel like cooking dinner and as a result have been going out for lunch a lot.  I usually stick with salads or rotisserie chicken or something from the Whole Foods hot bar but still…
• I am hereby reclaiming my lost mojo found!  Every day is a new day and every meal is a new meal.
• I am smoking everyone in the office Biggest Loser contest!  The response from the other participants? Let’s extend the deadline from May 10th to July!  WTH! Since it is 8 against 1, I can’t really argue here.  I did demand ask that we up the ante by putting more money in the pot.  I’m way ahead now and if I don’t screw it up 2 months isn’t going to make that much of difference.  I am claiming that prize!
• I found a new pair of Size 12 Gap Curvy jeans in a laundry basket.  I put them on and they fit perfectly!  Yes!
• Last weekend marked Month 4 of my Precision Nutrition program.  I really need to do a comprehensive post of my thoughts on the program.  Anyway, they have a neat photo comparison tool and I was checking out my photos from Jan against pics I took this weekend.  The difference was very visible which made me feel better about having an off month.  My body is nowhere near where I want it to be (hello to all this stomach!), but I can see things shrinking and that is worth celebrating.
• Sister P thinks she is gonig to beat me in the upcoming Warrior Dash.  She better watch out!  I will cross that finish line before her if it is the last thing I do!  I might not be able to run fast like I used to, but CrossFit has prepared me to handle all kinds of random fitness tasks.  I don’t anticipate the obstacles being a huge challenge.  Bring it!

• Long time no?  I was crazy busy last week helping with Babs baby shower which turned out quite well I think.  One can only spend so much work time doing non-work things so my blogging (and blog reading!) got pushed aside.
• At my last reported weigh-in, I think I was at 184.5.  This week I weighed in at 182.5.  It is really coming off y’all!  I still got a lot of work to do to hit my mini-goal of 169 by June 12th though.
• I had to go shopping to find a appropriate “Ladies Who Lunch” dress for the baby shower.  The last time I went shopping for sometime dressy was GatorGirl’s wedding when I was about 6 weeks postpartum.  I remember trying on Size 16s and 18s and being horribly depressed about the way they looked.  I ended up just wearing my utility maternity dress.  This time around was much better and I had a lot more choice.  I found a nice one from Marshall’s for $25.
• This weekend was full of food.  Between the baby shower (and Barista’s delicious cupcakes!), meeting an old high school friend for brunch and book club at a Cuban joint, I overdosed on eating out.
• And what do I do to follow that up this morning?  I try one of those new Subway breakfast sandwiches!  I had the Western egg white omelet on English muffin.  It was delicious!  It had about 160 calories, 4g of fat, 15g of protein and 5g of fiber.  It also had 620mg of sodium but nothing’s perfect.  This will be my new breakfast on the go should the need ever arise.
• DiscoDiva might be joining me for bootcamp next month!  Come on girl!  You can do it!
• I haven’t been running in about 2 weeks.  I plan to correct that tomorrow morning if the weather co-operates.

• I was down .5 to 184 even for the week and I’m grateful for that.  I had positive changes in my waist and hip measurements as well.
• I’ve been stressed and that stress is showing up in my food journal!  I’m not really a stress eater per se but when I’m stressing over other things, managing healthy meals becomes last priority.  Who feels like cooking dinner when you are stressed?!?  Time to order out!  It might be a salad or something fairly healthy but no good comes from eating out all the time.  Even if the food seems “healthy” it is usually loaded with sodium.  Or else it is some kind of healthy frankenfood full of way more random ingredients than you would think – like my beloved KFC grilled chicken.
• Why do I buy Cadbury Mini Eggs when I KNOW how I get about them?!?  Thank God Easter is over and I don’t have anymore!
• My sister unexpectedly came down to visit and we went to two different restaurants.  My choices the first night were very poor.  After drinking a Caipirinha and noshing on empanadas and crab fritters, I felt so greasy inside I nearly slid out of my chair.  It didn’t even really taste that great but the lure of “forbidden” food is strong sometimes!  Now the Red Velvet cupcake dessert – that was good and totally worth a cheat.
• We went to Rosa Mexicano the next night and I had guacamole (with chips), a roasted vegetable salad and some kind of chicken taco things.  Not quite as bad this time around but still off plan and again – nothing good comes from eating out.
• I’ve been quiet over here the past few weeks.  I’ve been more than a bit stressed out lately!  Some idjit rear-ended a Lincoln Navigator during my busy stop-n-go traffic filled commute a couple of weeks ago.  The Navi then rear-ended my fully paid for car (with $3K worth of new transmission that I paid for last summer mind you).  I intended to drive that car for at least another year.  Can you tell that I’m pissed?  I thought they were going to total it out so I was all stressed out.  Then they said the damages were about $2.5K and they were going to fix it.  I exhaled!  Then I got a call yesterday saying that they found an extra $2K worth of damages.  I know my poor 1999 Acura with 201K miles on it is not worth $4500 in repairs.  I really think they are going to total it out this time.
• If I can wait another year to get a car, I’ll be nearly debt free.  If I have to buy a car now, the extra money I use to attack debt is going to a car payment and expensive insurance.  Ugh!  See why I’m stressed and so annoyed?  I could punch that dude who caused this accident!
• To add insult to injury, my computer is stuck on the Windows start up screen.  The Mister is checking it out but it sounds like a computer is just another thing I’m going to need to buy.  Sigh.
• I’ve got to postpone my 10K race.  My sister’s visit caused me to skip my 4 mile run on Sunday.  Then I totally forgot that I have weekend committments the next 2 weekends, plus the Warrior Run in May.  No way can a training plan withstand all of these misses!  I can only run on Tuesdays, Thursdays and the one weekend day when I don’t have baby duty.  That leaves no room for make-up runs.
• My next 10K option (excluding the Peactree Road Race which is sold out) is not until September.  That is the US 10K Classic and I’m not sure I want to run 6-miles uphill on Cobb Parkway (the street where that idjit hit me!).  Plus, it is usually held around Labor Day and it is still extra hot here then.
• I think I’ll do a few random 5Ks but still train for a 10K so that I will be race ready this Fall and get used to running distance again.

• I weighed in on Saturday at 184.5lbs – a big loss of 2.5lbs for the week.  Whoo hooo!  Only 30-ish pounds left to lose.  15 pounds until my June 12th goal.
• I am currently winning my office Biggest Loser contest!  We started on Feb 10th and will continue until May 10th.  At the halfway mark, I was the Biggest Loser down 6% since the start of the contest.  I must keep this up.  I can taste that $200 prize money.
• I never win the weekly contest weigh-ins.  I think it is because I am pretty stable on the scale dropping a pound or two every week.  Others might gain one week and then lose 3 pounds the next week.  This is definitely one case where consistency doesn’t appear to pay off in the short term but pays off in the long haul!
• I had my body fat tested again for Precision Nutrition.  I last had it done on Jan 26th and it was 29.45%.  This time it was 27.11%.  So I lost about 2.5% body fat in 2 months.  I was hoping for better results, but I’m happy that the number is trending downwards.  I do recognize that these numbers are VERY subjective and subject to a 3-5% margin of error.
• I really wasn’t sure if a 2.5% loss in body fat was a good thing or a bad thing.  I found this that states that you can expect to lose between 1-3% of your body fat per month.  So I guess 2.5% is OK.
• I was happy to see that I retained a good deal of my muscle mass, so I am losing fat and not the good stuff that I work so hard to build/retain.
• My 10K training is sucking so far.  My long run on Sunday was horrible.  It was more of a long walk.  I set out for a run at 2PM not realizing that it was 80+ degrees outside.  I ran one mile and the heat just did me in.  It was run/walk/pant/water break/pant/walk/run from then on out. I think it took me 45 minutes to finish the 3.5 miles and that was *after* I completely ran the first mile in 11 minutes and some change.
• Every run is not going to be a great run.  What counts is that I did it.
• I don’t deal well with warm temperatures AT ALL.  I suppose we have gotten to the time of year where if I can’t make it out by 7 or 8AM then it is treadmill time.