Week 5

It has been a tough week. I came down with a miserable chest cold which I think ended up as bronchitis and a touch of flu. I spent most of yesterday in bed with stomach pain, sweats and chills. I must say though, that I woke up today feeling much better and I think I will try to even make it to work tonight (of course it's my Friday so it will be only one day).

I mentioned in my last post that I got a fitbit tracker (charge) over the weekend. I really does allow me to more accurately track my activity. That is good, but with my inactivity of the past week, it has lowered my calorie goal a good bit. I have been able to stay with it, but I look forward to increased activity which will bring my allotted calories back to what I have been used to the past few weeks.

I did pass the 20 lb mark since my last official weigh in.  I do unofficially weigh myself  every day. My weight varies greatly from day to day and even hour to hour, so I save my official weigh in for the end of the week to get a better idea of the real overall weight loss. The next goal... 30 lbs. I am hoping to make that by the end of this month if not before. We will see how it goes. I am bound to hit a plateau soon. I hope to be able to increase my activity as this cold moves on out. That will be a key in keeping the weight loss coming.

I recently found out that the county (my employer) is hosting a "biggest loser" competition. It's a team competition. I won this as an individual competition in the first year they had it (about 10 years ago), losing 95 lbs. in 6 months (I know, not a healthy rate to lose weight). I thought about joining this, but decided that I am better off doing this on my own, for my own reasons and not a competition or prize. This is not something I intend to do for a set period and then it's over. This is a new lifestyle. I have to look at it that way. Will I always have to watch what I eat as much as now? No. Once I achieve my goal, it will allow more leeway in my calories to maintain my weight, but it won't allow me to go back to the old, bad eating habits.

I sometimes think that competitions of this sort do a disservice to those participating. If you are not trying to create a healthier you for your own reasons and goals, you will not have any sustained success. I won the $500 first prize, but then gained back all my weight and more, because once it was over, I went back to an unhealthy lifestyle. The diet I did while competing was unsustainable in the long run (1000 calories/day and staying on the elliptical machine until I had burned 1000 calories). Now my reasons are all personal. I have to do this in a sustainable way so that I can achieve and maintain a weight that allows me to fulfill my goals.