Week 15 End - Pushing Through to Success

4/16/2016 54 lbs. lost

Week 15 was a rousing success. I had a great week of workouts and great weight loss. After a very disappointing week 14, it was a real pick-me-up. I knew last week was a fluke with actually gaining 2 pounds. After reviewing my sodium intake for the week I was way over the allowances (over 4x) and was definitely retaining fluid. This week I recorded a 6.4 lb. loss. Of course I'd like to claim that as a one week loss, but in reality, once I cut back on the sodium and flushed the fluids out of my system, it was really a two week loss. It just goes to show that the scale doesn't tell the whole story. If you know you have been doing the things you should and you have a setback, you need to look into what you might be missing along the way.

The upside to last week is that it did make me take a closer look at my overall nutrition and not just the calorie intake. It is important to maintain a balance, and I am now trying to be more aware of the content of the food I eat and not just the calorie count. Those big Kosher Dill pickles I love to snack on, while virtually no calories, contain almost an entire days allotment of sodium (2000 mg). I've had to give up my daily snack in favor of more heart friendly choices. While I will still occasionally indulge, I realize that it's counter-productive to eat things that will not get me to my goal of an overall healthier lifestyle. One of my goals is to get off blood pressure medication, and eating huge amounts of salt will not get me there.

I took a few days away from the gym over this past weekend as well. I have had to adjust to not having those extra calories available, but I have found that I can continue to do this without being tied to the gym. I met my exercise goal yesterday mostly by working around the house and in the yard. It didn't give me the 11000 steps in an hour that I am able to get at the gym, but I still logged over 13000 steps by the end of the day. Now that the weather is getting nice here in Central PA, I am looking for ways to get my exercise outside so I am not chained to a machine at the gym.

54 lbs. gone only 96 more to go! I'm now a "double digit midget". The next big milestone for me will be breaking the 300 lb. mark. I'm looking forward to that! Hopefully I will be claiming that victory in about 2 months.