Adjusting the Chart

So I made this chart to keep track of my progress. I had it all set up with projected weight loss and goals and whatnot. Yes, I am a big nerd. Last night at my Optifast counseling group I got a little bit of a reality check. I hadn't realized that I will start eating food again 12 pounds or so before I reach my goal weight. That will slow my weight loss down to about half what I expect. So my last 4 weeks will turn into my last 8 weeks. Sucks! I also completely forgot to include my 10 maintenance classes. I'll be on the Optifast program until the end of April.

I redid my chart this morning to factor in all the new factors. Nice, isn't it? It is now considerably longer than it was. At least I'll be eating again for the last 12 weeks. There isn't that much I can do to speed things up. Exercise will help a bit, but not that much. It feels like I've been on this thing forever, but I'm only 2 months in. Hopefully the next 5+ months of Optifast will go by quickly.

209, -3, -32 pounds total

I am 1/3 of the way to my goal!

Yay!

212, -2, -29 pounds total

214, -3, -27 pounds total

Three more pounds down, 64 to go.

I started "running" on the treadmill again. It's a Walk to Jog Plan that I found in Prevention Magazine - 12 weeks to running 45 minutes. This week is 15 minutes - 4 mins walking 1 min running, but I stay on the treadmill for 45 mins total with 30 minutes of fast walking. I am in very bad shape. My gym clothes are also in very bad shape. They have been sitting in the back of my hall closet for many months and when I put them on they smelled bad. I have since re-washed everything, but man! Yuck!

I am back to wearing the ugly blue sweatpants. The strange thing is that I weigh about the same as I did back when that pic was taken, but the pants are looser. Go figure. Once I get down to 208, which is where I left off last time, I am going to reward myself with some nice headphones. It's also around the 1/3 mark, so I think that is a good thing to celebrate.

217, -5, -24 pounds total

Yay!

I wasn't expecting to lose more than a pound or two, so it's nice. I am officially at 26% of my weight loss goal. Today I am going to replace the iPod that was stolen from my desk at work with a fancypants 60gb video iPod. That is my reward for reaching the one quarter mark. Besides, I need music at work or I will flip my lid.

I still have 9 pounds to go until I reach the weight I was at when I gave up on my last diet. I took a look back into my history the other day. Dang. All that hard work disappeared so quickly. It's definitely a lesson for when I reach my goal this time. You can put on a couple of pounds a week on if you aren't careful. As a thin person my daily calorie requirements to maintain my body weight will have dropped by about 1000 calories. That is a whole Pesky Plate from Rubios. It's not even a whole Whopper with cheese. Just sayin'.

If things go as planned, I will reach my half-way mark on my birthday. That will be a really good present.

Too Much

I spoke to one of the nurse practitioners from the program and it turns out I was drinking way too much water and messing up my electrolytes. She suggested I keep track of my water intake, and by mid-day today I had already reached the maximum that I was supposed to drink for the whole day. Wow. I had no idea.

I also have to give up gum because the sugar alcohols are messing up my digestion. I will not go into details, but some people's systems have a bad reaction to sorbitol and the like. Now I am brushing after every shake so that I don't get yuck mouth.

As an aside, I am happy to report that so far I haven't had any hair loss. I figured that I was certain to, since I lose hair any time I'm under stress and it is a possible side-effect. I guess it could still happen, but so far so good.

I was having a grumpy day today. Partly because of work, but partly because I am so mad that I can't eat food. It's my own fault, and I have comitted to this crazy Optifast thing, so I shouldn't be angry, but I am anyway. I'm mad at myself for letting my weight get this high. I'm angry that I'm too undisciplined to lose weight with portion control and exercise. I only lost 2 pounds last week and that is getting me down a little. On my scale at home I haven't lost anything since Wednesday. I don't know what I'll do if I have a no-weight-loss week. I have to remember to be proud of myself for staying on the diet for this long. Even though I cheated that one time I have still done well. The pants I was wearing today fit loosely. When I got them they were too tight. In a few months they will be to big to wear. I have to remember that, and think about that when I get angry and frustrated.

222 -2 lbs, 19 total

Only two this week.

I've been feeling a little drained this week, so I wasn't as vigilant with the exercise as I wanted to be. I talked to the counselor tonight and he thinks I might be dehydrated. It's hard to imagine since I'm peeing every 5 minutes, but I'll try upping my water intake.