12/11/2019 Weigh In

212.0, down one pound from 12/9/2019's 213.0.

I'm back on the straight and narrow, and the loss of the pound I gained in Meddy Oulde England shows that. Now to keep it up and get more off!

I ordered a TRX exercise system (they were having a half-price sale), and it shipped last night;. That will help with keeping the strength up and it will also help a LOT with my sore hips (which so effectively prevent me from moving much). This is the system they have at the gym; straps support me as I bend and squat and move my joints in ways that would surely have me falling on my head if I didn't have the straps to support me.

And there's always the NordicTrack. I've been remiss with that lately, and I notice the difference in breathing and in ability to walk any distance at all. With the travel plans I have for next summer, I'd better get my butt in gear and get on that.

I'm also needing to increase my water intake. I'm thirsty!! No, I'm not showing a high blood sugar; my A1C was "perfect" last year, and it will be again this year since I'm not eating piles of processed sugar (and will avoid most sugar over the Christmas holidays). I simply am dehydrated. Traveling has done that, I think. Airplanes are desiccators.

Today's Plan:

Pre-breakfast: Lemon juice, vitamins
Breakfast: Bran pancake, strawberries, water
10:30 am: 5 minutes on NordicTrack, water
Lunch: Chicken/Fish, salad, water
2 pm: Wasa, water
4 pm: Wasa, water
5 pm: 5 minutes on NordicTrack, water
Dinner: Bran pancake, strawberries, water
7 pm: 5 minutes on NordicTrack, water
7:30 pm: Apple, water
9:30 pm: Yogurt

12/9/2019 Weigh In

213.0, up one pound from 11/22/2019's 212.0.

I'm actually quite pleased with that. Thanksgiving ... Hog-Out Holiday ... happened in the interim, as did a week-long trip to London, which is the Land of Scones and Clotted Cream. I gained only a pound over the two weeks, despite all that. I could have lost weight (I certainly did enough walking in London), but I didn't. No excuses. And yes, I enjoyed myself.

I shall be back on the straight and narrow today. I have some grocery shopping to do for salad stuff (mine wilted) and eggs, but that will be an easy thing to do.

Today's Plan:

Pre-breakfast: Lemon juice, vitamins
Breakfast: Chicken thigh (air fried), water
11 am: 5 minutes on NordicTrack
Lunch: Chicken/Fish, salad, water
2 pm: Wasa, water
4 pm: Wasa, water
5 pm: 5 minutes on NordicTrack
Dinner: Bran pancake, strawberries, water
7 pm: 5 minutes on NordicTrack
7:30 pm: Apple, water
9:30 pm: Yogurt

11/17/2019 Weigh In

212.0, down 0.75 from 11/15's 212.75. I forgot to step onto the scales yesterday.

Hey, I've lost 17 lb since I started on 10/6 (I started, if you recall, at 229 lb)! And that's WITH the yogurt "cheat" every night! I shall continue the yogurt "cheat"; it adds good flora to my gut, it tastes good, and it keeps me away from worse things ... like chocolate ice cream...  I mix 1 tbsp of Hershey's special dark cocoa powder and 1 tbsp of sweetener into two ice-cream scoops (about 1 cup) of plain nonfat thick Greek yogurt (all that is about 90 calories).

I have three more pounds to go for my next Reward (another new pair of yoga pants). I think I'll wear yoga pants on the plane to and from London (whence I shall travel very soon), along with my pressure socks and a t-shirt and a sweater.

I saw "Mary Poppins" at Schenectady Light Opera Company (SLOC) yesterday (the show was delightful!). At intermission, they had for sale soda and cookies and muffins. I bought water. And I walked to and from SLOC ... probably a total of about a mile. I need to walk more.

Today's Plan

Pre-breakfast: Lemon juice, vitamins
Breakfast: Bran pancake, strawberries, water
11 am: NordicTrack, water
Lunch: Chicken, salad, water
2 pm: Wasa, water
4 pm: Wasa, water
5 pm: 5 minutes on NordicTrack
Dinner: Fish, salad, water
7 pm: 5 minutes on NordicTrack
7:30 pm: Apple, water
9:30 pm: Yogurt

11/5/2019 Weigh In

215.25, down 0.25 from yesterday! Little bit by little bit...

I cannot sing the praises of the old Diet Center weight-loss diet highly enough. It works. I feel good while I'm on it. And the weight comes off at a healthy rate.

Diet Center has revamped its weight-loss diet, I believe; it's now online and not quite so regimented. Me, I like the old regimen. I don't need the online thing, I have done this and am doing it on my own, and I have no doubt that I will reach my goal weight.

However, I have a trip coming up; I'm off to London right after Thanksgiving. The eating regimen will be different for a week. I will take food with me on the plane for the trip so I don't eat airline food on the way over. I will get a lot of exercise while I'm there; I'm going to be walking around museums and around the streets of London doing the tourist stuff I've never done. I will, though, maintain control of my eating whilst there, but I will not kick myself for stalling or even gaining a bit over that week; I will simply return to the regimen when I get back.

Last year at the holidays, I said those very words and didn't follow through. I ate whatever I damn well pleased from November until October; the result was that I gained back 29 of the 50-something pounds I lost last year. I shall remember that, and not repeat the mistake.

Today's Plan:

Pre-breakfast: Lemon juice, vitamins
Breakfast: Bran pancake, strawberries, water
11 am: 5 minutes on NordicTrack, water
Lunch: Fish, salad, water
2 pm: Wasa, water
4 pm: Wasa, water
5 pm: 5 minutes on NordicTrack
Dinner: Chicken, salad, water
7 pm: 5 minutes on NordicTrack
7:30 pm: Apple, water
9:30 pm: Yogurt

10/8/2019 Weigh In

225.75, down 1.25 lb. from yesterday's 227.0.

YES!! 1.25 lb lost yesterday ... I'll take it.

And I woke up this morning not hungry. Yes, I can easily eat, but I'm certainly not ravenously hungry. I rather like the two cheats I had yesterday (an extra piece of fruit and 1/2 C plain nonfat Greek yogurt with almond extract, Stevia and cocoa powder); they seem to satisfy the hunger. I shall keep them for the moment.

I am working on exorcising the demon that has kept me fat for all these years. I've always been heavy, and that has sat badly with a demon whose voice has been with me forever. The driving force behind that demon ... a fat-shaming close family member ... has been dead and gone for nearly five years now, and it's time to get that voice out of my head. I deserve to be fit and healthy ... even though, yes, I'm now in my 60s and have arthritis in one hip and extraordinarily tight hip flexors in both hips, so I now walk with a gimp and can't run at all. I walk, actually, like my grandmother walked ... grabbing onto solid objects as I pass them for support. That pisses me off. I never liked that grandmother much.

This is the shape I need to get out of before I go on my Grand Tour of (some of) the western National Parks next summer. Weight loss, NordicTrack, and personal trainer to the rescue!

Goals. Time to set goals. I will weigh 210 lb by Thanksgiving. That's a goal. It's achievable; not easy, but achievable. I have 1.5 months to lose 15.75 lb. It's an important goal; I'm off to England for a week right after Thanksgiving! First time in decades I will have visited London!

Long-term, 145 remains the pie-in-the-sky dream, but that is totally invisible to me at this moment. I'll do this in shorter chunks.

So. Today's Plan:

Pre-Breakfast: glass of lemon juice, vitamins
Breakfast: bran pancake made with cinnamon and stevia, water
10 a.m.: orange, water
Lunch: salad, chicken, water
2 p.m.: Wasa, water
4 p.m.: 1/2 C Greek yogurt with cocoa powder & almond extract, water
Dinner: salad, chicken, Wasa, water
7:30 p.m.: apple, water
9:30 p.m.: 1 C strawberries, water

The yogurt and the strawberries are cheats on the strict diet. I figure that if I plan the cheats, I won't cheat the Plan.

UPDATE at 10:26 pm:

I stuck to the Plan ... except for some of the times. I exchanged the timing of the Greek yogurt and the strawberries (1 cup of strawberries is less than I wanted it to be...), and I had the Greek yogurt at 8:15, not at 9:30. I am now going to bed comfortably full.

Tomorrow will be challenging since I'll be in my office all day with clients. I'll likely do the same Plan tomorrow, except I'll substitute salmon for chicken for lunch.

10/6/2019 Weigh In

229.0. Grumble.

When last I weighed myself, 11 months ago, I was 200.75. Clearly, I've slipped. My excuse (and that is EXACTLY what this is): Christmas happened. With eggnog cheesecake. Then I didn't go back onto the Plan. While Christmas will happen again, eggnog cheesecake won't.

It's time to get it back in gear and get this show on the road.

I started the Diet Center conditioning diet yesterday, and have one more day to go with that. Then it's chicken-and-fish, chicken-and-fish, chicken-and-fish forevermore.

I have a goal. I have Big Plans for next summer: I'm going to camp my way through the western National Parks. I'll start at probably the southern end with Grand Canyon, then drive up through the Rockies, hitting national parks along the way. I've gotten lots of recommendations for which parks to see; the Big Four on my list are Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Rocky Mountain and Glacier. To do this effectively, I need to be at least 50 lb ... preferably 70 lb ... lighter than I am right now by the time my birthday rolls around in late June.

I Can Do This.

MEASUREMENTS

Neck 16.5"
Chest 46.5"/43.25"
Waist 47"
Hips 46.5"
Upper L arm 13.25"
Upper R arm 14"
L thigh 22.5"
R thigh 23"
L calf 15"
R calf 15.5"

Weighing In 11/14/2018

200.75, down from last week's 201.5.

I haven't lost all that much this month: five pounds. But hey: five pounds is five pounds.

I'm going to give it a break from Thanksgiving until New Year's. If I eat a Christmas cookie, I will not beat myself up. If I eat pizza, I will not beat myself up.

Then, on 1 January 2019, I will restart the weight loss phase. With any luck, I'll lose another 10 lb in January-early February, and weigh well less than 200 lb by the time I go to Egypt in February!!

Weighing In 10/1/2018

209.25, down from 9/29's 210.

Since I started on 9/1/2018 at 218 lb, I've lost 8.75 lb. That's not too shabby. It's had its ups and downs, and I traveled some in September (always a Problem for weight loss), but I show a net loss, which I'm happy about.

The stuff I'm doing at the gym doesn't hurt. That challenge has me doing Callanetics four days this week (today will be the fourth) and has me feeling pretty good. I still can't do a squat-thrust, but I'll get there; it's a 10-week challenge with Darryl (my personal trainer, who is magnificent at kicking butt) and that can't help but get me closer to where I want to be!

Here are today's measurements. I didn't measure last month until 9/9, so it's only 21 days' worth of loss this month. That problem is remedied; today's the first of the month, and I measure on the first of the month.

Since starting on 3/14/2017, I have lost a total of 78.125 inches and 46.75 lb!! No wonder my clothes are falling off of me!! Percentage-wise, I've lost 18.06% of my body mass since 3/14/2017, and 3.78% of my body mass since 1 September (when I weighed in at 218). 

This past month, I lost a total of 3.875 inches, which also isn't too shabby. I've lost, percentage-wise, 15.18% (!!!) of my body measurement since 3/14/2017 and 4.0% of my body measurement since 9/9/2018.

I'm stoked!!

	3/14/17	9-Sep	1-Oct	Month's Difference	TOTAL Difference
Weight	256	210.5	209.25	-1.25	46.75
Bust	49.5	45	44	-1	5.5
Waist	51	45	45	0	6
Hips	48	43	43.5	0.5	4.5
Upper Arm L	15	13	13	0	2
Upper Arm R	15	13.125	13.125	0	1.875
Mid-Thigh L	23	20	19.5	-0.5	3.5
Mid-Thigh R	25	20.5	19.5	-1	5.5
Calf L	16	15.125	14.75	-0.375	1.25
Calf R	16	15	14.75	-0.25	1.25
Inches Lost	514.5	440.25	436.375	3.875	78.125

Weighing In 9/21/2018

209.0, down 0.5 from yesterday's 209.5.

That works!

That rate will, of course, slow down, but I'll take it for now.

Hey, one more pound and I will have lost 10 lb this month ... that's exactly what this Diet Center diet is supposed to do.

I started this journey on 3/14/2017 weighing 256 lb; in 3 more pounds, I will have lost 50 lb! I shall reward myself for that accomplishment with a new pair of cross-trainers.

The next 10-lb goal will take me down below 200 lb; that's a MILESTONE ... an absolutely magic number. I still need to figure out how to celebrate that one. I've already paid for the trip to Egypt, so that's not the reward. I'll figure it out.

Weighing In 9/13/2018

209.75. No change from yesterday.

I actually broke the diet regimen last night for dinner. I had Mick's maple salmon. The salmon is fine; the maple has SUGAR. Sugar is a total no-no on this regimen. Well, it's back to the straight and narrow today. Tomorrow I take my daughter and her boyfriend to Sushi X for lunch, then go to Concord for my law-school class reunion over the weekend. That, too, will break the regimen (though I will, of course, be sensible). So I'll do an egg-grapefruit day on Monday to get things back on track.

Going to the gym this morning to let Darryl beat me up and put me through the baseline exercise routine for the challenge. That will wear me out for the rest of the day.... I did the weigh-in on Tuesday, and that measures all kinds of things besides weight. It seems that I'm a bit dehydrated; I don't drink enough water. Divide your weight in half and that's the number of ounces of water you should drink per day. I'll NEVER get 105 ounces of water down my gullet in a day...that's another reason to lose the weight!

Toastmasters tonight! I'm talking, giving my icebreaker speech. And I'm Grammarian. I'm more nervous about the grammarian function than I am about the speech.

Weighing In 9/1/2018

It's been a year and two days since I last posted here. I've done a decent job of maintaining my weight for that year; I'm at 218 pounds this morning, having pigged out on sushi yesterday (thanks to my brother who came to hang out for a couple of hours and took me to lunch) and pizza and ice cream for the last two days (my brother had nothing to do with those). Last time I posted, on 8/30/2017, I was at 212.75, and I will be there again very soon.

I'm still going to the gym at least once per week, and the same personal trainer is still kicking my butt. I think that's how I am maintaining my weight, quite frankly.

It's time. I'm done maintaining. Today I restart the old Diet Center weight loss routine, and I become answerable to this blog again. It's called "accountability."

The goal is to lose 50 pounds (putting me at 168 lb) by the time I go to Egypt in February. It's the healthy thing to do. Eventually, I'll go down another 20, and that will be my final goal weight. Imagine my weighing less than 150 ... haven't been there in decades.

I'll post measurements as I start the Reducing Diet on the day after tomorrow, then again on the first day of each month.

Weighing In 6/28/2017

223.25. No change from yesterday.

So it seems the loss of travel bloat is done. That would mean I actually gained only 1/2 a pound during my travels (I was at 222.75 before I left). That certainly makes me feel better than gaining 5.75 pounds!! Of course, I would rather have lost that half a pound, but I'll get there. At least I'm showing a loss for the month now.