Right on Track

Last Week- 169.6

This Week- 167.4

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Total Lost- 2.2 pounds!

I am very, very happy with 2.2 pounds. It seems to me that keeping my net calories around 1200 is working for me and my body, this has meant that on some days I have eaten 1800 calories, which is really really nice.

It is getting warm outside, I am very happy about this because it means I can run outside more often. YEAH! it is much more fun to run outside, I think.

I am taking a vacation, so next week I will not weigh in- for two reasons, 1, I will not be taking my scale with me on vacation and 2, I figure I might gain a little and I want to give myself another week to get past that. Hey, I believe in being honest, and I honestly think it is hard to lose weight while on vacation. I even have reasons for that belief, 1, you are not making your own food. (I do plan on continuing to log my food and in this way I hope not to over eat.) 2, There is something about car trips that makes me want to eat CONSTANTLY. I have taken my treats and split them up into 100 calorie snacks, now I just need to keep myself from eating 10 snack bags in one leg of the trip. 3, when you are away from home it can be harder to keep up with your regular exercise routine. To help keep myself on track I mapped out the 3 runs I will be doing while we are gone AND I am going to be bringing my hand weights. SO HOPEFULLY in two weeks I will be able to say that I weigh 165 or less! YEAH!

Stinking Scales

Last Week- 170.0

This Week- 169.6

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Total Loss- 0.4

For a week that included 3 birthdays and a little too much cake, I will take a loss of around 1/2 a pound. Also I had an insane scale this morning. It is one of those scales that can track weight. I stepped on the scale today and weighted 169.2. I was very happy. I double checked. 169.2. I got ready to "Track" my weight, 170.2 WHAT? How did I gain 1 pound in less than a minute? I checked again and again and again.....170.2. I gave up. Took a shower, weighed myself sopping wet. 169.8, Okay, maybe I was really dirty. I dried my hair, and weighed again- thinking that dry hair would weigh less than wet hair. 170.2 WHAT? I told the scale I thought it was mean and a stinky poopoohead. I weighed myself again 169.6. I accepted it and tracked it (luckily I didn't gain a pound while waiting to track my weight this time). Hopefully this next week will be a good week. If not I might through the scale off the roof.

Happy, Happy Weigh-in!

Last week- 173.2

This week- 170.0

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Total Lost- 3.2 Pounds!

WHAT? I am a little uneasy about losing more than 2 pounds per week, BUT I ate more this week so I know that starvation wasn't the reason for such a big loss. I have been trying to keep my net calories around 1200. Some days this meant that I had to eat an extra 350 calories, those days had me worried, I didn't understand how it could work but I was hoping that my thoughts and the advice I had gotten were right. What were my thoughts? That if I feed my body sufficiently while I am working out, my body will say "Wow, she is trying her best to take care of me, maybe I should reward her!" I had worried that if I was only eating 1400 calories and burning 600 that my body would start to protect itself and it would hold onto the fat stores. I still don't know if my thoughts are right, but I do know I ate more this week and lost TWICE as much weight. I will continue with my experiment....Hopefully this weight loss is enough to help me achieve my goal of weighing less than Ken by my birthday.

Not to Shabby

Last Week- 174.2

This Week- 173.2

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Total Lost- 1 pound

I'll take it! I have 2 weeks left to meet my goal of passing my husband and finally weighing LESS than him and I am pretty sure I can do it, especially if he doesn't lose anymore weight(.....pssst, Ken, don't lose anymore weight over the next two weeks Okay......maybe I should go find some girl scout cookies and leave them laying randomly around the house......)

I am going to be starting my experiment this week. I am going to watch my net calories and try to keep them around 1200. On days that I don't exercise I will eat my normal 1400, on days that I exercise and burn more than 200 calories I will eat some more (good foods) to bring my net calories up to 1200. My hope is that my body will say "Thank You" and more easily get rid of the fat. Wouldn't that be nice.

I finished my 5k training and even got to run outside! It was beautiful, I ran my personal 5k on Saturday in under 35 minutes and it was easy, I loved it! I started my 10k training which includes strength training, I have been enjoying that. Today I am taking the boys along on my 2.5 mile run. I asked my oldest if he wanted to run by the river or just in our neighborhood, he choose the river- which is what I wanted too.

My clothes are fitting differently, they are loose but not loose enough that I need new clothes. I did have to pull my jeans up several times yesterday, that made me happy. All in all, I think I am doing pretty good.

Net Calories

Calories confuse me. I understand that I ate more calories than my body needed to sustain itself and so those extra calories were stored as fat. I understand that if I eat less calories than my body needs to sustain itself I will burn stored energy and I will weight. What I don't understand is the best way to decide how many calories to eat.

I love using Livestrong.com and their calorie counting tool- my plate. It even sets goals for you. I have success when I use it. BUT I am wondering if I am still doing something wrong. Right now my Caloric Goal is 1423 calories per day. That is based on my desire to lose 1.5 pounds per week. So when I do not exceed 1423 I have an automatic caloric debt of 4200 calories per week. But I am also training for a 10k and I am exercising 5-6 times per week, burning between 300 and 500 calories with each workout. So most days I have net calories of 923-1123. Is my body going to rebel against this? Do I need to eat those calories that I burned to get back up to the 1423? Should I at least say that I will always maintain a net caloric intake of at least 1200? I don't know and I have been reading on the Internet and no one says exactly what to do.

So I am toying with the idea of experimenting. Going for a week or two NOT re-eating the calories I burned and seeing what happens. Then taking a week or two and trying to always re-eat the calories burned, still never exceeding a net caloric intake of my current calorie goal. Who knows maybe I will discover that my body burns fat better one way or the other. I will definitely be telling you how it is going.

Patience

I gave the scale an hour long time out this morning. It was lying to me, I told the little piece of plastic and electronics that if it didn't start telling the truth it was going to be in big trouble! After it's time out it told the truth.

Last week- 175.8

This week- 174.2

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Total Lost- 1.6 pounds!!!!

Wooowhooo! I don't understand the scale/my body. I woke up, got out of bed, spent some time in the bathroom and then weighed myself and it told me I had gained 1/2 a pound, I figured the scale was wrong, I tried again and again it told me that I gained. 1/2 pound. Not horrible but I tried HARD this week to be good, I tracked my food, I worked out and pushed myself. I should have lost. So I said, give it an hour, it will take more than an hour to get the boys up and fed, right before breakfast (which I still ate at the normal time) I weighed myself again. 3 times. Just to make sure. 174.2 !!!!!! YEAH!!!!! I will take it! So why does that happen, I didn't lose 2 pounds in an hour, that is not possible, so why did the scale tell me that?