After one week, I am happy to say the I have stuck to my plan and it is working for me. For seven straight days, I have tracked my food and drink intake and have exercised through walking. I really only walked for six days and skipped Saturday morning to sleep late, but I did choose to walk instead of drive to a hair appointment, so that’s some exercise.
My new wifi-enabled scale also arrived this week. So, now I am weighing myself every morning before going out or consuming any food or drink. I discovered that I need to weigh myself multiple consecutive times so I can get a solid reading, so that’s what I do. At the end of week 1, my weight is down to 316.4 but I was as low as 315.2 during the week. I never realized how much my weight can vary from day to day.
From a nutrition perspective, as of the start of the week the Lose It app defines my daily calorie target as 3,017 calories based on my current weight. By the end of the week, the daily target had dropped to 2,981. Fortunately, I have been able to keep my calorie consumption below my target for 6 of 7 days. The one day I missed was Friday and that was only by 125 calories including a trip to the movies. Craft beer and movie popcorn really add up in calories.
I also managed to reduce my drinking this week. Monday and Tuesday were completely alcohol free days and the rest of the week was pretty well throttled.
The week wasn’t all good though. Stress from work is still pretty severe and I haven’t managed to find a good way to reduce it yet. I have reduced my hours a bit, but this seems to have increased stress a bit – same work and expectations compressed into fewer hours. I have also not increased or improved my sleep. I am hopeful that all of this will get to a better point over time. Finally, I have developed some ankle pain that has pretty much subsided and some annoying recurring knee pain in the mornings. That will need to be a discussion topic at my follow-up appointment with my doctor.
I have also done lots of research on fitness trackers and plan to buy a Fitbit Charge 2 at some point over the next couple of weeks.
Early this week, the Lose It app sent an email suggesting an exercise that was really beneficial. The exercise was called “what’s your why”. Essentially, to write down why I am pursuing weight loss and improved health. So, here goes…
I am focusing on losing weight, eating better, exercising more and de-stressing because I am tired of being so overweight. It has annoyed me for years and I just have to address it. The time is now because I hit an embarrassing level at 325 pounds. Plus, I am over 40 now and need to get into some healthier habits or face terrible consequences – my dad died at 59 after a really rough 10+ years of suffering, my grandmother died at 63 after years of suffering. I don’t want this to be me.
My parting words from week 1 are that I know I won’t always be able to lose weight at this rate. But, it is just good to start out with a win and helps keep me motivated.
