Happy Easter!
This was a fairly good week for phase 2 of Operation Melt and I made good progress. I had lots of exercise and had some firsts. Plus, I broke through my latest weight loss plateau and got to a new low weight. Unfortunately, my weekly roller coaster of weight fluctuation took it all back, temporarily.
Goodbye plateau!
After struggling with some fluctuations and a plateau last week, I am back on track and really moving. One morning this week, I stepped on the scale and my weight was over 3 pounds less than the previous day. I love those experiences! Unfortunately, I also had a day with big sodium intake and I had a 1-day spike of 3 pounds, but at least I was able to explain that one.
Many of my plateaus have seemingly been related to food calories versus exercise calories. I have not been able to keep my intake high enough to offset the exercise calories without getting totally unhealthy. This is not a situation I expected in my life, I have never struggled to eat enough calories before!
Unfortunately, though I hit a new low weight in the early part of the week, I made far worse choices in the later part of the week. I had several high calorie days (though within my net calorie target) with high sodium. So… my weight fluctuated up 6 pounds Thursday though Sunday. It will all go away by Tuesday, but that is a frustrating swing.
A new first
“Do you want to meet at my house at 8:30 and we can go for a 2-3 mile run and then have breakfast?”
This was the invitation I received from my friend Beth on Thursday evening. We were planning to meet for breakfast, but we decided to make it a more healthy morning. This invite marked several firsts for me.
This is the first time a friend has invited me out for exercise of any sort instead of just normal coffees, breakfasts, lunches or drinks. This was also the first time that I have had a running buddy versus just going it alone with me and my musics. This was the first time that I tried to have a conversation while running, it is harder than I expected. It was also the longest distance I set out to run, though there was a fair amount of slowing to walk.
I had a great time running with Beth and I hung with her pace pretty well. Hopefully group runs happen more often in my life!
Trainer session 2
I had my second session with my trainer this week. We focused on stretching for a short part of the session because I wanted to get into a better stretching routine. Then we did some weight training including using the Power Tank, a modified version of a weight sled that you push/pull to work your entire body.
Unlike the first session, I didn’t feel like I overdid it during the second session. I got a great workout and was still able to hop back on the treadmill afterwards. Plus, I had no pain the next morning, which is a big improvement over last time. I even went on to have 3 of my longest workouts in the days after my session.
So, I think I am improving! And, to be clear, I love my trainer and think she is awesome!
My story is getting around
When I hit my 100 pounds lost goal a couple of weeks ago, I bragged about it. I posted to my blog, I shared the post on Twitter and on LinkedIn. Plus, I shared my accomplishment on Facebook. I recently looked at the statistics related to how many people saw my update and I was amazed!
Almost 7000 people saw the article on LinkedIn and I got 60 likes and lots of comments. The Facebook post got 105 likes and the tweet had 108 impressions. If there is no overlap of these audiences, about 7200 people saw my update and many interacted with it. That is a lot!
This makes me optimistic that there will be somebody interested in publishing my book and maybe a few people will even read it. I am so excited to tell my story on a bigger scale and help people accomplish their goals.
On the topic of my story getting around, I have what I expect to be an interesting evening planned today. I am having Easter dinner with Liz’s parents and many of her siblings. Most of these people haven’t seen me since mid-January. Since that point, I have lost a job and the rest of my 100 pounds plus I have written the first draft of a book. So, we will likely have lots to talk about tonight!
Check back next week for more!
Last week’s stats (3/19 – 3/25):
Distance walked/run: 36.8 miles
Total calories burnt: 24,577
Total calories consumed: 13,872
Weight change: 3.4 pounds lost
