Friday, August 7

8/7 weight loss thoughts: The No Fun Edition

Weight loss is no fun.

Surprise, surprise. I've been trying to be as positive as possible, and I will be again, but felt pretty down about it today. Just garden-variety discouragement. And it's a little early for that, don't you think?

I guess this morning's weigh in precipitated it. For all my talk about trends, I do care about the number, and I was disappointed. Going from 207.5 to three days of 210 is a little deflating. I did take Tuesday off, but I didn't think it was going to have such a big impact.

And maybe it didn't. Probably these are just normal fluctuations and I should just keep working my plan.

It does make me begin to doubt the plan, though, at a minimum. Maximally, doubt begins to creep in that I can be successful.

So, let's be rational: if my current plan/behavior doesn't work over a decent amount of time, then I may need to look at making a change. But we're probably not there, yet. Give it a little time.

And it is possible that my no-holds-barred day off is counterproductive. Still, other reputable diets contain days off, and mine isn't even once a week any more. What do you think?

As to the maximal doubt, it's just not rational. I can be successful at this. Many people have lost weight. It can be done. Doesn't being really smart count for anything? Or is this one of those all too frequent cases when too smart is dumb?

Plus, I have supportive friends to encourage me. We are in this together. I don't want to let myself down or my family or you.

In the end, it's like Apollo 13: Failure is not an option. Not this time. Not any more. I don't care if it takes a year. I'm going to lose this weight. I'm tired of overeating getting the best of me.

Diary

So, like I said frackin' 210 today with everything else good, as far as I can tell: caloric intake, exercise. Got up at the right time this morning and caught up on my biking.

But enough about me. How are you doing?

4 comments:

Macon said...

Keep going, Sean! Discouragement at this stage is probably normal. The excitement of the "new" wears off prior to the excitement of progress emerges, because progress is slow. :-)

Go, go go!

M said...

A fluctuation of a few pounds is normal -- don't let it distract you from the ultimate goal!

Paul Stokes said...

Several things have helped me over the years, and I have been at this weight thing for quite a long time. You probably know all of them, but I can make a list:

1. Stay away from calorie dense foods, to the extent that you can.
2. Lots of veggies and fruits. Let them begin to displace the meats of all sorts in your diet.
3. Try strictly no refined sugar of any sort for a week, and see what an impact that will have.
4. It takes a lot of exercise to burn off calories. Exercise has all sort of benefits, but the key to weight loss is limiting the intake of calories. Sometimes a lot of exercise will just make you more hungry.
5. Don't under eat. That will simply lower your metabolic rate, and nothing will happen on the weight side. Shoot for losing a pound a week - no more than two. Let it happen over months.
6. Eat whole foods: brown rice, whole wheat bread and pastas.
7. Did I say stay away from sugar?
8. Read stuff about good nutrition.
9. No junk. No soft-drinks. Abhor McDonald's, etc.
10. Keep busy.
11. I like Weight-Watchers. It's not cheap, but once you hit "goal" it's free as long as you stay around that weight.

I simply feel better when the weight is under control. You will too. You will get there. Don't let a few "bad" days knock you down. You are new every morning. Really.

Sean Meade said...

thanks for the encouragement, guys! good advice all around.

thanks, Paul, especially for your extensive list :-)