Weigh-in Week 30

Starting Weight: 216.8
Weight Week 27: 206.0

Weight Week 28: 208.2

Weight Week 29: 207.4

Weight This Week: 209.4
Loss These Past Weeks: -3.4
Total Weight Loss: 7.4
Pounds Still to Go: 24.4
Trendline Estimate: 205.0 (stopping at Week 30)

I'm back after a break of three weeks, and absolute failure. From the time period from the beginning of this year, to my birthday, I've had a total loss of only 2.4 pounds because of this last second gain of 5 pounds. What were the reasons? I can say things like stress, not going to the gym for various reasons, and my brother returning from med school and so parents have been buying and making all kinds of food that he's been craving, but in the end it's just my failure.

The only good thing about it is that even in failure, I still lost weight. But I didn't get myself the birthday present I wanted to get myself. In the end, my birthday was just... almost... another arbitrary number. As you can see there is already a new graph up, this time ending at Week 52. We'll see what kind of number I can reach after one year.

What I can say is that I did well on counting my calories both on Monday, and today, my birthday. Will power back, determination back, progress will continue. 

Weigh-in Week 27 - There goes another gain

The Numbers

Starting Weight: 216.8
Weight Last Week: 204.0
Weight This Week: 206.0
Loss This Week: -2.0
Total Weight Loss: 10.8
Pounds Still to Go: 21.0
Trendline Estimate: 203.7

Ok, so the 206.0 is just an estimate.  I woke at 5am on Monday to finish up and print a paper and forgot to actually weigh myself.  However, I did weigh myself on Friday (206.6) and weighed myself today (205.8), and making a guess that I weighed around 206.0 on Monday.

With that said... it's a gain.  I've only gone four weeks in a row once before showing a gain, and most the time it's been three week.  This week's gain showed followed that exact pattern.  And the reason?  I still don't know.  I was working a night shift last week on Tuesday, for the Census, and I brought a lot of snacks, and some energy drinks to keep myself awake.  I ate more than I should on a couple other days as well when I was finishing up the research for my genetics paper.  Is it just coincidence that these kinds of things come up when I feel like I should be taking in more calories?  Or am I looking for excuses to take in more calories than I know I should be doing?  

I don't think it was overconfidence this week... I had a feeling I'd be gaining weight which is why I weighed myself on Friday.  But is my body resisting that three pound drop I made a couple weeks back?  I don't know.

What I do know, and what I've said before, the excel sheet and tracking my progress every week is the greatest change I made in this go around for losing weight.  The absolute hardest thing about losing weight is to maintain motivation.  It often times takes a support system, and encouragement, or a gym partner, or a personal trainer.  My support system in this process is very minimal.  It's pretty much myself, believing I have the ability and understanding my goal is attainable.  Motivating yourself is a hard, hard thing, and that's where the excel sheet is coming in.

It's been over six months!!!  Half a year.  Progress is slow.  It's going up and down, and especially because I was able to lose 30 pounds in three months before, it makes it seem all the more slower.  But being able to remind myself of my actual progress.  Of being able to see those patterns in my results.  And being able to see when I need to give myself a good kick.  Those are incredibly beneficial things I'm gaining from simply plotting my progress.  

The downward trend is an unspoken pep talk, the jumps in weight are those occasional scoldings I need, and the impartial nature of it allows me to believe what its saying, rather than resisting encouragement because it isn't capable of softening its response cause it doesn't want to hurt my feelings.  It tells me how it is, and not what it thinks I should hear or what it thinks I want to hear.

Weigh-in Week 26

The Numbers

Starting Weight: 216.8
Weight Last Week: 204.0
Weight This Week: 204.0
Loss This Week: 0.0
Total Weight Loss: 12.8
Pounds Still to Go: 19.0
Trendline Estimate: 203.5

There we go. 204 still. No gain, no loss. But that's great! I started work training for the Census this past week, and for sitting around for about 8 hours a day for three days... it made me hungry. I was afraid I was going to see a gain in weight when I stepped on that scale today. And that was after I was already wary that I might gain some weight because I just lost over 3 pounds the previous week. I knew it was something I was afraid of happening, and still I felt like I ate more than I wanted and would see a gain in weight.

But it turns out that while I didn't meet the goal of losing 1.8 out pounds like I said I wanted to last week, I did meet my first condition of at least not gaining anything. I'm happy with that. No regrets. I still want to drop below 200, and beyond, by my birthday, but this week I can put in the win column.  

Weigh-in Week 25

The Numbers

Starting Weight: 216.8
Weight Last Week: 207.2
Weight This Week: 204.0
Loss This Week: 3.2
Total Weight Loss: 12.8
Pounds Still to Go: 19.0
Trendline Estimate: 203.9

Look at that. 3.2 pounds!  Only in Week 4 did I lose more. I've broken the 205 mark already and it's the first week in a long time that I dipped below that trendline.  I actually only went to the gym once this week as well. Probably not something I should do every week, but I just wasn't feeling that hungry, so I didn't eat all that much.

So what now?  First thing: Don't gain weight. I don't want one of those upward swings to come back. It took 16 weeks total since I first dipped below 210 only to gain, and then finally drop back down. If I can manage to not gain weight, I'd like to lose 1.8 pounds a week from here until my birthday to get down to 195, but getting down to 200 by my birthday will be ok too.

But 195!! I'm only 19 pounds away from my target weight now. Getting down to 195 means more than 50% of the weight I want to lose will be gone!  Getting down to 200 is 25%! I look down and see how much fat is deposited around my stomach, arm pits, and inner thighs, and it's hard to imagine 25% of it gone with just 5 more pounds.

I may have lost 12.8 pounds since I started recording my weight, but there is a good chance it's actually 21 pounds. I once again fit in the lab coat that's in my profile pic, and I was looking at the shirt I was wearing yesterday thinking that maybe it's too big for me now.

So let's see how it goes next week.  This is exciting, I'm hitting the back half of this journey of mine.

Weigh-in Week 24 - 6 Month Update

The Numbers

Starting Weight: 216.8
Weight Last Week: 208.8
Weight This Week: 207.2
Loss This Week: 1.6
Total Weight Loss: 9.6
Pounds Still to Go: 22.2
Trendline Estimate: 204.2

207.2.  That's more like it.  I am now the lightest I've been in 12 weeks.  With just losing 1.2 pounds a week for the next six weeks, I'll reach my latest goal of 200 pounds before my birthday.  That's pretty tight considering the trends in the graph, but doable.  I just have to watch out for any major slips and gains in weight, and then my weight will finally agree with what's on my Driver's License.

It's been 6 months now.  Six months!!  It doesn't really feel like that much time has passed.  And looking at my overall results, it doesn't seem that impressive to me.  But maybe my original goal was too much.  I was able to lose 10 pounds a month for 3 months during summer, when I had no school and no work, and I had 100% focus on losing weight.  This time I'm incorporating losing weight in a life where I'm a student and need energy to learn, study, and focus on exams, where I'm traveling to all the different pharmacy schools and going to all the events I can to do my proper research for applications, in the middle of a job search, and where I don't have as much control over the type of food I'm eating now that I'm at home again.

What has worked is making the excel sheet.  Being able to visualize the up and down trends, and being able to see that even despite that I'm losing weight overall has been a good method for self-motivation.  It's been good at keeping a feeling of failure from taking over and quitting.  That's probably the most important piece to any weight loss or weight maintenance plan.  As long as you can keep up the motivation and have some form of check in place to let you know when you're slipping, the weight will disappear.  It's taking me longer than I wanted, but it will happen.  And a few more months is nothing compared to the years I'll have with the weight off.

Before I wasn't sure how often I was going to post after I reached my target weight, but now I know I'm going to keep on doing this each week.  I'm going to need a method to ensure that I'll know it when I slip back into bad habits.  And not only that, I'll have to learn to adjust to maintaining weight, rather than losing weight.  That'll be an interesting tug-o-war to watch.

Let's hope that next week my total weight lost will finally pass 10 pounds!

Weigh-in Week 23

The Numbers
Starting Weight: 216.8
Weight Last Week: 208.4
Weight This Week: 208.8
Loss This Week: -0.4
Total Weight Loss: 8.0
Pounds Still to Go: 23.8
Trendline Estimate: 204.1

Alright.  Gained some weight again.  But it wasn't too bad.  I read my body's signals right, when I was losing that feeling around my ribs.  I was afraid the gain was going to be more significant than what the scale showed.  The last time I got close to this weight, I gained a lot.

Now what is the reason?  Have I hit a wall that my body doesn't want to get past?  Am I creating a self-fulfilling prophecy?  I went to the gym at least four times this past week.  It might have been five.  I did eat a lot one day during the week, but I don't think I ate all that much during the rest.  What I didn't do was eat a salad every day of the week.  Well... whatever the reason, the gain wasn't all that bad, and I can still make it to 200 by my birthday.

Weigh-in Week 22

The Numbers

Starting Weight: 216.8
Weight Last Week: 209.6
Weight This Week: 208.4
Loss This Week: 1.4
Total Weight Loss: 8.4
Pounds Still to Go: 23.4
Trendline Estimate: 203.8

Alright.  There we go.  Another week of weightloss.  I think I went to the gym four times this week.  In terms of food, it was a combination of good and bad.  I had the $5 box from Taco Bell twice, however, that was nearly all I ate for that whole day, or I ate more than that, but it was also a gym day where the elliptical says I burned 800 calories.  Other days it was eating some cereal, a meal that my dad cooked, and a chinese chicken salad from costco made with a head of romaine lettuce.  I wasn't sure was the results for the week were going to be.  I was hoping that I'd see just a small loss, and I would have been happy with that.  The area around my ribs still have that tighter feeling so I would have been surprised and disappointed if I gained weight.  But 1.4.  Not bad.  I'm happy with that.

And bringing up food again.  While I *am* eating some fast food, the benefits are that I know exactly how many calories are in it, and it has a set portion size.  I think I mentioned this last week, but it's somewhat harder to control my weight living at home again.  My dad enjoys cooking, and those meals don't come in preset servings.  It makes it easy to eat too much and not realize it.  

On a similar note, I love ice cream, but I've decided that in general, I'm no longer going to buy ice cream in half gallon containers.  It's too tempting to eat more than a serving.  I've been eating ice cream sandwiches instead.  Of course there's the option of not eating any ice cream at all, but if it can be done without going overboard, then that's the best possible solution.  And it looks like one ice cream sandwich a day is the key to getting that to work.

Weigh-in Week 21

The Numbers

Starting Weight: 216.8
Weight Last Week: 211.2
Weight This Week: 209.6
Loss This Week: 1.6
Total Weight Loss: 7.2
Pounds Still to Go: 24.4
Trendline Estimate: 203.5

Well... I haven't posted for three weeks.  Here's why.  First week, I put my cat to sleep and posted about that instead.  Second week I weighed myself, but ended up not posting.  Third week, I didn't even weigh myself.  What happened?  Besides my cat, school also started, and I'm waking up and leaving for school at 6:30am.  I need to fit this into my new schedule.

Now about the results.  I have to accept that I won't even make the 185 goal.  There is still a downward trend, so that's cool.  The trend line keeps on rising, so that's not.  I'm feeling healthier despite my weight not dropping as much as I wanted, so that's cool.  I haven't lost as much weight as I wanted, so that's not.

Shall I go one more?  I can still reach somewhere between 195 to 200 by my birthday and be decently satisfied, so that's cool.  It wasn't my original goal... but the goal is kinda arbitrary anyway... so that's also ok as well.  This is all about the long term, and any progress while preventing major regression is still a good thing.  

I have to take what good I can, and that is good.  Not giving up because I didn't accomplish it as quickly as I wanted is good.  Cause really... once I hit my goal, and maintain it.  That'll last me years and years, if not the rest of my life, and what's a few months when compared with that.  It's not like my self-image and health is tied to one specific magical weight of 185.

One change that I made this past week, and am continuing, is that I'm eating chinese chicken salad every day as a meal.  Right now it's making me feel full, while helping me to cut back on calories.  And until I get tired of that, I'm going to keep on doing it.  I'm sure it won't last forever, but while it's working, might as well take advantage.

Weigh-in Week 17

The Numbers

Starting Weight: 216.8
Weight Last Week: 211.2
Weight This Week: 210.4
Loss This Week: 0.8
Total Weight Loss: 6.4
Pounds Still to Go: 25.6
Trendline Estimate: 201.2

Only .8 pounds!  Actually... probably not.  I think my suspicions were correct last week, in that I couldn't have possibly lost as much weight as the scale said I did.  I messed around with the scale in the middle of the week, and saw that sometimes it'd change my weight up to two pounds different.  I know I lost weight, and I suspect it was more than two pounds, possibly closer to three, but there's no way of knowing for sure now.  I went to the gym every single day, and did cardio for over an hour each time.  And I definitely feel the weight loss.  It feels a bit tighter around my ribs.

It's the same feeling I've been feeling each time... before the inevitable slight rebound.  Which brings up a question... do the rebounds happen that way because I know for certain that I'm losing weight, and then I get over-confident and slide backwards again?  Or perhaps maybe I'm so used to not feeling that way, that I unconsciously want to gain that weight back that I know I lost (and thus fulfilling that set point theory).

Well... here goes another week of going to the gym every day of the week.  Might as well keep it up since I have some momentum started.

Weigh-in Week 16

The Numbers

Starting Weight: 216.8
Weight Last Week: 213.2
Weight This Week: 210.2
Loss This Week: 2.0
Total Weight Loss: 5.6
Pounds Still to Go: 26.2
Trendline Estimate: 200.5

Whoops!  I didn't put up a post last week.  I weigh myself in the morning, but tend to not put up posts until the evening.  As you can see from the graph, I ended up gaining 2.8 pounds that week.  And for this week I lost 2.

What does this mean?  First of all... I can't believe I gained nearly three pounds.  I did expect maybe a small gain, but three pounds!  Second of all... I can't believe I lost two pounds!  I don't feel like I worked hard enough to lose two pounds.  I actually drove down to LA and scoped out USC this week.  I ate fast food, grandma's cooking, and more fast food.  I really don't feel like I could have lost two pounds.  I wouldn't have been surprised at a gain.  Perhaps my weigh-in from two weeks ago was off?

Regardless of what happened.  I don't like the pattern that's showing up on my graph.  I'm going for a hard push this week at the gym.  I need to get back into that habit.  Forget a slow and steady pace, at least for this week.  For next Monday, the goal is to reach a very satisfying loss of weight.  I've already gone the past two days, both in the morning and at night.  Going for the burn.  See you in a week!

Weigh-in Week 14

The Numbers

Starting Weight: 216.8
Weight Last Week: 211.8
Weight This Week: 210.4
Loss This Week: 1.4
Total Weight Loss: 6.4
Pounds Still to Go: 26.2
Trendline Estimate: 197

1.4 pounds this week.  Decent.  I have to average just above 1.6 pounds per week though if I'm going to make my April 16th goal.  Easy enough.  As long as I don't slip.  As long as I avoid a rebound that essentially sets me back a month when losing weight as this slow (and hopefully steady) pace.  Those rebounds have definitely shown me that I will for sure still keep on weighing myself once a week even after I reach my goal.  It's a good thing I enjoy charts.  =P