Back on track
60 pounds lost… and counting

It seems that things have been a bit off track of late. I’ve been busy enough that blogging has been a low priority. I haven’t even kept up on once-a-week blogging here. And my weight loss also seemed to have slid into neutral for a bit.

A couple of weeks ago, I recorded my first official weight gain (i.e. the first time my weekly benchmark weigh-in was higher than the previous benchmark) since I started this journey on January 1st. As you can probably imagine, it was a bit discouraging. I realize that I can be a little unrealistic about my expectations, but my goal is to continue a weekly downward trend to keep me focused and motivated enough to press on when it gets tough.

Then, it seemed like I was stalled a bit, losing a little, but not making a lot of progress. I was trying to get past the 60-pounds-lost milestone, but I just kept bouncing around and not quite making it. I had gained 2.4 pounds the week prior, so my 4.2 pounds lost the subsequent week barely made up the pounds gained, leaving only a modest net loss of 1.8 pounds. Now, again, I know that sounds like a reasonable loss, considering the weekly weight loss goal is an average of 2.2 pounds. But in my mind, anything less than 2.5 is falling short. Yes, I’m still being unrealistic no matter how many people tell me and how much I tell myself that it’s more than reasonable to have ebbs and flows in this process. But I had fallen short of my targeted milestone for the second week in a row.

Well, this week I was pretty focused on making substantial progress. I stepped up my workouts from 40 minutes of cardio to 50 minutes of cardio. I focused on what I was eating and even tried to mix up my daily calorie budgets, mixing low-calorie days with higher-calories days (but never over my budget). Whether it was my change in routine or just my body finally cooperating, I managed to make satisfactory progress, losing 4.1 pounds this week and finally blowing by the 60-pounds-lost milestone.

Another important milestone today: I’m going to buy new clothes. My old clothes just don’t fit anymore. I’ve used up the last notch in my belts and they no longer hold up my pants adequately. My clothes look baggy and oversized. People are noticing, which is nice in one way and embarrassing in another way that I don’t look quite as well-kept as I want because the clothes don’t fit right. So, I’m shopping for new professional clothes and new summer clothes, but going to not purchase a lot since I hope to be doing this again in 6-7 months. It can be expensive, but it’s a worthwhile expense, I think you’ll agree!

Onward and downward!