Monday, July 29, 2013

Still going down, down, down

Two and a half more pounds GONE this week.

Astonished. Amazed. It's now been four months since I began my Whole30 (which has grown, for the most part, into something like a Whole120), and I can't quite believe that I'm still losing weight.

The pace has slowed considerably, but down is down and losses are losses.

My mini-goal to weigh what I weighed when I got married by our seventh anniversary (which is next Monday) is thisclose – only half a pound to go.

LoseIt! offers many ways to analyze progress. There are charts and graphs and spreadsheets galore, for just about anything you'd like to track. Want to know what foods you've eaten the most of? There's a chart for that. Favorite exercise? There's a chart for that, as well.

I like this nutrient graph, which clearly illustrates – at least for me and my body – that increasing fat consumption will create weight loss. In my case, it looks like adding healthy fats, beginning in April, has helped me release weight dramatically!
Today was the first day I've exported my weight history to a spreadsheet, so I could figure out the monthly totals. I'm not especially proficient with Excel, and was probably in the art room when we studied statistics in high school. But spreadsheets can be useful at times, and today was one of them.

LoseIt! also tracks activity (the exercise-calories graph shows that May – the month with the greatest loss – was my most active month. Hmmm.), but I like keeping track of miles more than calories, and dailymile is pretty fun for that.
Below the mileage chart is another analytical graphic that tells me I've made it .03 of the way around the world and saved more than 35 gallons of gas since January 1. Which is a little silly, because I wouldn't have driven from one end of my road to another just for the helluvit, but it's nice to know. I guess.

The graphic above shows the current streak. The green arrow indicates the fastest day of the week (Saturday's 5K is part of that total), and the pink one points to the day with the most mileage. Take a minute to add this week's numbers. Or (if you're in a web browser) just look to the right. My previous goal of a 35-mile week got toasted! Forty miles! Pretty soon I'm gonna start training for another half-marathon. Maybe.

Apologies if all these numbers are making your eyes glaze over. I don't think about them much during the week, but I like to take a look at things on Mondays, especially at the end of another month. LoseIt! predicts I'll reach my goal – which I've definitely changed – on November 21. My original plan was to lose 50 pounds. I'm less than 10 pounds from that number this morning. But if I just keep plugging away at it, it would be nice to drop an additional 15 and squeak into the "normal" range on the BMI chart.

I know BMI is somewhat flawed. But the number that will get me there is also what I weighed when I left Ohio for the Middle of Nowhere, 16 years ago. I wouldn't mind seeing that again.

And for the first time in 16 years, I think it might be possible.

3 comments:

Hils said...

Hi Debbi! I think I found your blog through Vickie's, maybe, but I've really been enjoying following your progress over this spring and summer. I had a quick question for you: It sounds like you are one of the paleo people who also keeps track of calories--and I was wondering, how did you figure out what level to keep your calories at while eating paleo? Thanks!

Kitten With a Whiplash said...

Let me see if understand this. You've lost 40.5 lbs by saving 35 gallons of gas, by not driving where you wouldn't have driven anyway? So if I don't fly to New York today, which I wasn't planning to do, how much will I lose? All jokes aside, Congratulations. Wait, that should be in all caps CONGRATULATIONS!

Unknown said...

That is amazingly awesome! Congratulations!

Kathy
http://gigglingtruckerswife.blogspot.com

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