Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Vacation Damage Accessed..surprising results!

Today is Tuesday and now that I'm back at home I have to get back in the swing of things with my weekly weigh-ins. I went pretty crazy on vacation...three weeks is a long time to be taken out of my "safe zone" where my routine is...well routine and I have a "fail proof"environment. Oddly enough it didn't do as much damage as I was imagining.

I weighed in this morning to find that my weight, as of today, is only a measly 3.5 pounds more than I was when I left for the glutenous US of A! I really don't believe it but it's really honest to goodness what the scale says (after checking, verifying and double checking about 10 times) so I guess that's my official post-vacation weight!

Although this is very good news I'm still a far cry from where I want to be. I still have a little less than 40 pounds to lose to be at my first big weight loss goal of 200 pounds.

When I began this whole journey in July 2006 at 301 pounds I said I wanted to lose 100 pounds in one years time. Well July 2007 is just around the corner and it doesn't seem feasible that I'm going to drop the weight in time. To make that goal it would mean that in 3 months I'm going to have to lose about 38-40 pounds. If I take it at the higher number, 40, then that means I have to lose 13.3 pounds a month to make it.

Firstly, that's not a healthy way to lose weight. It's too quick. My doctor's (including Dr. Phil) have always recommended a loss of between 1 and 2 pounds a week for a healthy loss. Secondly... there's no way in hell I'd be able to do it. I'm struggling to get the 8 pounds every month. I don't want to be so number obsessed that I push myself too hard and start on that ever so familiar downward spiral back into my old obsessive ways.

Somewhere along the way I decided that 8 pounds a month was a pretty tough goal to meet and decided I'd be happy to lose anywhere from 6 to 8 pounds a month. Figuring that into my goal of 100 pounds it actually buys me a few extra months before I should be at a steady 200 pounds. An extra 4.6 months to be exact. That pushes my goal date all the way to mid-December which seems like a lifetime away and way too long to wait to see those numbers on the scale.

So instead of being half backwards and re figuring my first goal I'm going to just start a new goal for myself starting today. Let's say I have an even 40 pounds to lose to meet my goal, just to keep it simple. If I keep my goal of losing anywhere from 6 - 8 pounds a month then that means I should be at my goal in 5 months the shortest or 6.6 months at the longest. That means that from anywhere from September to late October-ish I should be a smoking 200 pound woman. (not smoking literally as I've kicked that habit a long time ago and don't wish to return to it anytime soon but smoking as in hot)(not hot as in on fire, but hot as in... well you know).

Last year I wanted to reach -30 pounds by 30 years old and I did it. My birthday is in September (15th, gifts and cards including money, no checks please, are most graciously accepted) so with a ton of super hard diligent sweaty work I could actually be at my final destination by time I reach 31. Amazing.

2 comments:

Cherise said...

You're doing a great job! Keep up the good work. You're smart for not over doing it and sticking to a healthy weight loss regime. It'll all pay off in the end.

Anonymous said...

Nice job keeping your gain low during your trip!! And I have to keep my fingers crossed for a weekend away :)