I'm still here

Haven't worked out much except for shoveling my driveway over and over again.  And every time I go upstairs I'm surrounded by more cookies and fudge and stuff.  (Thanks, Joan!  And happy birthday!)  We have friends coming in from out of town tonight, so there's another big dinner.  I think I'm doomed to not lose much until January, but I guess now that the roads are clear there's no reason I can't get to the gym and at least try to work out. 

Have a merry Christmas everyone!

Didn't make it :(

Well, this is my 2nd "failure" post.  Apparently 8 pounds is too much to overcome in 2 days.  Who knew?  I just have to make sure I don't let myself get that far behind any more.  Thursday morning I was 257.2, which is 2.8 pounds up.  That's the most I've been up.  Maybe I can work some of it off by shoveling tomorrow!

Halfway there

A little over that, actually.  This morning I was down 4.4 pounds from yesterday.  Now I just need to lose 3.3 more by tomorrow.  My weight loss pattern follows my work pattern.  Instead of a slow, even volume of work throughout the quarter, I'm always scrambling the last biweek or two.  My New Year's resolution should be to stay caught up at work and to level out the peaks and valleys a bit in the weight loss.

Serious backsliding

I've settled into an unfortunate pattern of weighing in Thursday and then going buck wild Friday through Sunday.  Then come Monday, I'm frantically trying to work off those 4 or 5 pounds plus a little more so I can show a loss on the chart.  It must be what an unethical CEO feels like, always trying to make the quarterly numbers.  So I get on the scale this morning and I'm up almost eight pounds from last Thursday.  I'll pause a moment to let that sink in.  EIGHT.  With 48 hours to go before this week's weigh in.  Sure, there was a Christmas party or two in there, but still.  It's totally unacceptable. 

So tonight I did Peggy's workout and also played racquetball, and I'm hoping Brendan can break away tomorrow night for more r-ball.  Still, that's not likely to be enough.  I could run Thursday, but the forecast is pretty ugly.  Sure, the treadmills at the Freedom Center are probably stronger than mine so I won't have the embarrassing "belt-pinch" issue, but how boring is that?  Maybe a pick up game of hoops with the brothers...

Slide show updated

I added the last six weeks worth of pictures tonight.  Not a huge difference between them, but I am starting to notice more of a difference between the beginning and now.

This weekend wasn't so great.  I had a Christmas party Saturday night and hung out with the kids all day today eating chips and watching football.  And eating frozen pizza.  Therese is sick in bed and I obviously can't fend for myself.  The weekends have always been hardest for me, but this week doesn't look good either.  I have my office Christmas party Tuesday and no basketball until after the new year.  Ugh.

Racquetball thwarted

I was supposed to play racquetball with Brendan on Friday morning, but he called me a few minutes before broken down on the side of the road with a flat tire.  Since the wheel was stuck, he ended up having to call the tow truck.  I went over to the gym by myself and played solo basketball, streaking down the court doing amazing layups and hoping no one was watching.

Then this morning I played racquetball with Will.  HE managed to get a good workout, since the court is pretty big when you're four feet tall.  Me, not so much.  But still, I've technically been to the gym every day since I joined on Thursday!

Slow and steady wins the race?

Down another 1.6 this week.  I sure have leveled off the last few weeks, but it is a challenging time of year.  I have Andy's party Saturday and then my work "party" on Tuesday.  AND no basketball to counteract things.  I need to make sure that the days in between those two aren't too damaging.  I do think I'm going to finally join the Freedom Center so I can swim and run and such this winter.

Time for a cleanse

Roadblocks to weight loss can show up in unexpected places.  I went downtown to the Reagan building yesterday for an all day trademark conference.  (Yes, it's really as boring as it sounds.)  In the past, they've had a continental breakfast and fruit with the coffee breaks.  Yesterday, much more. 

The body count for the day:

1 ham/egg/cheese croissant
1 slice mushroom/spinach quiche
4 Cokes (not diet Cokes) (Did I mention the conference was boring?)
Lunch was curry chicken with cheesecake for dessert
3 cookies during the afternoon coffee (or Coke) break
1 large soft pretzel

Then a delicious dinner from Therese (I mean that seriously, not sarcastically; there was none left), followed by (when no one was looking) three more cookies.  If anyone out there (I mean either of you out there) ever feel prideful, just start a weight loss blog.  Talk about humility-causing!

So I think I need to make a clean carb break, as Kim suggested.  For the next few days, until the WDP Christmas party Saturady, I'm going to try to drink a lot of tea and eat just a little, mostly protein and vegetables. 

Updates

My personal trainer, Peggy, was nice enough to come over today and redo my measurements.  My body fat dropped from 29% to 26.6%.  That really doesn't seem like very much to me.  I know it's an inexact science, but if I understand it right, what it means is that I'm now carrying around 68 pounds of fat (.266 x 256) instead of 86 (.29 x 295).  But since I've lost 39 pounds, and only 18 was theoretically fat, what's all the rest?  21 pounds of muscle?  I don't think I had 21 pounds of muscle total before this started.  Oh well, I'll just go with the general trend (down) as well as the specific body part measurements.

Updates coming!

I just looked at the list of weigh ins on the side of my blog and realized that it's now been exactly 3 months, to the day, since I started this thing.  If you'd told me 3 months ago that I'd be down 39 pounds at this point I'd have been pleased.  If I look back on this on March 3rd and I've lost 39 more pounds then I'll be thrilled.  First, b/c the next 39 is always the hardest.  Second, b/c that will mean that I'll be weighing 217 which would be the lightest for me since college.  I think 225ish was the lowest I got in 2006.  It also means that when I run the Knoxville half marathon with Shiny* (which I haven't yet officially agreed to do), I'll be at prime fighting weight.

I'm going to see if I can stop by Peggy's house tonight and update my body measurements and body fat analysis.  I'm very curious to see the improvement.

* Shiny Head Pete, MobWars nickname of Erin Peterson, aka The General.

I truly can't believe it

I woke up at 260.2 this morning, so I figured weighing in less than last week was pretty much hopeless.  I figured a good, long run was the only possible way, but even then I figured it was a long shot.  During my run, I was actually composing my "I'm a failure" blog post in my head.  It was actually pretty funny, but now I don't have to use it after all!  I ran 5 again (albeit slower than Sunday, when I had Therese pacing me), and after my shower I was 256 even!  Alleluia!  I wouldn't want Shiny Head Pete, on the occasion of his visit tomorrow, to see me as a failure.  Speaking of failure, I probably should have had that drinking contest with him when I was closer to 300 since I've now lost a good part of my advantage.

I need a pick me up

OK, blogosphere, here's where you help me instead of me inspiring you.  I'm in a rut.  A rut the size that Rosie O'Donnell would make if she fell over into wet sand.  Bigger even.  Like a Redskins-sized rut.  I watched last night's blowout on the downstairs TV b/c my brother came over to watch the game with me, and I ended up the night on Pantry Inventory Duty somehow.  (Let's see, popcorn?  Check.  Cookies?  Check.  Crackers?  Check.  Soft pretzel?  Check...)

I don't, as Dave suggests as a possibility, think it's indicative of anything larger than just a love of food.  Sweet, salty, fatty food.  Why was I not born with a love of celery??