Mile Marker 2

Alright everyone, it is April 2nd. That means it's time for an official weigh-in and update on the journey.

This month presented two very large obstacles. The first was my 9 day break from work where I went to Austin, TX to spend time with my friends. It went as well as can be expected! My friend Caitlin was supportive and got up early with me to be sure that we'd get a good breakfast in and then she went with me to the fitness center of our hotel to get some exercise. We even went to the grocery store and bought healthy snack foods in case we got hungry in our room. While my eating wasn't perfect the whole time (I admit to caving to some of Austin's best food: Round Rock donuts, Salt Lick barbecue, and chicken salad) I did try to stay active. We went to the capitol building and climbed stairs til I was sweating then walked around 6th street in search of a book store, which helped my daily calorie burn greatly. The bad thing was that my body was not getting what it was used to so I did gain a pound while on that trip. It was unfortunate but I learned my lesson about how to handle vacations. As soon as I got home, I was on my game for the rest of spring break- jogging and eating right every day.

The second obstacle came in the craziest plateau I've ever faced. It began right after I dropped the pound I'd gained during spring break and the numbers would not budge. I tried everything I could think of to get my body back on track but it was not doing anything no matter how hard I tried. So after about a week and a half of nothing, I started pooling my resources and asking for help. In all of my research, I found answers and decided to make two major changes to my meal plan.
     1) I read books and looked up information on exactly how many calories I should be eating for my height and weight. Prior to this I'd been sticking to a 1,200 calorie meal plan with certain days going higher or lower, depending on the activity I'd done or just what I had time for. I found out that 1,200 for me was WAY too low. All of the recommended levels said around 1,600 was best for me and going lower than 1,200 had put my body into starvation mode. That meant that my body was not getting enough nutrients to fuel the exercise so instead of releasing the fat, it began to store any and all it could get. So there was no way to drop more weight while eating at that level. I had to boost it, which I admit did make me a little happy. I can eat an extra snack a day? Well okay!
     2) Processed food had to go. I kept complaining about my lack of time to cook or prepare meals so most of what I was eating was frozen. I knew the complications that go along with frozen meals but I ignored them because it was quick and I was too lazy to make time to cook. So I had to recognize that fault in myself. This whole journey is about changing my lifestyle, all laziness included! If processed foods were causing issue, I needed to force myself to change the habit and start cooking. And in all actuality, in the 5 minutes it takes to heat up a dinner, I could make a sandwich. Seriously KJ, get with it.

So after I'd adjusted those two issues, my body seemed to be back in gear. In the last week of March I was able to drop some additional weight. That being said... here's the official report. My goal for the month was to be down 10 pounds by today. Last month I weighed in at 288 lbs. This month my weight is... drumroll please... 277 lbs!!! That is a total loss of 11 lbs for the month, 19 lbs since I began in February, and 27 lbs from my heaviest! WOO HOO!!! Even with the nearly two week plateau and a short one pound gain, I still managed to not only meet my goal but go one step further! And I'm back in the 270s! The last time I was in this weight range I was working at Disney World (almost two years ago) and on my feet 12+ hours a day. The fact that I have made it back here is such a good sign of what I can accomplish through this! I'm thrilled with that.

For the month of April, I'm shooting just slightly lower. 9 lbs is what I want this month. At the rate I'm going that should be fairly simple. If I lose more, then hey... bonus! But I'm just focusing on getting into the 260s.

April 2nd: 277 lbs
May 2nd: 268 lbs


If I can keep this steady pace going, I should break 200 by the time December comes around. Then Biggest Loser can help me handle the rest :-) Next goal... lets do this!