Week 4, Day 2

Wooooooooooohooooooooooo! My week 3 weight loss was 6.9 pounds!!!! I was in total shock standing there on the scale in the clinic. I was guessing 4.5 pounds and the calculations of calorie deficit and exercise were predicting 5 to 5 ½ pounds so this was totally unexpected.

My numbers for last week are:
Weight Loss: 6.9 pounds
Total Loss to date: 18 pounds (in 3 weeks)
“Days in the Box”: 7/7
Physical activity calories: 3327 (Goal for next week: 4,000 calories)

Boy, this is some motivation to keep going. I did fairly well last week on “staying in the box” and was able to kick my exercise up a notch. I started climbing stairs in our building twice a day. Ok, I’m in only a 3 story building to its 3 stories up and back down but at least I’m moving. I started off at 10 minutes per session and was able to move it up to 15 minutes per session within a few days.

I also started running in the mornings as well. I ran 1.8 miles Wednesday morning at a 13:17 minute per mile pace and this morning, I ran 2.3 miles at a 13:42 minutes per mile pace. Ok, it was a little bit slower but the distance was longer.

I think the stair climbing is helping my aerobic capacity as well. I have a 1.8 mile loop in my neighborhood that I typically run. In the past, I could go about 0.8 or 0.9 miles before I would need to take my first walk break and after that, my endurance would be shot so I could not run very far after that without another “break.” Well yesterday I was able to go 1.6 miles without walking and I think the only reason I had to was because I came up a rather large hill that kind of wore me out. After I walked for about 2 minutes, I was able to run the remaining 0.2 miles back home. This morning I got up to 1.6 miles before I hit that hill and had to take a walk break.

I did fairly well on my eating last week. I fudged a little bit. I made homemade mac and cheese for my family on Sunday for lunch and I did sample a bit (maybe 2 or 3 tablespoons) and I substituted a “Lean Cuisine” for one of my entrees on Monday but it was one of the lower calorie ones.

I am really pumped up over this weight loss. My 20 year high school class reunion is next weekend and if I can turn in another weight loss like this week, I will weigh what I did when I graduated from college. That is too cool! Plus I will be within a few pounds of half way to my goal weight loss of 60 pounds…