Weight Update and Measurements for Nov 11

It's been a little while since I looked at my numbers:

weight: 230.6
fat percentage: 53.6
hydration: 31.9
muscle: 22.8
bone: 10.5
cal: 2414

I'm not going to lie, I was hoping the weight would be down a bit because I had 4 good walks last week (Wednesday to Saturday). But that's okay - I also battled vertigo (thankfully that seems to have cleared up for now) and had a few days where I didn't get enough sleep.

Yesterday I also started keeping that exercise/health journal I mentioned in my last post. It's a bit odd - it has tons of room for measurements (there's space for 12 entries every week, but only 7 days of the week. I'm not sure why it was designed like that). I wasn't planning on doing measurements, but decided to keep track of my hips and waist (there's space to track measurements for a lot of different areas like calves and thighs, too), since those are good indications of health (excess belly fat I believe is associated with heart disease risk). It looks like I used to keep track of my measurements from time to time here as well, so I'll add them onto a weight update whenever I take them (I wasn't planning on taking them every week; maybe I'll try to remember to take them monthly to see how things are going? I know that your body can get stronger but you might not see it reflected in your weight because muscle weighs more than fat).

Currently, my waist is 37.5 inches, and my hips are 46.5 inches. They're a little bigger than the last time I measured (at least from what I can find on this blog), but that's to be expected. Honestly, I'm glad to see that the numbers aren't hugely different. :)

A (Health) Update

The last few months have been hard. On top of the vertigo flare ups, it was the one year anniversary of losing someone really close to me. That was a very difficult time, realizing they have been gone for a year already. What makes it worse is knowing that, even though I made it through the year, they're still gone. :(

On top of that, I've had a few very difficult months at work. I don't think I have ever been as angry at anything as I've been over these last few months. I've reached out for counselling help, which has helped me through some of this (though time has helped as well).

So that's the background of what has been going on. It's been rough mentally, physically (I haven't been able to do as much as I wanted due to the vertigo), and emotionally. :(

This week, I had my bloodwork done. And I was unprepared for the results: both my cholesterol and my A1C were quite elevated. My cholesterol is the highest I have ever seen it by a large margin. And my A1C is the highest I have seen it in years. :(

So this is a definite wake-up call that I need to do better. But it's overwhelming because there's so much that I need to fix. I need to get through this vertigo flare-up (it is getting a bit better, but it hasn't gone away yet). I need to eat better. I need to be more active. I need to heal my back. I need to heal my calves (they've been tight for quite some time on and off - I never used to struggle with them, but have been for quite some time now). Plus I need to get and keep my anger and stress levels down so nothing else happens.

I'm going to need a better plan of attack for all of this. And I might need some help, too. I think the best way to start is to work on ending this vertigo flare-up, and to start walking more (since walking is not triggering my vertigo right now). Once the vertigo is gone for now, I'll be able to add in more stretching and yoga to hopefully help strengthen my back and help with my calves.

In an effort to help heal the vertigo flare-up, I've been drinking more water. I measured a bunch of cups and glasses around my house to see how much water they all hold in an attempt to get closer to drinking about 64 oz of water a day (8 8oz glasses).

And on Monday, I'm going to start using an exercise/health journal I got awhile ago from the dollar store. I'm hoping that keeping track of things like water and the food that I eat will help.

Weight Updates for the End of Sept and Oct

I'm really behind on my weight updates!

Sept 23:

weight: 230.8
fat percentage: 56.7
hydration: 29.7
muscle: 21.2
bone: 10.5
cal: 2415

Oct 7:

weight: 228.4
fat percentage: 53.3
hydration: 32.1
muscle: 22.9
bone: 10.5
cal: 2401

Oct 21

weight: 228.6
fat percentage: 52.6
hydration: 32.5
muscle: 23.2
bone: 10.5
cal: 2403

Considering how I've been dealing with a lot of stress (and now vertigo again), I'm glad to see these numbers have overall been holding steady. :)

I haven't done a weight update yet for November because my period just ended. So I'll have a better feel for how I'm currently doing next week.

Vertigo Returns! :(

Well, this fall officially sucks. I'm working my way through a second, worse vertigo flare-up. :( I'm not sure what triggered this one at all (but if it is weather related, that does make sense; the weather has become more seasonal in the last week). 

I spoke to my doctor yesterday, and am going to do a full week of betahistine to hopefully clear it up. I'm also trying to stay hydrated and get plenty of sleep. Hopefully my head will be back to feeling better in no time!

A Seasonal Pattern of Vertigo?

Earlier this week, my vertigo once again flared. Like the last few times though, it hasn't been too bad (while I don't feel great, I've been able to function relatively well). I mentioned to my mom that my vertigo has never been as bad as the first time I got it, and she suggested that maybe I'm recognizing what it is sooner (and so treating it sooner). I believe there's probably some truth to that - a mild, beginning bout might not have been noticable to me as anything to be worried about (especially since my vertigo often hits when I'm getting up then clears in a minute or two) before that first full-blown episode. 

I also started talking to someone at work who gets vertigo, and they said they get it every spring and fall. I looked back on this blog, and, sure enough, it's looking like the last few times it flared were in spring and fall. I'll have to see if that continues, but I'm guessing it will. Vertigo appears to be something I need to live with now.

In terms of triggers, I am fairly confident that stress is not a trigger. I was incredibly stressed earlier this month and that didn't trigger any vertigo symptoms. It actually triggered after my body was calming down a bit. Dehydration is my best guess; I started to see some symptoms on Monday, then everything got a lot worse after my blood sugar went high for mysterious reasons (and I spent the night dehydrated). 

But this month has been a month of high stress, lack of sleep and not eating the best, so it was kind of a perfect storm for vertigo to flare. Hopefully it will clear up soon!

Weight and September Goal Updates

 Alright, so here's my first September weight:

weight: 228.6
fat percentage: 52.9
hydration: 32.3
muscle: 23.1
bone: 10.5
cal: 2403

This is the weight I was using for my August check-in. It's a little higher than it was before my period, which honestly doesn't surprise me - I've been eating more junk food, and eating out more lately. This is also the month with the year anniversary after having lost someone very close to me; it's already shaping up to be a difficult month, so I need to be kind to myself right now. That's why I'm not going to set a new goal for September. Instead I'm going to just try to maintain what I've started to build (yoga twice a week, and walking once a week) to stay healthy. 

I debated about setting rewards for maintaining these habits; is a reward needed for the yoga twice a week habit now that I'm in my third month of doing that? Or is this long enough that I should be okay without the reward? I ended up deciding that I might as well, so I have something to look forward to (especially during this month of grief). I've also heard that you need a few months for a habit to stick, so maybe I'll try going three months with rewards, then try stopping and see what happens? I'm hoping that in October I won't need a reward for continuing to do yoga twice a week.

I know I mentioned possibly reworking the weight goals this month, but with everything else going on at the moment, I'm going to put that on pause for now. If I'm able to, I'll reassess in October; otherwise I'll ride it out until the new year and see how things go.

Weight Updates for August

Here are my updates for this month:

Aug 12:
weight: 229.6
fat percentage: 53.3
hydration: 32.1
muscle: 22.9
bone: 10.5
cal: 2409

Aug 19:

weight: 230.6
fat percentage: 53.9
hydration: 31.6
muscle: 22.6
bone: 10.5
cal: 2414

Aug 26

weight: 227.8
fat percentage: 53.0
hydration: 32.3
muscle: 23.1
bone: 10.5
cal: 2399

The bump in weight on August 19th isn't surprising - there were several birthdays that weekend, so I was eating more (and eating out more). What is surprising is today's numbers though. I've continued to eat out a bit more than normal this last week (I had a rough week, so we went out for supper one night so no one had to cook, then we were doing work on the house and it was easier to pick up some meals than stop to eat). What's even more surprising is that this is a weight before my period, which is normally a little more than the rest of the month!

If the 227lbs holds (I'll be checking how I did for August after my period is over in September), that might mean I'm a month out for my six month goal (I laid out a weight loss plan of three lbs a month for the rest of the year). If that's the case, it might be worth revisiting that goal, just to adjust everything back a little bit (make the goal 215lbs for December, rather than 212). But we'll see how everything goes over the next week or two first before I make any changes.  

Aug 6 Weight Update

Alright....here are my numbers after July:

weight: 229.6
fat percentage: 53.3
hydration: 32.1
muscle: 22.9
bone: 10.5
cal: 2409

While I am a bit short of my goal of being 227lbs by the end of July, I am please to see that my weight is moving in the right direction. My weight has been over 230lbs all month, even reaching a high of 234lbs on July 15th. So the fact that it's under 230lbs is a good sign. Hopefully I can keep up this trend through August!

August Goals

The nail polish I picked out for July. :)

I was so thrilled to have such great success with my July goal of doing yoga for my back twice a week! So now it's time to build on that success for August. I really think having a reward to look forward to really motivated me to get that time in on the mat. So I have to make sure that I come up with some equally compelling goals (and maybe tweak rewards for the six month weight goal).

But first, the weight goal...my period is currently happening. I will wait until next week to weigh myself (and see how I did with my weight goal for July).

Alright, so the number one thing that I want to make sure I do is maintain what I've built. So I'm going to give myself a reward for continuing to do yoga twice a week, though I do want to open it up so it's not just the yoga for my back routine that I've been doing.  If I continue to do yoga twice a week through August, I will get me a thing I want in a game I've been playing for a number of years. :)

I think my main goal for the month of August will be to get back to walking. While I do walk from my car to work, which is a few minutes, this will not count; I want to go for a dedicated walk for fun that is longer than five minutes. But, as I have diabetes, I know that walks (and other exercise) can easily get derailed due to low blood sugars, so I don't want to penalize myself for only being able to walk for 30 minutes due to a low rather than an arbitrarily longer length of time, so I will not set a specific time (though obviously, if I can walk for an hour, that is better than 30 minutes). I will also give the caveat, due to the heat wave we've been experiencing, that if it's too hot, something like swimming is an okay substitute. 

So, rewards.....I really liked the music one, so if I go for a decent walk once a week for two weeks in a row, I will get myself 5 new songs on iTunes. And 4 weeks in a row gets me a Solitudes album I want. (I love having Solitudes albums playing when I want to relax - I used to play them all the time while having bubble baths at my old place. Unfortunately my new place doesn't have a good tub for bubble baths).

In terms of the weight goal, I didn't like that I had to buy the YogaBody Masterclass ahead of time; it didn't feel like much of a reward since I had it and could watch it anytime (though I kept to the spirit of the class being a reward, and so  have not yet watched it). I also don't think that rewarding myself with information I'd like to have for helping me get healthier is a good plan - I'd be better off making these rewards more fun as well, so they are something to legitimately look forward to. 

So with all of that said, if I make my August weight goal of 224lbs (which I will most likely be checking sometime in September, as my period will probably be right around the beginning of September, too), I will get myself a movie I want from Google Play. And yes, I already know which one I want. ;)

Cholesterol Update

Yesterday I had bloodwork done. Some of the results are already in, and I was really upset to read that my HDL is currently the lowest it's been in about five years. :( The LDL is pretty high too, but it's actually slightly lower than the highest level I've seen since I've been able to track these values (though honestly it is very comparable to that high level).

I really thought I was doing a bit better - I haven't been eating out as much as I had been, and I feel like I've reigned in my hunger a bit since watching that Yogabody Masterclass on weight loss, so this was extremely disappointing news. :(

Yoga Goal Success!

I'm very excited - while I don't think I'll be succeeding at my weight goal for July (see my last weight post for more info on that), I did succeed at my yoga goal! This week, I successfully completed 4 weeks of doing yoga twice a week, which earns me a new nail polish - I can't wait to go pick one out!!!

I'm hoping for August to continue with the 2x a week yoga (at minimum), but will add something else on, either exercise related, or food related. I'll also need to come up with some good rewards to go with my August goal(s). :)

July 22 Weight Update

I forgot to post this a few days ago:

weight: 231.2
fat percentage: 53.8
hydration: 31.7
muscle: 22.7
bone: 10.5
cal: 2418

At least the weight has come back down to what it was on the 8th. My fat percentage is actually a little lower than it's been in a few months, so that's promising. :) My muscle percentage is also slightly higher.

I'm unfortunately expecting my period soon, so I won't be weighing myself again until after it's finished. But right now it's looking like, at best, I'm on track to be at my starting weight. I most likely won't be down to my goal of 227lbs for the month of July. :(

July Goals Update

Ok, so if you saw my last post (the weight updates for early July), you know that my weight goal isn't going very well. But I am happy to report that my July goal is going really well! I successfully did the yoga for my back video twice a week for the first two weeks, which earns me the reward of downloading 5 new songs on iTunes! I'm also optimistic in thinking that I should be motivated to continue through the rest of the month, earning that second reward; it really feels like the rewards were the missing piece to my goal setting efforts!

I am going to have to sit down in the next few weeks and brainstorm more reward ideas for completing goals. I'm also going to have to plan an achievable August goal (complete with rewards), as well as come up with a better plan for tackling the weight I've put on over the last few years.

Weight Updates for July 8 and 15

Well, July isn't off to the best start...

July 8:

weight: 231.2
fat percentage: 54.2
hydration: 31.4
muscle: 22.4
bone: 10.5
cal: 2418

July 15:

weight: 234.0
fat percentage: 55.9
hydration: 30.3
muscle: 21.7
bone: 10.4
cal: 2434

Yup. While I know why the 15th weight is so high (family visiting and a trip where we accidentally bought too much groceries (and so I ate waaaay too much)), it's still not great to see. I doubt I'm going to lose 3lbs this month. At this point I'm really just hoping I can get back to 230lbs for the end of the month, and try again next month. But we will see what happens I guess (maybe I'll luck out and get a little under 230).

I have a Plan...

I have a plan for the rest of 2024.

I've been reading the book Mind Over Weight by Ian K. Smith, which had a couple of really good chapters on goal setting and motivation. He suggested that along with making your goals specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound (SMART), you also make sure you have a reward system in place. He also recommended that you have some goals in place that are not tied to the scale.

So I put a bit of thought into coming up with a weight goal for the rest of the year, along with a non-weight goal for July to give this a go. I'm hoping the reward part was what I've been missing from my previous goal-setting attempts.

So in terms of overall weight-loss goal, we have approximately 6 months of the year left to go. I am thinking that I can aim to lose 20lbs over the next six months, which is a slow and steady approach. This would equate to approximately 3lbs a month, which is a little more aggressive than the 0.5lbs I was aiming for earlier in the year, but still a leisurely approach to help me build healthier habits. I'm going to make it "lose 18 lbs" just to make the math easier.

I'm going to use 230lbs as the rough guide (through June I've been fluctuating between about 229 and 231, so 230 is a reasonable starting point). That means I want to be down to 227 by the end of July. I decided that if I make it to 227, as a reward I'm going to watch a YogaBody Masterclass (I unfortunately had to buy it because it was only on sale for so long, but I will hold off watching it until the end of the month - if I don't succeed, I don't get to watch it).

As a non-scale goal, I am going to do the yoga for back pain routine I like twice a week for four weeks. Before going on vacation, I was consistently doing that routine once a week (Mondays). So I am going to schedule it in a second time every week, most likely on Thursday or Friday, depending on what is going on. I'm not going to reward myself every week for sticking to that, but instead will give myself a reward every second week: if I make it the first two weeks, I get to look for 5 new songs on iTunes. And if I make it for the full four weeks, I will buy myself a new nail polish for August. :)

I am excited to give this a try - I hope it works to get me motivated!

Weight Update for June 24

Today I am officially finished some vacation time and am back to work. So it's a good day to see what my numbers are showing:

weight: 231.0
fat percentage: 56.3
hydration: 30.0
muscle: 21.4
bone: 10.5
cal: 2416

Weight wise, I'm down a little bit from last week, which is good. But my fat percentage is a bit higher and my muscle percentage is a little lower, so that's not great. The muscle percentage is a bit surprising because I was fairly active last week - I was swimming a few times, went sea kayaking, and did a bit of yoga one day. But I am getting closer to my period starting, so that might be impacting things as well.

I should note: I've been trying to prioritizing eating more protein at each meal like that Yogabody Masterclass I watched suggested, and I've noticed a difference in my hunger and energy levels overall, which is great news. I'll definitely be continuing to consume a little more healthy protein!

Some June Weight Updates

Just some weight updates for June:

June 5:

weight: 229.8
fat percentage: 54.8
hydration: 31.0
muscle: 22.1
bone: 10.5
cal: 2410

June 10:

weight: 229.8
fat percentage: 54.3
hydration: 31.4
muscle: 22.4
bone: 10.5
cal: 2410

June 17:

weight: 231.6
fat percentage: 54.5
hydration: 31.2
muscle: 22.3
bone: 10.5
cal: 2420

I'm not surprised that the June 17th one is a bit higher than the rest of the month - that was a few days after my birthday! We'll see how things are looking tomorrow.

Real Talk :/

While I know it was right before my period (so that's not ideal), my weight was the highest it's ever been since I've been tracking it (232lbs), as is my fat percentage (57.2). Going hand in hand with that, my muscle percentage is also the lowest it's been (21%). None of this is good.

I also feel honestly like garbage. I'm tired. All the time. I'm stressed. I have no energy. I'm constantly hungry (because I'm stressed and tired, no doubt). I can't keep living like this. :(

So I watched a Yogabody Masterclass I had purchased awhile ago about weight loss yesterday. And in that, Lucas, the founder of Yogabody, said something that really struck a chord with me: that energy balance is our ultimate goal (with weight loss and being our best). And that really got me thinking about how I've been feeling lately - maybe I do need to focus on rebalancing my energy?

That Masterclass also went into the main reasons why we're eating all the time: we're hungry (primarily), for entertainment, for nutrition, and for emotions. Curbing our hunger can go a long way towards curbing our eating, and can give us the space to understand other things that are going on (such as our emotions).

So this has given me a lot to think about as I start to formulate a goal for the next few months. Whatever I decide to do, I need to make sure it's focusing on bringing my weight and fat percentage down and my energy levels and muscle percentage up!

2024 Goal 2 Review

For April and May, my goal was to focus on healing my back. And I've honestly done alright on that front! Though I didn't really follow the plan I set for myself, at my last chiropractor appointment, I was told to come back in a month! So hurray, I succeeded!

For this month's goal, I planned to: do yoga for my back once a week minimum, choose healthier choices while eating out, and read a book on back pain. At the start of the two month period, I wasn't consistently doing the yoga for my back. But I've found a time and day that is working for me, and have successfully done the workout over the last three weeks. :)  In terms of eating out, I feel like I didn't eat out much over the last few months, so that was great. I don't think I chose healthier choices though when I actually did eat out. 

The book was an interesting point of this whole plan. I made it about halfway through one book which was really in depth and interesting in terms of what can cause backpain. But I lost interest as I went because it was talking about things that are clearly not going on with my back; I unfortunately stopped reading it just before it started to talk about different solutions. I also flipped through a second book on healing back pain through yoga. Unfortunately I found that book a little bit weird (the author used lots of weird statements to better get you to understand what she wanted you to do, but I found them confusing and distracting). I thought that book had videos to go along with the yoga routines, but unfortunately I couldn't find them online. But that's okay - I'll just stick to the workout I like to use, or look for different ones on YouTube if needed.

What actually made the biggest difference though, in my opinion, was something I didn't actually plan for: attempting to fix how I sleep. I saw a random ad for an alignment pillow for side sleepers, and, after thinking about it for a few days, decided to give it a try. I started sleeping with a pillow between my legs while I waited for the alignment pillow to arrive in an attempt to help. And honestly, it's made a big difference! I don't use the pillow all the time, especially now that I don't seem to be on my side quite as much as I was before using pillows to sleep (I'm on my back a little more now, kind of sleeping between my back and my side). I've found that since that time, my back isn't as bad as it used to be! I still have to be careful to not do too much (I was digging something out of the garden and started to feel my pain spot flaring up a bit), but overall this has been a game-changer for me!

So yeah. My plan didn't work very well for me, but I still got to what I was hoping for in these last two months! Hopefully I can keep up this momentum and heal my back more. :)

Some May Weight Updates

 Just some quick weight updates for May:

May 13:

weight: 230.4
fat percentage: 53.9
hydration: 31.6
muscle: 22.6
bone: 10.5
cal: 2413

May 20:

weight: 230.4
fat percentage: 56.5
hydration: 29.9
muscle: 21.4
bone: 10.5
cal: 2413

May 27:

weight: 232.0
fat percentage: 57.2
hydration: 29.4
muscle: 21.0
bone: 10.5
cal: 2423

As you can see, things are not going well. I don't feel great, my weight and fat percentages are too high, and my muscle mass is far too low. :(

Some April Weight Updates

 I just wanted to give a couple of quick weight updates:

April 17:

weight: 226
fat percentage: 54
hydration: 31.6
muscle: 22.6
bone: 10.6
cal: 2387

April 22 (I think):

weight: 228.6
fat percentage: 52.8
hydration: 32.4
muscle: 23.1
bone: 10.5
cal: 2403

April 29:

weight: 226.6
fat percentage: 54.2
hydration: 31.4
muscle: 22.4
bone: 10.6
cal: 2391

More Vertigo :(

So yesterday, my vertigo started to flare up once again. It definitely seems like I am going to be prone to vertigo. I've been battling a minor cold this week, and I know back in January 2023, it flared after I had Covid. My vertigo seems more likely to flare right after I've been sick (but may sometimes flare for other reasons, too - I think the last time it flared I wasn't recovering from being sick, but had other things going on). I have been feeling worn down lately too, which may also have contributed to the vertigo, but I do not know for sure. 

Now that this has happened, I may need to rethink my plan of attack for the month. I think I'm going to change the goal to a two month goal, to give me a bit of time to recover right now without worrying about my back.

2024 Goal 2

This time around, I am going to try setting one goal for the month of April. As I said back in January, when I set my first goal, ultimately I want to be healthier. I have a number of areas that I need to work on to accomplish that (and losing some weight is definitely one of them). But right now I think the most important thing I need to do is focus on healing my body. I've been dealing with back pain for years now, and have been hurting other areas as well recently. Some of that is due to work, which involves a lot of bending and squatting. But I think other pain issues might develop because I am trying to work around the pain.

While it is going to be a bit hard to quantify this goal, especially in one month's time, I am going to focus on healing my back. I'm going to do a yoga for back pain workout once a week minimum (twice a week would be better, but I want to start somewhere). I've got a book from the library on back pain, which I will read and hopefully get more recommendations from. And when eating out, I am going to strive to order healthier choices.

I go to the chiropractor for help a lot, so ultimately I am hoping to have to go once a month or less than that. But I won't be able to see that progress in only a month. So for April I will focus on trying to heal it, and reassess in May.

2024 Goal 1 Review

Alright, so 2024's Goal #1, lose 5lbs by March 31st, failed miserably. I ended the period weighing 4lbs more than I started. In order to accomplish this goal, I planned to eat out once every two weeks or less, do a workout twice a week minimum, and avoid food in the break room at work. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, this proved more difficult than I expected: I ended up eating out probably on average once a week (there were a few weeks with more than once, but other weeks where we actually didn't eat out). I've hurt myself a few times, which has made working out consistently harder (the most recent one was hurting my foot after following some stretching advice I found on YouTube). And I've noticed that the higher my stress levels at work, the more likely I am to go looking in the breakroom for snacks.

I also think that a three month goal might be a little too long. I think I need to set shorter goals (maybe monthly) so I can readjust easier. I knew fairly early on that the way things were going, it didn't seem likely that I was going to succeed. 

Finally, I may need to rethink the steps/key results that I set, if I continue to try using this method of goal setting. While I thought my goal #1 key results were reasonable, two of the three definitely were not. Eating out was dependent on circumstances and what was going on, and staying away from stuff in the breakroom wasn't super measurable. 

Weight Update for April 1

Confirming what I already knew, I have officially failed my first goal for 2024:

weight: 228.2
fat percentage: 52.4
hydration: 32.7
muscle: 23.4
bone: 10.5
cal: 2400

Though I am happy to see that things look a little better than they did last week (which is especially surprising since this was Easter weekend, with several big dinners!)

Weight Update for March 25

Well, I keep saying that I'm a wreck. I hurt my foot a few days ago, I think from showing someone a couple of stretches I found on YouTube, and have been somewhat out of commission for a few days, exercise wise. Here's what my numbers were this morning:

weight: 229.2
fat percentage: 53.8
hydration: 31.7
muscle: 22.6
bone: 10.5
cal: 2406

Needless to say, I am definitely not hitting my goal of under 220lbs by March 31st. I'm going to have to rethink everything for setting my next goal. :(

Some March Weight Updates

Alright, so here's the first half of March:

March 5:

weight: 230.2
fat percentage: 56.5
hydration: 29.9
muscle: 21.4
bone: 10.5
cal: 2411

March 18:

weight: 228.4
fat percentage: 52.5
hydration: 32.6
muscle: 23.3
bone: 10.5
cal: 2401

I've had a bad couple of weeks. Between my body being sore and aching (my back got really bad a few weekends ago; thankfully it's been better since then) and dealing with the six month anniversary of losing someone close to me (which hit me really hard), things haven't been great. But my partner and I have been going on walks, so that's been good. 

Some February Weight Updates

Things are not going as planned....

Feb 20 (the day after Family Day):

weight: 230.4
fat percentage: 55.5
hydration: 30.5
muscle: 21.8
bone: 10.5
cal: 2413

Feb 21 (for a more typical day and time):

weight: 227.6
fat percentage: 55.6
hydration: 30.5
muscle: 21.8
bone: 10.5
cal: 2397

Feb 26:

weight: 228.4
fat percentage: 52.6
hydration: 32.5
muscle: 23.2
bone: 10.5
cal: 2401

I feel like, no matter what I am trying, I keep getting derailed. I haven't been able to eat well (eating out a lot lately). I haven't been sleeping well this week. And I'm just really not sure what to do other than keep trying. On the plus side, I have gone swimming a second time and have plans to go again tomorrow, so that's something. 

Swimming!

Today (well technically yesterday now) was my first time swimming laps since before Covid!

Just before Covid hit and locked us down, I bought myself some passes for one of the local gyms that has a pool I like. But then we were locked down, and life got busy, so I didn't make it back until now. It felt so good to be in the pool again, swimming laps! It was especially good after a couple of hard days at work - I needed to use up some negative energy! And even better - my passes were still good!

Knowing that I haven't been swimming laps like that in a long time, I went to the pool with no expectations on what I would do or how long I would swim. I ended up in the pool for around an hour, which was great! I had a hard time with front crawl, which I expected - that's the stroke I find you need to have the breathing right and good endurance or you struggle with it. So I did what I could with that, but otherwise spent more time with other strokes. I focused a lot on back crawl - I love that stroke, and I can really push myself for speed in it (which I wanted to do, not only to burn off some energy, but also to help build my endurance. I remember a teacher in high school telling me that to build cycling endurance, you should go as hard as you can for one minute, then go easier for about 10. I tried to do use that philosophy a bit tonight). I am obviously not as fast or as strong with my back crawl as I used to be, but that's okay - I will get there!

I am a little sad though - back when I went swimming pre-covid, I had a routine I used to do all the time, doing certain strokes in a set so I could more easily keep track of how many of each I did (and to also make it easier to do more - I'd just add another set on). I don't think I ever blogged about it though. So if I'm going more regularly, I'll need to come up with a new routine, and make sure I record it here!

Weight Update for Feb 12

Alright, my period is over, so here is my current weight:

weight: 227.2

fat percentage: 52.6

hydration: 32.5

muscle: 23.2

bone: 10.6

cal: 2395

My weight is a little lower than it was at the end of January, so that's good. Unfortunately my fat percentage is a little higher than it was and the muscle percentage is a little lower. That's not really surprising, as I had a bit of a rough week where I wasn't super active. I am glad to see my weight is down a bit though - I had a few days where I was eating a lot of fairly unhealthy things, particularly at work. 

So this week I will strive to do better. I'm hoping to start swimming again this week, and will try to fit in more activity, while also avoiding treats at work! This will hopefully be easier as I anticipate having a more normal week, where I will hopefully be sleeping enough, and so less prone to eating more because I'm tired!

January 2024 Goal 1 Review

As I mentioned back when I set my first goal for the year, I would try to check in on a monthly basis to see how things are going. For the first quarter of 2024, I set the goal to lose 5lbs. I was going to do this by:

1. Do yoga a minimum of 2x a week
2. Eat food from a restaurant 1x every two weeks or less (my boyfriend is on board with this, so that's awesome!)
3. Avoiding eating anything left in the breakroom at work.

And January has not gone very well.

Let's break it down by the key results I set:

1. Do yoga a minimum of 2x a week: I got a bit better with this one as the month went on. On both the week of Jan 21-27th and Jan 28-Feb 3rd, I successfully did yoga twice a week. But at the beginning of the month I did not. I did it once on two weeks (Dec 31-Jan 6 and Jan 14-20th), and 0 times on the third week (Jan 7-13th). 

I've also noticed a big problem - on the week of my period (in January that was that Jan 7-13th week, but in February it's right now as well), I've had no interest in doing yoga at all. Or honestly any strenuous activities. The problem is that my period is fairly heavy, so doing activities where I'm twisting and stuff make me feel uncomfortable and self conscious that I may get blood everywhere. I'm kind of thinking I might be better off going for a longer walk on those weeks instead of worrying about yoga. 

I also did a few old exercise routines that I really like over the last month, like the hip opening routine that I found several years ago that's really good (it starts out with some exercises to get your whole body moving before focusing in on your hips - this is the exercise routine I ended up using when I couldn't sit cross legged, and now I totally can comfortably!) And I have some other programs and routines that I would like to use as well, so maybe I should change this to a minimum of 2x a week doing a workout of some kind, preferably yoga? That would be more in line with what I'm doing, and be more in line with trying to lead a healthier life. Plus it will give me the freedom to do activities that are more in line with where I'm at on any given week (such as my period weeks).

2. Eat food from a restaurant 1x every two weeks or less: Earlier in January, I felt like I was really failing with this one. It felt like every time I turned around I was eating out. There was a two week period (Jan 7-13th and Jan 14th-20th) where I had four meals from restaurants. But since that time, things have calmed down a bit, so I am hopeful that we'll be able to stick to eating out less now. :)

3. Avoiding eating anything left in the breakroom at work: I haven't kept very good track of this one, but I know in the aftermath of Christmas, I wasn't doing very well, but once the Christmas treats were gone I was doing a bit better. But there was one day where someone left popcorn in the breakroom, which smelled fantastic (it had just been popped) and I ate a bunch of that (luckily that was a fairly healthy treat as those things go), and I've eaten some crackers a few times that were left. And today I ended up eating some muffins (that was also stress eating unfortunately). So I'm not doing terribly, but I could be doing better. And I think I need to come to work better prepared with more healthier options. At least one or two of those times was because I had a snack, but it wasn't enough in the moment. 

So how's the goal going overall?

My goal was to lose 5lbs by March 31st. And while I am actively working on those key results, I don't think they are the right key results for this goal. They are helping me lead a healthier life, but at this point I do not believe they are helping me lose weight. At my last weight check-in I had actually gained a few lbs, so that's not great. And I imagine that when I weigh myself on Monday, after my period is over, things will not have really improved. 

But I will adjust that first key result to be more open to other activities, and continue to monitor these three for the next two months and see how everything goes.

Weight Updates for Jan 22nd and 29th

Well, my first quarter goal has gotten off to a rotten start, weight-wise:

Jan 22

weight: 228.2 lbs
fat percentage: 52.5%
hydration: 32.6%
muscle: 23.3%
bone: 10.5%
cal: 2400

Jan 29:

weight: 228.2 lbs
fat percentage: 51.8%
hydration: 33.1%
muscle: 23.6%
bone: 10.5%
cal: 2400

While I'm not happy that my weight isn't changing, I am glad to see that my fat percentage has decreased from one week to the next, and my muscle percentage has been increasing a little. These numbers aren't as good as what I saw on Jan 15th, but they are much better than what I saw at the beginning of the month.

Unfortunately, with my weight increasing about 4lbs, I will have to work harder to get it down to my goal for March 31st. But hopefully everything will come together if my muscle mass improves!

Weight Updates for the First Half of January 2024

So I originally weighed myself at the beginning of January, but didn't trust that the weights were accurate because my period started a few days later.  It was also right after the holidays, so I weighed myself twice at that time to see if anything might change after my day started getting back to normal.

Jan 2:

weight: 224.8 lbs
fat percentage: 54.5%
hydration: 31.2%
muscle: 22.3%
bone: 10.6%
cal: 2381

Jan 3:

weight: 224.8 lbs
fat percentage: 53.2%
hydration: 32.1%
muscle: 22.9%
bone: 10.6%
cal: 2381

But now that my period is over, here's my weight again:

Jan 15

weight: 224.4 lbs
fat percentage: 50.4%
hydration: 34.1%
muscle: 24.3%
bone: 10.6%
cal: 2378

So that means that the 224.8lbs is a reasonably accurate starting weight for the year.  So I am aiming to be just under 220lbs by March 31st.

2024 Goal 1

Happy New Year!  

It's time to set some goals for the year! For 2024, I'm going to try to set some smaller, more frequent goals, rather than aiming for bigger things throughout the year.  After reading some of Measure What Matters by John Doerr, I think I'm going to give quarterly goals a shot.  

Rather than set multiple goals for the quarter, I'm going to just set one: lose 5lbs by March 31st. Using the OKR method, the key results I'm going to do to accomplish this goals are:

1. Do yoga a minimum of 2x a week
2. Eat food from a restaurant 1x every two weeks or less (my boyfriend is on board with this, so that's awesome!)
3. Avoid eating anything left in the breakroom at work.

When setting this goal, I checked out Precision Nutrition's article on fat loss and muscle gain, which says that if I'm going for an easier transition (which I think is best as I'm still grieving, plus dealing with other life changes), it's reasonable to expect 0.5 lbs of fat lost every week. There are 12 weeks in the quarter, so in theory I could lose a bit more weight than 5lbs.  But I'd rather take a slow and steady approach to things, including starting to build some healthier habits.

I decided on this goal because it was the easiest way for me to quantify my ultimate goal of wanting to be healthier.  I know I am overweight, and that it's bad for my health in many ways.  So losing some weight will be better for me: my joints will be better because they aren't moving as much weight, I will hopefully have a lower fat percentage (which translates into less of a risk of chronic issues), and it will be better for my diabetes as well.  I'm also hoping that in pursuing this goal, I will begin to build happier habits, particularly around diet and exercise, so that will also feed into the "be healthier" goal.

And that's why my key results are all focused on starting to be more active and eat a bit better.  With the yoga key result, I signed myself up for Asana Rebel a little while ago, and 2x a week is my current goal on there.  But rather than limit myself to yoga on the app, I wanted to open this up a bit more to any yoga, since there are other videos I have that I like doing too (especially one for my back that I really like on YouTube).  Since signing up for the app, I've been doing yoga at least once a week, and actually have seen myself get a little stronger even from that much, so pushing for the two times a week should be doable.

The restaurant food key result is thanks to eating out a lot with my boyfriend.  We've had pizza once a week for the last few weeks, so cutting that back a bit would be great.  

The final one, about eating food in the breakroom, is going to take a bit of work on my part: I need to make sure I have some good, healthy snacks to eat instead.  I've found that I was doing rather well with not eating stuff in the breakroom until September; my mental health has tanked since that death in my family, and so has my willpower.  So actively working to avoid junk food there and bring (and eat) healthier snacks to work instead should help me out a lot right now.

So with that set, I will try to check in once a month to see how things go.  But at the very least I will check in at the end of March to assess the goal and set a new one. :)