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.