Day 63: Another Bod Pod on the books

Today was another Bod Pod day. Usually, I try to go on a monthly basis, but lately it’s been a bit more sporadic due to scheduling issues. My last appointment was on March 5th, and it wasn’t a good one. After steadily losing weight and fat lbs over the last year, I fell off the wagon and gained a significant chunk of it back.

Date	% Fat	% Fat Free Mass	Fat Mass	Fat Free Mass	Body Mass
10/25/2018	26.1	73.9	31.518 lbs	89.209 lbs	120.728 lbs
1/25/19	27.8	72.2	34.409 lbs	89.443 lbs	123.852 lbs
3/5/2019	29.8	70.2	37.670 lbs	88.765 lbs	126.431 lbs

Today, six weeks after my last appointment, I went in feeling a tad bit hopeful. I wasn’t expecting any huge changes – the scale hadn’t moved much and I only lost an inch or two off my waist – but I did want to see some improvement. Despite all of the ups and downs these past few weeks, I felt like I did better overall compared to the beginning of the year. No, I didn’t go to the gym as planned, but I did go more often. And although I struggled to get a step goal streak going, I walked more steps on average. I don’t think I necessarily ate any less, but I did make some better food choices. Surely that must have done something, right?

Well…

Date	% Fat	% Fat Free Mass	Fat Mass	Fat Free Mass	Body Mass
10/25/2018	26.1	73.9	31.518 lbs	89.209 lbs	120.728 lbs
1/25/19	27.8	72.2	34.409 lbs	89.443 lbs	123.852 lbs
3/5/2019	29.8	70.2	37.670 lbs	88.765 lbs	126.431 lbs
4/15/2019	27.6	72.4	34.316 lbs	89.799 lbs	124.116 lbs

It did! Woo hoo!

Despite not being perfect, I lost 3 lbs of fat and gained 1 lb of fat free mass. I’m tempted to attribute some of those improvements on the Bod Pod’s error margin, but I need this win, so I won’t. Instead, I’m going to feel good about it and use it to get motivated to do more. I think I’m finally really ready to start reaching my goals.

Happy Monday!

Day 45: Walking the walk

I committed to avoiding gluten and dairy in my last post with the hopes of improving my overall health, but truthfully, I didn’t start avoiding it right away. Although I said I would do it, and I truly believe I should, I just don’t think I was ready to pull the trigger yet. So, I didn’t; but, I did take some small baby steps to prepare for it.

For example, on Friday after my metabolic assessment appointment, I spoke to the wellness counselor about scheduling a few weekly coaching sessions. Although I understand the value of coaching, I’ve never given it a try. I guess I just didn’t think it could help me or maybe I didn’t know how to make the most of it? Regardless, I decided that with the changes I want to make, now would be an ideal time to give it a try. Food tends to be the area in which I struggle the most, so I’ll take any help I can get. What’s the worst that could happen anyway?

After that was all done and scheduled, I swung by the library and happened to notice they had cookbooks. No duh, right? A library with cookbooks, who would have thought? Anywho, after browsing their selection, I decided to borrow two: Nom Nom Paleo (the yellow one) and The Science of Cooking. I skimmed both books, did a little meal planning, and made my first meal from the Nom Nom Paleo book tonight. I have to say, it was really good. Even my family liked it. I’ll be buying a copy of it for myself.

On Sunday, I decided to make some bone broth – specifically seolleongtang, a Korean bone broth soup my husband really likes. I’ve read on a bunch of blogs and in magazines that bone broth is good for gut health, so I figured I might as well jump on the bandwagon and see if drinking a cup of broth daily has any benefits for me. This is another one of those, “what’s the worst thing that could happen?” things.

Finally, on Tuesday, I took some new progress photos and body measurements. Although I’m making these changes for overall health instead of weight or fat loss, I can’t help but feel curious about what changes might occur if I stick with it. I had my first coaching appointment that day as well, so I decided to consider it my “day 1” of avoiding dairy and gluten.

I’d like to say I’ve been doing great at avoiding it since then, but truthfully, it’s been a bit harder than I expected it to be. I’m not craving breads or cheeses, but I’ve struggled with the “hidden” gluten and dairy in stuff. Especially in a bunch of the common ingredients I use when cooking, like gochujang and soy sauce. So disappointing.

I don’t feel discouraged though. It’s challenging, but in a good way; and I’m really looking forward to seeing how creative I can get with this. Hopefully I can share some fun finds on this blog in future posts. Wish me luck!

Day 9: Not today

8:49 pm: 5,362 steps

Dejavú.

Here I am, two days later, in the same predicament. It’s almost bedtime and I’m short almost 10,000 steps from my step goal. The difference today is that I’m writing this post while walking laps around my living room. I’m determined to break this cycle of “two steps forward, one step back.”

Not only am I walking laps though, I’m doing it while my normally lazy dog tries to walk them with me. That may not seem like a big deal, but he’s wearing a donut around his neck to prevent him from chewing at his paws and zig zagging between my feet as I walk. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve tripped over him.

9:38 pm: 10,202 steps

It’s taken me almost an hour to take 5,000 steps. The dog’s gone to sleep and I’m on my second Kdrama episode. Make that my third.

I’m tired, I guess, but proud of myself for sticking with it.

And yet, I can’t help but wonder if this is normal behavior.

10:28 pm: 15,062 steps

Another 50 minutes to take another 5,000 steps. If I wasn’t tired before, I’m definitely tired now. I should have paced faster. Regardless, I’ve done it. I’ve hit my step goal for the day. Win!

Day 1: Here we go again

Yesterday was challenging. I’ve been off the wagon for so long, I’ve lost the habit of checking my Garmin to see how many steps I’ve taken. I’ve also gotten into the bad habit of reflexively dismissing all of the alerts I set up in my phone to remind myself to walk more. It’s funny how easy it is to fall out of good habits and develop bad ones.

Despite those challenges though, I managed to hit my step goal. I cut it close; it was almost midnight by the time I reached 15,000 steps. It also took a lot of living room laps I wasn’t really very motivated to do; but somehow, I pushed through and did it.

I’m behind on my steps yet again today, but I’m feeling up to the challenge after yesterday’s win. Hopefully, it’s the first of many to come.

Day 85: ???

Day 84

After I got my Bod Pod results yesterday morning, I spent the next hour or so staring at them with what must have looked like a perplexed look upon my face. I pulled out my charts from the past two months and stared at those too. Almost a day later, I’m still unsure how this happened.

As you’ll see below, the Bod Pod claims I lost 3% body fat and 5 lbs of fat. My fat free mass increased by a 1/2 lb.

If you read my post from yesterday morning, you know these aren’t the results I was expecting.

Granted, Bod Pods have a margin of error of +/- 1 to 2.7%, so maybe it’s a mistake?

Rationally, I feel like I should be celebrating, but I can’t help but feel like the Bod Pod is wrong. I didn’t track my protein intake the first month, so I don’t know if I averaged more protein or not, but I do know I failed to hit my 100 grams a day goal. Then again, I averaged about 92 calories less per day this month (which would add up to at least one pound of weight loss) and I did exercise a little more, so maybe it is right?

I took a look at my measurements to see if they might tell me anything about my results. These were my previous stats:

And here are yesterday’s:

Weight: 122.2 lbs

Measurements (in inches) (change from last measurements):

Bicep 10.5 (-0.25)

Chest 33.5 (-1.0)

Waist 28.5 (-0.5)

Hips 35.5 (-0.25)

Thigh 21.5 (-0.25)

Calf 13.5 (-0.25)

A total loss of 2.5 inches; with the most significant loss coming from my chest (which is basically all fat). The month prior I lost 1.5 inches. So I guess the results could be a little more accurate than I think they are?

Who knows? I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what the next month brings.

Final step count: 15,055

Day 85

Although it’s technically already Friday, it’s basically Thursday night since I still haven’t gone to bed. I need to figure out what my plan for this new month will be, but that’ll have to wait until the morning.

Happy Friday!

Current step total: 62

Day 65: So many donuts

Day 64

I received the notification of how much I won from my month-long DietBet. The initial bet was $35. I won $49.25! Woo hoo! That’s a profit of almost $15. Or as DietBet refers to it – a 40.7% return on my investment.

I also discovered the solution to my protein problem: grilled chicken breast nuggets!

Now, I know I could make my own grilled chicken breast nuggets, but it takes longer than just nuking these bad boys in the microwave. At about 25 grams of protein for a four ounce serving, all I need to do is eat four servings a day to hit my goal. Best of all, a four ounce serving is only 147 calories (a total of 589 calories). That leaves me with anywhere from 900-1,000 calories for anything else I want to eat.

Unfortunately though, it wasn’t all wins yesterday. Up until around 9:30 pm last night, I was doing pretty darn good. I was under 1,600 calories for the day, I wasn’t craving anything, I was feeling pretty good. I was short on my protein goal, but I was ok with it because I had a solid plan going forward (see chicken nuggets above); but it got late and I got hungry, and the next thing I knew, I was chowing down on leftover chicken nuggets – from Dominos, not the healthier grilled kind above. I ended the day at a little over 1,900 calories.

On the bright side though, at least it was protein that pushed me over my calorie range. It truly could have been worse – I could have binged on the three dozen Krispy Kreme donuts sitting on my kitchen counter.

Final step count: 15,657

Day 65

Yes. You read that correctly. There are currently three dozen Krispy Kreme donuts still sitting on my kitchen counter this morning. Well, actually, it’s more like 2 dozen and 10 donuts, I may have already eaten two…

You might be wondering why I have so many donuts. Even if you’re not, I’m going to tell you: It’s because it was part of a fundraiser at big kid’s school and I ordered them with the intention of dropping them off at my husband’s job. There was a slight hiccup in my planning though… I didn’t realize the donut pick-up was scheduled for the Friday afternoon of a holiday weekend; the same weekend we were leaving on vacation to Fiji for a week. Oh, and on a Friday that my husband’s office is closed as part the aforementioned holiday.

So now I’m stuck with them. I have no clue what I’m going to do with them just yet or who I can give them to (to avoid eating them all myself), but I’ll need to figure that out today.

That being said, silver lining #2 from the last two days of going over my calorie range: I finally let go of my darn water weight. This morning I weighed in at 123.6 lbs.

I have no clue why I dropped the water weight. I ate some pretty high sodium things over the past two days. If anything, I should have gained some more water weight; but whatever, I’ll take it. Now, I just need to stay on track so the scale will continue to move downward.

Current step total: 820

Day 63: Dissapointed

Day 62

I went to bed last night feeling pretty disappointed in myself, not because I didn’t hit my protein goal, but because of my attitude about not reaching it. I just didn’t care.

I set this protein goal for a reason, and yet for the last two weeks, I haven’t made any effort to reach it. I’ve whined about not hitting it. I’ve written that I need to try harder. I’ve stated I would do better… but I haven’t. I’ve done nothing to eat more protein, unless my attempts at baking count?

I tried to figure out why I’ve been feeling this way about this particular goal. The only thing I could come up with is that it just doesn’t seem as important as staying within my daily calorie range. Nutrition is where I struggle the most. Although I’m doing a lot better at staying within my target calorie range, it’s still really hard for me to do. I guess trying to eat protein on top of that just feels like a bridge too far?

Whether or not that’s true, I can’t just give up. There are things I can do, like start drinking my morning protein shake again. Earlier this year, I was drinking a protein shake every morning for breakfast. I stopped drinking it over the summer because it just wasn’t filling, so it felt like a waste of calories. It’s an easy way to get a head start on hitting my daily protein goal though, so I need to get back to drinking it.

I also think it would be helpful if I stopped thinking of my daily meals in terms of breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In order to eat 100 grams of protein each day, I need to try and break it down into servings. I can eat 15-20 grams of protein if I eat one serving of a lean meat; that means I need to eat 5-6 servings a day in order to hit my goal. I need to change the way I eat from three meals with snacks, to five to six smaller meals a day.

These changes shouldn’t be difficult. They’re not rocket science or some revolutionary new way of eating. They’re the same, basic things tons of other people do. If they can do it, I can do it. I just need to get out of my own way.

Final step count: 16,003

Day 63

Today is the first day of week three. I averaged 1,782 calories a day last week, and lost a little under one lb. I’ve been struggling with water weight fluctuations this past week, so I’m not too concerned about the less-than-1-lb weight loss.

I also took some updated measurements yesterday. In the last two weeks, I’ve lost 1/4 inch from my bicep, waist, thigh, and calf; and 3/4 of an inch from my hips.

Since Day 1 of this challenge, I’ve lost 7-8 lbs, 1/4 inch from my bicep, waist, thigh, 1/2 an inch from my chest, thigh, and calf, 2 and 1/4 inches from my waist, and 2 inches from my hips. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

                           8/4/18     8/20/18     9/20/18     10/03/18
Weight:                    131.2 lbs  131 lbs     126.4 lbs   123.6 lbs
Measurements (in inches): 
Bicep                      10.75      10.75       10.75       10.5
Chest                      35         35          34.5        34.5
Waist                      31         30          29          28.75
Hips                       37         37          35.75       35
Thigh                      22         22          21.75       21.5
Calf                       14         14          13.75       13.5

I’m really happy with my progress so far. Although I’d rather not keep losing inches from hips, I’m happy to see my thighs finally start slimming a bit. They just weren’t budging. Now, I just need to get my next Bod Pod scheduled and hopefully see some real progress in terms of losing body fat.

Happy Thursday everyone!

Current step total: 1,724