Losing TOO Fast?!

Happy Wednesday everyone! Well, this has been one crazy week. For starters, last Wednesday marked the first day we were going to have our friend from Canada come stay with us for about a week. Delayed for various reasons, he actually arrived two days late. Nevertheless, our routine was changed and this can mean serious trouble for diet and exercise. I've been on high-alert this week, for sure. I'm glad I'm in charge of the meal plans! :)

On Sunday, I weighed in at 189.6 pounds. That was a 2.8 pound drop from the previous week and it put me into the 180's and right out of the 190's! It's really something to celebrate, right? I was excited for sure.

NOT SO FAST! Almost three pounds a week is cause for concern! In order to lose weight safely, you should only lose 1-2 pounds a week. There are very good reasons for this, but I'm no expert. Instead of me telling you, I thought I'd post a video of an EXPERT telling you WHY you should lose slowly.

 

 I didn't post "Part 2" because it's only about 38 seconds long, has similar information that's covered in Part 1, and you can certainly find it yourself, if you're very curious.

I know losing weight slowly is important. Weight Watchers doesn't let you forget it, either. This week, when I lost 2.8 pounds and made my second high-loss week in a row, a warning popped up saying I was losing at an unhealthy rate. Sometimes though, I think my body just decides to drop weight. I cannot predict sometimes, what it is going to do. 

I didn't eat very little or exercise very much this last week. I ate far more than my daily Weight Watchers points every day. Some weeks, I lose very little. I've had plenty of 1/2 pound or less lost weeks. I think it evens out; at least I hope so.

On the Weight Watchers website, I see many people losing 3-5 pounds EVERY week. I'm sure they're excited about dropping the weight fast and not ever dipping into their Weekly Points. I'm certain they are ignoring the warnings thinking that saying they're losing too fast is CRAZY. However, losing this fast is setting them up for failure. It can potentially (and most likely) mean they will gain the weight back and possibly be one of the many Weight Watchers repeat customers.

I don't want to be a repeat customer. I want to get to my goal and STAY there. Who DOESN'T want that for themselves?! I refuse to yo-yo diet EVER AGAIN!

If this Sunday, I get on that scale and see another large number, I will adjust what I'm eating to slow my loss. I seriously doubt I will see another big number, however. I typically do NOT sustain the large loss weeks and, like the contestants on The Biggest Loser, which I'm currently only on Season 5, I have a "not so good week" after a "great week." So, I am anticipating a small loss as my body hangs onto the weight. We'll see. 

If I have a low number, I won't change a thing until I have a streak of low numbers. If I change my tactics every time I have high numbers or low numbers, I'll never do the same thing one week to another. Unless my body PROVES to me that something is NOT working, I won't change it. I like to cut my body some slack to adjust itself to the drastic changes I'm forcing it through.

Well, everyone, I've done fairly well with the rest of the time we had guests. Now, our house is back to normal and we can re-focus a bit. We'll have to wait and see how my body reacts this Sunday! I'll update you next Wednesday! Until then, stay stress free, get moving, and eat well!

 

 

Been away TOO long!

Okay, so I know I've been away for a long time. I'm really sorry about that. Joshua, my boy, smashed my laptop screen and it had to be shipped to ASUS to be repaired. They repaired it for free and shipped it back, which was awesome. We weren't actually covered by our Accidental Damage Plan, but I was told we were by one of the repair techs and they had it recorded. After some trouble, they said they'd fix it anyway at no cost to us, which is exactly the way good customer service works. I'm happy with the way they handled it and I'm THRILLED to have my laptop back.

So, what's been happening? I've lost a total of just over 40 pounds now. This last week, I ate all of my Weekly Points, over my Daily Points, all of my Activity Points, and then went OVER all of that. I didn't exercise but one time (my training run). I still lost .6 pounds. I was sad, but relieved at the same time. I expected a gain.

I can't remember, at the moment, if I've mentioned my training. I'd really like to run a 5K. So, I'm doing the couch to 5K training. I'm trying to run 3 times a week. Unfortunately, I'm having to drag out the training because my body isn't handling it well. I try to do at least some of the training at the gym so I can track my heart-rate (since I can't find my heart rate monitor). My heart-rate was too high the last time I ran week 4 (?). Whatever week it is, it's doing two sets of 1-1/2 min running, then walking, then 3 min running and walking. On the second set of running 3 min, my heart-rate spiked at almost 180 and I had a nasty heart palpitation (I get them sometimes when I'm overtired too and I've had them checked out by a cardiologist who said my heart is strong and that they're not life-threatening). Even though I know it wasn't a big deal, I knew I was over-exerting. I've backed off to the previous week and when my heart-rate stabilizes at more around 155 or less, I'll drive myself harder again. I'm not comfortable with 178 bpm. So, it might take me more than 9 weeks to get there, but the training isn't the race. I'll get there when I can.

Finally, I have to say, my daily point value has dropped to 28 and I've never before eaten SO many of my weekly points and activity points. I don't even know HOW to eat at 28 points. I just found out that the minimum points for those who are losing was updated to 26. I will drop to 26 points eventually and that freaks me out. I'm gonna have to eat LOTS more veggies. Although fruit is free, I need to keep it at about 3 servings because fruit still has a lot of sugar in it. And, besides, I'm not really a fruit person. I much prefer vegetables. I guess that's a good thing. I'm SO glad they're 0 points with Weight Watchers.

Okay, folks. I'm going to go. I have A LOT to do before we go camping and I gotta get on it. I'll have to miss my weigh-in as I'll be camping and I won't be back until Wednesday. Hopefully, I'll be able to weigh in on Wednesday and get here so I can blog my results!

See you all next week! Until then, stay healthy!