Weight loss tracker

Monday 7 November 2011

Bring on the crazy!


I've been munching on data this morning.

My Monday morning weigh-in was utterly disappointing. Totally expected, but still utterly disappointing.
On Friday I saw 194.8 on the scale, which was great – as it is only 0.2lbs away from 40lbs lost. (And I have a real treat of a post for you, dear readers as soon as I hit that mark...)

However, following a very lax and undisciplined weekend of eating, the scale this morning showed 197.6 – duhhh.

The laxness and undisciplined-ness of my weekend started Friday evening with 2 cocktails and some Greek platter including pita bread, while having an utterly pleasant evening chatting away with a new WLS friend of mine, Sonia (Hi there! Hope you’re reading this :).
On Saturday it was all good until the evening, when a visit with Sis to the cinema included a “good handful” of pick’n’mix – with brazil nuts and raisins covered in chocolate. I shouldn’t have... I know. I was well aware that I’m screwing with my great results so far. But as my motto above says: knowing is not enough - we must apply.
To top this, Sunday we opened with breakfast from under the golden arches. I haven’t set foot in that establishment since well before my surgery, so I felt really naughty... not in a good way. I promptly PBd on the first bite of my egg muffin... Yeah, my band cannot stand crap food – she’s so much more disciplined than I am. After that I took it easy, but had a bit from the utterly heavenly slow roasted pork belly for dinner with half a cup of mashed potato (that felt so good on my upset pouch!). And-and-and: later in the evening I even measured out a scoop of Hagen Daazs Belgian chocolate ice cream to eat while watching telly. I did not have even half of it though – it tasted vile!
(Have you noticed that there was no mention of any physical exercise during that weekend recount? That’s because I did not undertake any. I did not even walked the dog – hubby did that.)

So here we are, on Monday morning: and of course the scale was up.

Entering those “results” (what’s the opposite of result? Insult?) into my various spreadsheets nearly made me cry... It also prompted me to analyse my weight loss data more deeply. So that’s what I did.
Here are some interesting facts I learned:
  • Since I started my WLS journey on 13th June 2011, I have lost 66.6lbs – and gained 29.6lbs
  • That’s nearly one pound gained for every 2 pounds I’ve lost. Talking about two step forward, one step back....
  • So far I’ve lost 15.77% of my starting weight, that’s 56.7% of my “official” excess weight and 43.7% towards my goal weight.
  • My best daily average losses are occurring on Tuesdays (0.76lbs) and Thursdays (0.70lbs).
  • I’m mostly maintaining on Wednesdays (+0.02lbs average) and gaining on Sundays (+0.73lbs average)

All right, I think you are now sufficiently convinced that I’m a complete nutter – and I love my spreadsheets. (Any vacancies for a data analyst? Preferably on a tropical island setting?)

But I have more...

Lately – not just over the weekend, but last week too – I have noticed that my accountability is slipping when it comes to journaling my foods. I still account for everything I eat, but I have caught myself trying to slip up on some items I did not want to admit to (like the pick’n’mix in the movie). The good news is that they did get entered into my journal eventually (I use MyFitnessPal – on my iPhone mostly), but I’m afraid that I will start to relax my strict journaling rules as the time goes by.
So, for this week I decided to introduce an even harsher way to make myself accountable – on top of MFP journal: I will take pictures of absolutely everything I put in my mouth and post the collages every other day or so, together with calorie values. I’d like to invite you to pass judgement on my choices: am I doing good? Am I on a slippery slope? Seeing that I could be very near to my ultimate goal if I would have “skipped” the gaining bits (29.6lbs), it freaks me out to think I’m jeopardising my success with what I’m eating.

So turn up the crazy-volume this week: I’m aiming for the gold medal in short term indoor obsessiveness!

2 comments:

Christine said...

First of all, your stats seem to indicate that weekend eating is your downfall, whereas weekday eating seems to be more in control. Sounds like you need to regiment your weekend a little better, pre-plan your food, etc.

But if you are looking for some help or advice, I'm HAPPY to do so! Whip me up a food journal for the last week that includes not only what your eating, but what TIME you're eating, and how MUCH you're eating.

If you had a BP episode, then your band is probably at least close to the "sweet spot," but could it use a little tweak to get tighter? Only you can answer that, I just thought I'd ask.

Also, what are you doing for exercise? How often do you work out, and what kind of cardio and weight training do you do?

I'm always happy to help! Sherazade96@hotmail.com

Christine
www.phoenixrevolution.net

Brenda said...

I love a good spread sheet so........I must be crazy too! You are among friends!