SlimStacey

Good News, Bad News

Dare I say this?  I'm 160 pounds.  Already.  Only days ago I was 165 pounds, and honestly, none of my non-pregnancy clothes were fitting me anymore.  Now...despite my previous blog where I claimed I was in no rush, I was setting realistic weight-loss goals, yadda, yadda, guess what?  I dropped a pound a day so far.

Well, let's face it...it's a good thing and it's a bad thing.

The good news is, hey, I'm dropping weight, my clothes are fitting again, and hey, a pound a day is almost fun to say!  (Hey, I'm channeling Dr. Suess, too, with that ending.  Talk about fun....)  

The bad news?  This kind of weight loss just confirms that I am still currently heav-eeeeee.  Why?  Overweight people have greater mass, so they have biophysics on their side.  The more you weight, the more calories you burn during an activity.  Huh?  Put more simply, the more you weigh, the more energy it takes (and the more calories you burn) to move that increased mass around.  Your basal metabolism rate, or BMR (oh, my, we're getting fancy with the acronyms in this post) is the number of calories a day you burn maintaining the operations of your body while you're at rest.  Keep in mind, even when you're inactive, you burn calories just maintaining your brain, heart, lungs, etc.  Bigger bodies, simply put, have bigger maintenance costs.  

Oh, well, you gotta take the bad with the good.  So, I've lost 5 pounds in 5 days...but I'm still a bit of a porker, ROFL.  Hopefully, this bacon can become some Sizzlelean...and if you know what that product is (or, was), well, the good news is you remember your trivia.  The bad news is, you're old.  And if you don't know what ROFL means...well, you're even older than me.

Take Two...Million

I wish I could say that this is take two in terms of getting back in the saddle of weight loss, but it's kind of more like take two million.  That's okay.  I have great company.  Like...everyone else in the human race.  What you need to learn from today's post is to do what I've done...shake off the failure and embrace the fact that today is a new day.  

Thank the Lord, because after all, marinating in misery kind of sucks just a little.

I somehow woke up to my unconscious eating a morning or two ago, when I realized that a can of Coke and half a pint of Ben & Jerry's is NOT a healthy breakfast.  Whoa.  Then I weighed myself.  165 pounds.  What the f**k happened to me???

Oh, I know:  (a) Lyme's Disease with neurological side effects junking up the past few months, where I could barely function, let alone think straight; (b) temporary worsening of my Bell's Palsy (very common whenever there's physical and/or mental stress); (c) the revelation that bad for you food tastes pretty damn good; (d) the chaser of a revelation that exercising absolutely flat-out sucks.

There!  The truth does hurt, but, per my post ten thousand years ago, it does set you free nonetheless.

So, I haven't quit Coke completely yet (I've gone down from 4 cans a day to 1-2, and I've sworn an oath--no more crap for major meals as a gentle start back into healthy living).  BUT I am saddling up for a realistic weight loss drive.  Here are the rules...maybe you'll join me on my quest...or at least track my progress or lack thereof, just because you're nosy as all hell....

First:  no trying to go cold turkey.  Whenever I do that, I absolutely, instantaneously fail.  

Second:  Have a realistic goal to achieve.  How about a simple one, like, for now, lose a pound a week and keep the damn thing off?  And how about not freaking if I don't lose, like, 10 pounds a month, like I wish I could?  After all, stress releases cortisol, and cortisol causes you to retain your weight, not shed it any faster.  There.  You learned something new today.  You're welcome.

I mean, look, I want to get to 140 pounds ultimately.  I WAS 165 pounds just a few days ago.  Now I'm 162 pounds.  That's nice.  The old me would think, well, let's keep this aggressive weight loss pace up.  But I can't expect to lose a pound a day.  So, my realistic, achievable goal for 2011 is to hit at least 150 pounds before year's end.  NOT 140.  Just a nice, do-able, 15 pound weight loss will be a-ok by me.  Don't get me wrong.  25 pounds lost in 2011 would be nice. But 15 pounds will do.  Small, baby steps.  That's achievable AND believable.  

And if for some reason I manage to overshoot my goal?

You could bet the farm that I'd hardly bitch about it, friends!