Friday, June 4, 2010

Weekly Weigh In - June 4

After last week's speed bump, it was nice to step on the scale and see numbers going down over the course of this week.

Starting Weight: 244 pounds
Last Week's Weight: 181.5
This Week's Weight: 179
Weight Lost This Week: 2.5
Total Weight Lost Overall: 65 pounds

That feels good to write. I've been hovering in the low 180s for the last month, and I finally broke through that barrier this week. It was just one of those weeks where I felt like I didn't actually do that much, but my body just felt like burning calories. My exercise for this week consisted of running Saturday (5 miles), Wednesday (4 miles) and Thursday (4 miles), and playing basketball last night.

I guess what's more surprising is how I overcame a really bad first half of the week in terms of eating. My dinners Saturday through Monday were: shredded beef fajitas, bacon and egg breakfast sandwiches with hash browns and a huge foil dinner.

If you've never had a foil dinner, it's basically a cut of meat (sometimes chicken, sometimes steak, on Monday we used ground beef) put in tin foil with onions, carrots and potatoes, with a slab of butter in the middle to keep everything moist. Making a foil dinner is kind of like making homemade tacos. No matter how small you try and keep it, it always ends up being a way bigger serving than you intended it to be. And I ate every bite of it. I woke up on Tuesday morning having gained 2 pounds. Yikes!

That's just the way my body is, though. I'll gain 2 pounds like that, but I can also lose that much overnight pretty easily.

Here's the point, folks. I'm walking proof that you don't need a 100-percent customized meal plan or to cut out your favorite foods to lose weight. I love tacos. We have had tacos almost every Friday night since I've started losing weight. Every Friday night. I love pizza. I've had pizza probably a dozen times since October. I love popcorn and soda. We have a popcorn and soda movie night probably once a month.

Don't give up the foods you love. It will only drive you crazy. Just get in tune with your body and know when a good time is to eat them and when it's not so good. If you know taco night's coming up, spend the two or three days before that eating crazy good so you can enjoy it. Plan your meals like you plan your life, because it makes a difference.