I have been very lax about updating my blog, and I have no excuse for it other than the old "if you have nothing nice to say..." rationale... Which doesn't cut it. After all, the purpose of sharing my journey publicly is to help others going down the same path I am, and that means sharing the good along with the bad.
So please accept my apology for not sharing what's been going on this past month. It hasn't been pleasant. I've fought with the scale almost daily. I've fought water retention that has caused the scale to climb when everything I've been doing has been right. How frustrating. How disheartening.
The Skinny:
If you browse my weight graph you'll see for the first time in my journey my weight has gone up. I no longer use my actual weight on weigh-in day, but my ten day average, which has gone up since my last weigh-in period. My ten day average for today is 250.3 pounds.
What's been going on:
Water Retention: About a month ago I started retaining water. I didn't know why. It got worse, got better, but didn't go away. It was bad enough that I actually dug out an old pair of compression socks which I hadn't worn in years. Both legs were swollen, but my left for some reason was noticeably more swollen than the right. Thankfully, this has improved significantly over the past week, especially in the past few days.
Walking: I gave up walking, for the most part, two months ago after I finished my goal of 1000 miles. The weather was getting cooler and I am quite often cold and I just didn't want to do it. To compensate, I turned my focus to DDP-Yoga and I built a stand-up computer desk which would keep me standing instead of sitting while at the computer. Did giving up the walking cause or contribute to the water retention I've been dealing with in the past month? Did increasing my time standing contribute? I don't know the answer to these questions, but I do know this.... I started walking again earlier this week and almost instantly my water retention started going away and the scale started moving downward. Since this is what I want to have happen I plan on continuing with more walking, even though I REALLY don't want to. :)
Weight Loss: Even though I've had a very rough ride with the scale this past month and even though I'm still a bit heavier than my lowest, I'm still making good progress along my journey towards better health. I've stuck with the DDP-Yoga very consistently these past two months and my strength is improving and I'm putting on muscle mass. So even though the scale hasn't reflected it, I've lost fat mass and gained muscle mass. One measure of this is how my clothes fit. A month ago my pants fit very nicely and comfortably, with no need for a belt or suspenders. Today they're too big and I need suspenders to hold them up. As for a measure of where my strength is, I now do 60 pushups every day (except Sunday). In comparison, the first time I tried doing a pushup back in April I could not do one single good pushup and could only do a few "cheater" pushups from my knees. It wasn't until June 21st that I worked up to doing my very first REAL pushup. Now I do 60 a day, creeping up to my goal of doing 100 a day.
Looking Ahead: I continue to push on and will work and plan on making it through the Holiday Season sticking true to my goals. Last year was the first time I made it through Thanksgiving week while losing weight. I plan on this year being the second! Further down the road I hope to catch up to where my long-term goals say I should be as far as the scale goes, but if the setbacks of the last month mean I'll get there slower, I won't be too broken up about it.
Happy Eating!!
-Norm aka John Smith
Seems walking stimulates lymph function much much better then standing still or yoga.
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