Category: 20lbs in 20 weeks

I wasn’t expecting much in the way of weight loss this week.  After my 1 pound drop last week, I figured I might plateau for a bit.  But one thing I should have learned is that weight drops can surprise you.  So I was pleasantly surprised to see 195.5 pop up on the scale.  That meant a drop of 3 1/2 more pounds and brought me a hair away from the halfway mark.

Now, I find myself in the unusual position of fighting my sense of optimism.  Part of me looks at my weight loss this past month and figures that I’ve lost 2 pounds per week on average.  If I continue like that, I find myself thinking, I’ll be pretty much at my goal weight by time we go to Disney World for the Disney Social Media Moms conference.

Some optimism is good, but you’ve got to keep things in perspective.  Like last week’s advice not to give in to pessimism when your scale numbers don’t plummet like they do on TV, too much optimism can be a bad thing.  If you optimistically expect huge weight loss numbers, you’re just setting yourself up for disappointment.  Of course, some optimism is healthy.  You don’t want to go into a weight loss plan thinking “I’ll end this at the exact weight I started at” or “I might lose a couple of pounds but I won’t reach my goal.”  However, you also don’t want to say “I lost 3 pounds last week so I can expect to lose at least that much every single week or else I’m failing at weight loss.”  It’s all about balance.

After a 3 pound weight loss week and a two pound weight loss week, it was a little disappointing to step on the scale and see only a single additional pound gone.  I know, however, that this isn’t a bad thing.

When you first start on a weight loss plan, you’re bound to post some big numbers.  Then, as the plan goes on, those big numbers disappear.  Unlike The Biggest Loser, we normal folks trying to lose weight aren’t going to shed 10 pounds every week.  In fact, that’s just not healthy!

There’s a reason that I chose a span of twenty weeks in which to lose the pounds I want to shed.  Ideally, weight loss should come in 1 to 2 pounds per week segments.  There are some exceptions, but this is healthy weight loss.  So, while it is easy to get discouraged when the pounds don’t go flying off, you’ve got to celebrate the little victories and keep your eyes on the big picture.  Even a single pound lower on the scale readout is a step in the right direction!

One of the easiest ways to sabotage weight loss is to set a single goal and then get frustrated when you aren’t reaching it.  That’s why I’m a big fan of having an overarching goal as well as a series of mini-goals.

In my case, my over-arching goal is, of course, to lose twenty pounds.  However, this could take me months and I wouldn’t want to feel like I haven’t crossed any important milestones on the way.  Therefore, I consider every five pounds lost to be a mini-goal.  (Except for the last one, of course, since then I cross my overall goal.)

This means that I’ve reached the first of my three mini-goals.  I’m now down by five pounds and am ready to say goodbye to that “2” at the beginning of the scale’s read-out.  Since all goals should come with a celebration, perhaps I’ll “treat” myself to a serving of non-fat chocolate ice cream with some whipped cream.  Then again, considering the freezing cold outside, maybe I’ll find a warmer celebratory snack.

Last week, I began my 20 pounds in 20 weeks challenge.  So how did I do?  Well, my first week weigh-in was 202 pounds.  Since my initial weigh-in was 205 pounds, this means that I am down by 3 pounds.

I ate a lot of salads during the week.  I have to admit, I usually like salads, but I wasn’t feeling the salad-love.  For some reason, a big pile of greens with very little dressing on top just didn’t make my mouth water.  So what was my secret?  Bacon bits.  Well, imitation bacon bits, actually.  (Remember, I’m kosher.)  Turns out that 2 servings (14 grams) of these are 1 point and this is a LOT of imitation bacon bits.  The only problem is that we’re running through bacon bits quickly.  We add them to egg whites (with dried onion flakes) as well as to our salads.  NHL has taken to liking them as well.  BJ’s used to have large containers of kosher, imitation bacon bits, but it looks like those were discontinued.  Now, I’m searching for another bulk source.  It’s getting expensive buying lots of those small containers.