Another pound down and musings

Weight: 226 as of yesterday morning! Also I measured and found that my waist was 2 inches smaller than it was at my lowest weight on Weight Watchers (which is still about 16 lbs from where I am now)!

I am attributing this to the aerobics videos I'm doing. There is a lot of waist work included in all those videos i.e. the leg lifts etc. I've been doing 2 or 3 a week and then, the other days, I do biking or the Healthrider or the Gazelle Freestyle.

Yesterday I took a bike ride - it was really hot out and I was only going to stay out for 20 minutes but ended up with a 35 minute ride because I was having fun, even in the heat! :) The photo is from the place I rode around in, a large park!

So anyway, when I saw the photo I put up in the last blog, I realized I really HAVE lost weight. It's been so slow that I still feel like I look the same as I did 41 lbs ago. But the photo jolted me to reality (but a nice reality!).

I actually have not used a few photos of me because I thought that somehow the angle made me look "deceptively slim" but I am beginning to realize that I really LOOK like that and that I really weigh 226 and NOT 267!

Onward and upward...well... downward... weight-wise anyway :)

Another pound down

Weighed in Thursday at 227 and have been consistantly weighing that since. That makes in an even 40 lbs that I lost. Somehow that feels like a milestone.

I also can wear my smaller panties which are more comfy than the larger ones. But I almost am afraid to start wearing them. It hasn't sunk in that I've lost so much weight!

Thursday, GG took a photo of my worst view... my rear and it looked pretty good. I made a comparison photo of Thursday's photo next to a photo taken in February 2007 when I was just starting my program. It is the photo to the left!

Today's exercise was a 41 minute bicycle ride in the heat... was 109 out but we had fun anyway! :)

I'm finally down to 228. I know - 1 lb big deal. But I'll take it. That makes 39 lbs in all so one more pound and I'll hit an even 40.

Still sore. Trying to do aerobics twice a week to combat sarcopenia (muscle wasting in the aged). I am walking around with constant sore syndrome. Well, some of it is probably from arthritis.

Not much to report except I am now 20 lbs away from the magic place where I was after Weight Watchers the last time and 13 lbs away from a really good weight.

And sometimes it seems like 50! :\

My workout program looks something like this:
Biking 1-3 days a week, walking twice or three times a week, 20 - 30 minutes a time, gazelle freestyle once a week - 50 minutes and I work my upper body here also, trikke, 1-2 times a week, 20-30 minutes per time (three wheeled cambering vehicle) and aerobic dancing ala Richard Simmons or Jane Fonda (mostly Simmons), 2-3 times a week and Healthrider, once a week, 40 minutes. Thinking of adding Richard Simmons "Sweat and Tone".

I've been working out for 14 years by the way. But one has to shake things up every so often. During 2005, I opted for a few more points a day and easier workouts and that probably caused the weight gain. Now with sarcopenia hitting with a savage vengeance, I HAVE to cross train.

Onward and upward...

first post - introduction

This blog will be about my on going battle with my weight. Briefly, in Jan 2007 I weighed 267 (after regaining 60 lbs from my low weight while in Weight Watchers). I cut 200 calories off my daily intake and lost slowly. In July I started a walking program i.e. added it to my already existent workout program which has been going on for 14 years. I have worked out daily since Aug 1, 1994. But in the last few years, I have succumbed to the easier workouts. Workout machines inside, a delightful HPV called a "trikke" and more. And I was losing my ability to walk for any distance. You see I am 63 years old and am suffering sarcopenia or the muscle wasting of the aged and unlike men, I have no nice testosterone floating around in my blood so basically if I don't move all my muscles twice a week and throw a couple of walks in there, I hurt a lot. I started walking several times a week last July (2007) and by November could walk some kind of distance (at least comfortably in the food store etc) and didn't hurt so much as I did for the first few months of my walking program. Raising the level of fitness at my age is very very hard.

In February 2008, I ended up lowering my daily intake to 1600 calories. And in March, I started doing aerobics tapes twice a week. Now THOSE are hard. I sweat like a pig, I have to pay close attention and they are just hard. But my back pain has already reduced greatly since I've been doing these.

So now I have gotten a low weight of 229 but of course, today on the last day when I weighed it was 230. I would love to get down to 207 or so - that's a nice weight for me although being in "one-der-land" would even be better.

Why I started a blog is so I could write about my frustration with this. It's SO slow. Like in June 2008, IF I really weigh 229 then I've lost only 2 lbs. Yet I know the slow way is the healthiest way and the best chance of keeping it off (IF I continue to journal my food every day and of course, keep up the most intense workouts).

I guess I started this NOW because I'm in the plateau from heck and maybe that IS The time I should be writing.

One more thing about me. I do not eat fast food or junk food. I am on a low fat diet (the old Susan Powter program - nothing below 20 percent fat) which is also supposed to be good for my arteries and heart. I have been low fat since 1996 or so and have not had fast food since then either.

If anyone is reading this, thanks for reading and more later! :)