Healthy Tomorrow Starts Today! My Weight Loss Journey
Weight loss today 24.2lbs Every day I feel more motivated to do more and today is no exception. This day has been very rainy and wet, we even had a weather warning regarding the rainfall. However I was sitting on the sofa in the morning […]
Weight loss to date 21.4lbs I first talked about walking at the Spit in my Week 3 update. It is a great place to walk due to its many benches and wonderful scenery. Today was definitely a new millstone in my walking and mobility as […]
Total weight loss to date 21lbs
Tonight’s walk saw even more results than expected. This evening I added and extra block to my walk yet again. I have begun to notice not just a small but dramatic difference in how I feel and how I can move. I am walking faster and most importantly my back pain is at an all time low.
The extra block I added to my walk tonight takes me down a street past the initial two alleys I start on. This street goes up a gentle incline that was not remotely an issue to walk up. But to connect up to the street above to loop back would now require going up another hill of significant incline. Normally a hill like this would cause me considerable back pain and I would be completely out of breath. I figured I would give it a try as I could always cut my walk short on the way back if my back was in too much pain. To my surprise and relief I managed the hill with relative ease. I was also was able to continue on to finish my full walk without any problems. In fact my back has never felt so good walking. I cannot emphasize how encouraged I am at this point just being able to move so much more freely.
Total weight loss to date 18.4lbs Today it has been exactly 1 month since I started a new lifestyle of healthy eating and more activity. I am just shy of 20lbs and the difference is really remarkable. Sometimes the idea of 20lbs of weight seems […]
Total weight loss to date 17.8lbs Everyday seem like there are positive changes now. While it can certainly seem like a daunting process to lose the weight I have set for myself as a goal, little victories seem to be coming more often which is […]
Today I felt good and I decided to try to be a bit more ambitious with my physical activity level. Currently I am down around 14lbs and I do certainly notice the difference in how I feel. I am not sure if that is due to 3 weeks of clean healthy eating, removing 14lbs of weight or as I suspect a little of both. Certainly my energy has improved and so wanting to take advantage of that I jumped in my truck and headed to a local park called the spit.
View from my walk, what could be better
Situated on the water right beside a riptide this area is a beautiful spot at any time of the year. Seeing eagles, sea lions, orcas and even humpback whales is not uncommon on this path so it is hard to beat a view like this while exercising. It also has another positive feature that I think makes it a valuable place to work on walking more and that feature is lots of benches.
One of the many benches on my walking trail
One of the issues I face while working on getting more active is back pain. I talk a little about it in my blog “The Pain Barrier to Weight Loss”. So I will not go into details about this here but one issue that results from this pain is a certain fear of being too far away from a place to sit down. When I am faced with overwhelming back spasms while walking the only solution is to sit and let them settle. This leads to the prospect of long walks without an area to sit somewhat intimidating. If like me this is an issue for you, I highly recommend looking for a spot with lots of seating along the way. This area is really ideal for this purpose and the walkway and paths are level and well maintained. It dramatically increases my confidence and allows me to push myself a little harder than I normally would.
Today was a pretty fantastic start to getting more active. I ended up walking the entire trail to the end without having to stop. In fact on the way back I felt so good to be moving freely I looped back for another circuit around the end trail area. My back was slightly sore, but importantly not in spasms and I stopped only once for about 20 seconds to stretch my hamstring as a precaution. Other than this brief stop I kept a continuous pace and ended up walking briskly for about 23minute. I am very encouraged and looking forward to future progress.
Just got to the end of the trail without having to stop!
Eating out at your favourite restaurant with your friends or for special occasion can be a tricky road to navigate on the journey to weight loss. With so much of our social time being centered around food how do you avoid derailing your healthy diet […]
One of the many challenges to losing weight that I think is often misunderstood is the physical pain that can be impeding a persons success, especially at the start. I am speaking of pain that can be chronic or aggravated by activity that is caused […]
Stepping on the scale to weigh yourself can be both more encouraging and discouraging while you attempt your weight loss. There seems to be a lot of debate on whether it is a good idea to weigh yourself often, only once and a while or even not at all. There seems like no right or wrong answer at the moment but if you do plan to weigh yourself like I do while you attempt weight loss, these are some things to keep in mind.
There can be a lot of reasons why weight can fluctuate. One reason can be water retention which can be the result of a number of factors. Depending on the situation this can add or subtract several pounds within a day or two. You really need to keep it in mind that if the scale moves up a little you have not gained pounds of body fat overnight. Also consider that your body weight can fluctuate throughout the day, so if you do plan to weigh yourself, try to be consistent on the time of day you do it.
Another factor that can skew your perspective on the scale can be added muscle mass. Muscle weighs more than fat does so adding even a little muscle to your body will cause a change to your weight. This is very common with people who have changed to a healthy lifestyle and begin to become more active. As you lose weight and feel better so your activity level and energy increases. This might seem insignificant at first but the added activity can cause lots of positive changes to your body including more muscle. Adding muscle not only helps improve you mobility and activity, it also increases your metabolism helping you burn more calories at rest. It is a great benefit to your health but make note that it can add some pounds back on which in this case, is not a bad thing at all.
Measuring you progress by weight loss along can have some significant issues in accuracy. As mentioned several factors unrelated to fat loss can impact a persons weight. Someone can be making great strides towards a better lifestyle without losing weight. There are other ways to measure your progress including tape measurements, BMI (body mass index), fat caliper readings etc. but the reality is these are neither convenient and not without their own issues. One of the best and most simple measurement to success I think can be keeping just a journal of improvements you notice in your day to day activity. in addition to weighing myself this is my personal favourite and also the single most important way to measuring success. I do it by taking note of such things as
When weighing yourself often you can go through a bit of an emotional roller coaster. Looking at a long term weight loss chart is a bit like looking at a stock market chart. It will have lots of spikes and drops, maybe some time where it just flat lines for a bit. But with patience and planning over time you can really see the trend of it moving in the right direction. Just like investing, (and there is no better investment than your health) keep a long term horizon and don’t get caught up in the emotional roller coaster of short term ups and downs. In the short term try to focus on the before mentioned metrics of feeling better and moving better.
With all this seeming negativity why am I going to weigh myself? The reality is that it is a good measure of my progress as long as I can keep the above mentioned in mind. I can hopefully find correlations to weight loss where my calories and exercise are working and maybe where things need adjustment. That is the idea anyways, but as with most things I will be keeping an open mind to change if I feel it is not working as I planned. Right now I the strategy is to weigh in once a week keeping a very strict mindset not to be discouraged if my weight stalls or climbs. The long term chart is what matters and how I feel and move matters most. Once a week feels like the sweet spot for now, so that will be my starting point, but I think people should do what feels right for them. If you feel you will be too overwhelmed by the ups and downs perhaps weighing yourself is not for you, but if you think you can control the physiological aspects and keep the long term goal in mind you might find it a useful tool in your weight loss kit.
In my food choices for my lifestyle menu I decided to add blueberries as a staple part of my quest for a healthy regime. Blueberries are widely regarded for both their health benefits as well as being relatively low in calories. In this series I […]
