Game on!

I feel like I'm at a new starting point. I just went back to my fitday.com weight tracker, and I realized it's been months and months since I lost weight. I think the last time was about four months ago. That's quite a plateau. I know a lot of it was that I was due a plateau and the rest of it was my knee injury, gallbladder surgery, back injury, etc... I've had a never ending list of things come up lately it seems.

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I'm finally getting better from my nasty cold/flu. I have been resting, resting, resting, and staying in the house almost entirely for the past week. I have left the house for a total of about 12 hrs out of the past 168. That's crazy. I have not worked as much as I wanted to, and I have probably logged 70 hrs of television watching, IF NOT MORE.

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That's all well and good...I know that my cold/flu's get me sicker than most. I can't remember a time in the past several years when a bad cold didn't lead to a really bad case of bronchitis, and often pneumonia. Your lungs get weaker each time you get a sickness like that, which makes you more prone to getting it over and over and over again. It's quite a cycle, and I have worked very hard to try to stop the cycle this time around.

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Thankfully, I'm consulting, and I can make my own hours. I've had the luxury of staying home and opting out of going to work (except for one morning), and I've been able to get the rest and sleep that I need. It's very rare that I would have that opportunity, and if I hadn't been unemployed, I have no doubt I would have gotten bronchitis and probably pneumonia again. See - there is good in everything. ;-)

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So I'm finally getting better, and I'm raring to get re-started with my weight loss journey. I've been eating junk all week since I've been sick (lame excuse), and I've weighed myself every day this week, watching the number grow...telling myself that now isn't the time to worry about the number, now is the time to focus on getting well. What a convenient truth. :)

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This morning I found myself up a good 8 lbs. I know my weight fluctuates wildly, and that it could be water weight, or at least some of it, but I also know that my appetite was much bigger than usual this week, as it always is when I'm sick, and I ate whatever I want...thankfully, whatever I want now is quite different than whatever I wanted before, so that is a good thing...

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Because my weight fluctuates so much, I never update fitday when the number goes up, only when it goes down. I don't think it counts because some days I'm up 6 lbs for no reason, and then it's gone the next day. It's a bad habit, and I think my new rule is that if I'm up more than 2 days in a row, I'm updating my weight on fitday. Today, I changed my weight on fitday to my new weight, which is up the 8 lbs. I also updated my goal weight, which is now 35 lbs less than my original goal weight. It's a stretch, but it's my goal, and that's what I'm going to aim for.

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With my newly acquired 8 lbs in tow, and my new goal weight, I'm now about 80 lbs from goal. I know that sounds drastic, and it is a lot, yes indeed. I'm 2/3rds of the way there, however, for my total goal, and I'm giving myself the next year to lose it. I know that the 8 lbs I'm up will be gone relatively soon, so basing my goal on having about 70 lbs to lose, at an average of 1.5 lbs/week, I hope to be at my new goal weight by February, 2010. That will be about 2.5 years since the start of my journey, and a healthy amount of time for it to take to lose 240 lbs.

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I'm starting over in a number of ways. At the beginning of my journey (for months), I measured out all of my portions religiously. I have gotten away from that, because I know what a cup looks like or what 3 oz of chicken looks like. This morning, I measured out a cup of cereal, and I realized that my portion has grown over the months. I was probably at a cup and a half without realizing it. Oddly, when I measured out a cup of milk, I was probably closer to a half a cup of milk in my actual use, so the calories were almost a wash, but I was taking in more carbs than needed, and less calcium.

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I have gotten lazy about the no drinking with or after meals requirement as well. Fluids make the food go through the band quicker, which minimizes the effect. I was very good about not drinking with meals or after meals (for 30-60) minutes for quite some time, but then I just got lazy about it. It didn't seem to matter much, but I know that it does, at least to some extent, so I'm back on track with that too.

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Since I've been out of work, I've fallen out of my water routine as well. I still drink a lot because crystal light and water are pretty much all I drink, but when I was on vacation, I really went off the water band wagon. As of today, I'm back on track.

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For now, because I feel like I need a clean slate, I'm going to forget about all the weight I lost before, and I'm starting fresh with a new number: 80. It's been months since I lost all that weight, and it's anticlimactic to keep adding to it...at least for now. Starting fresh with a new number makes me feel renewed and more enthusiastic about this journey. I don't know why, but it just does, so I'm going with it. I'm excited to weigh myself tomorrow morning to see how much I've lost, from the 80. If I were going with my original numbers, whatever I lost tomorrow would just be re-lost, and that's not satisfying or motivating for me at all.

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80 is the new 200 (and future 240). :)

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I'm still going to take it easy with exercising, since I'm having trouble breathing from my cold, and I don't want to do anything to prevent my cold from ending in peace. I have a feeling that by tomorrow or Sunday at the latest, I will be well enough to go back to the gym. My back is still bothering me, as I keep re injuring it (most recently yesterday rearranging the house), so I will start back with cardio, no weights, and that should be fine. If I'm careful, I should be back to weights within a week.

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I think I will reformat the appearance of this blog to signify this new step in my journey.

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What fun!