The Home Stretch (of phase 2)

My last post on my weight loss status was nearly a month ago, and it will appear that there has been little progress–but the time has not been completely wasted.

2/18/2014; 218.8 pounds / -3.2 / -28.2

1. More exercise – Mission failed, at least in the last several weeks.  Work has been crazy, the snow keeps flying so I’ve been doing some shoveling after work (which is exercise, I suppose), but that really expensive treadmill that we bought on credit has gotten little attention of late.  I need to work on this–and once I hit phase 3, it will be required.  More on that later.
2. Healthier eating – Super Bowl weekend was a bad weekend for my diet, but other than that, I’ve been able to more or less maintain a constant weight over the last month.  It wasn’t until last week that I refocused my diet in a way to aid in weight loss, and I’ve made some progress in that regard.  All in all, I’m happy that I was able to be a little more “careless” with my deit but still maintain weight…it makes me feel good about what will happen after I hit my goal.
3. Better attitude about my self-image – I know this is happening because I think about it less every day; it is no longer a distraction to me how I look when I look in the mirror.  A few weeks ago I bought a couple new pairs of jeans in a smaller size, so that was pretty exciting.  I’m finding that a lot of my clothes are almost too baggy to look acceptable in public, but I still want to hold off on buying any new clothes until I know the weight loss has stopped.
4. Stronger will to make better choices in life – aside from the aforementioned pizza and chocolate chip cookies, I’ve all but lost interest in sugary, fatty foods.  It’s actually kind of sad, eating in general just doesn’t get me as excited as it used to.  It comes with the territory, and I’m ok with it as long as I still get to indulge every now and again.  

So I mentioned “phase 2” in the title–here’s how I’ve been thinking of this whole weight loss thing.  Phase 1 was the initial push to drop pounds quickly–strict diet, constant workouts, and no straying from the plan.  Phase 1 lasted longer than I thought it would, up until I hit the plateau.  The plateau, in turn, started phase 2, which is what I’m working through right now.  The nature of the plateau is that it is a bit discouraging from a day-to-day weigh in standpoint, and so it’s easier to “slip” and eat more pizza or chocolate chip cookies than any human should in a single sitting; so, it sort of sets you behind the eight ball.  But, as long as there is progress, you work through it.  Phase 2 could easily define the time until reaching my final goal, since I’ll have to deal with that sort of “plateau” situation from here on out–but, there is also a point at which the hard work will bring returns regardless of whether or not I’ve lost any weight that day or that week (as long as there are no large gains)–because it will be the point at which I am “the lightest I’ve been since high school.”  That is phase 3.  Now, obviously, because I don’t know what my weight was on the day of graduation, I have no way to know when I actually hit phase 3, but I did lose a bunch of weight in 2009 and am using my “low point” from that time as the start of that cycle.  And, it’s somewhere around 212 pounds, so really not that far away.

Alright, enough of that…thanks for reading, and for being patient for updates amid the craziness that has been the last 6 weeks.  Be well!