Weight Loss Math

Weight loss is about a special kind of math.  You have to count pounds of fat, such as the one pound of fat pictured above; pounds of weights; numbers of cups, tablespoons, and teaspoons; minutes on the treadmill; number of crunches, and squats.  Most complicated of all, it's counting calories.

I will never be one of those women who counts each calorie that goes into her mouth.  But I do think it's important to know the calories/portion sizes in the food you buy.  I also think it's important to know how those calories affect weight loss.

It is mostly accepted (though apparently controversial) that it takes a 3500 calorie deficit to lose one pound.  If this is true, it means that I've lost 24,500 calories.  It also means that I have 105,000 calories left to reach my big goal weight.  Only 35,000 calories to meet my next milestone weight.

In the article I read that taught me the above, I learned that you burn more calories during the day than you do in the one hour at the gym.  It makes sense.  Every motion we make burns calories.  One extra effort I've been trying to make in this area is to do extra house work.  I have a dishwasher but I wash several dishes by hand.

There are people in this world who actually work to solve the answer to how many calories we burn during mundane activities.  According to this Discovery Health article, brushing your teeth for at least two minutes burns 5.7 calories.  Dusting your house for 30 minutes burns 80 calories, which is way fewer than this much more exciting activity-kissing for 30 minutes only burns 36 calories.  For me though, the calories that I deserve to burn more than any other are the 72 calories I burn for each hour spent watching TV.

How much is too much?

When this process started I convinced myself that I was not doing this to see a smaller number on the scale or the tag on my clothes.  I weighed myself as a progress check, but the more numbers that fell off, the more addicting it became.  I crave weight loss, but how much?  How much can I handle?  How hard can I go before I break?

That's the fear; that's the way I conceptualize where this is going.  I see myself as having a wall around me and to cross it or break through is impossible, if not dangerous.  I live within this boundary, afraid of the pain that is awaiting for me on the other side.  I'm certain that going out of my box is the first step towards failure.  But now I want to really question that and consider whether I'm underestimating those boundaries.

Maybe pain and danger aren't right in this case.  Failure is the key word here.  I'm so afraid of discovering my limit that I don't know if I've ever really tried to find it.  The past few weeks I've found myself busier than I have been in quite a while.  I haven't had the time or ability to go to the gym, and my determination to eat healthy has faltered.  Is this okay?  Am I allowing myself those realistic set backs?  I said that I would.  I said that I wanted to achieve what was reasonable, what was my small victories.  But where has that lead me?  I've lost 7 lbs. in 4 months.  That's nothing.  That's almost laughable.  Sure, if this continues it could lead to a big number, but the way I've been lately has me thinking that the day the scale reads that magic number will never happen.

So what do I do?  Where do I push?  With every doable suggestion that crosses my brain, I cannot help but think about the failure.  Right now the wall I'm hitting is the one that's telling me that even if I go all out and lose 2 lbs. a week until I hit the magic number, what happens a year from that day?  How long can I really keep that up?  I'll never be able to maintain that weight and I don't think I can handle another round of weight gain. 

Today at the gym I had all of this in mind.  I wanted to try it out.  I normally do about 100 crunches, usually 25 at a time until I hit 100.  I was reaching 20, feeling the burn in my stomach, the acid creeping up my esophagus, but I made it to 50 before I fell back.  I did finish 100.  Later on the treadmill I wanted to test how long I could jog at once.  I normally can only keep up speed for about 30 seconds before I let myself walk.  I had a goal of 1 minute.  It quickly turned into 2.  I stopped at 3.

These aren't rhetorical questions.  Any suggestions or advice is most welcome.  I want to try out different suggestions and find something that seems to work.

If they're going to be fat, they might as well be strong

As you know, I am most self conscious about my arms.  You can see why in my first ever blog post.  The way they jiggle, smack against me as I run, and the way they take up most of my profile are all reasons why I hate them.  They are two oversize bags of vanilla pudding.  They are a skinny woman's thighs.  They are what I want to change the most.  The good news is that I've taken this hatred and turned it into something cool.  I am now becoming a master of lifting weights.  I started this under the false impression that lifting weights would lead to burning fat in my arms.  I now know that you cannot make the body burn fat in any specific location.  It simply burns fat where it wants, and sometimes it's in my arms.  Regardless, there are some amazing benefits to this new endeavor, and I want to share them with you today.

According to this Women's Health article, a mere 21% of women strength train two or more times a week.  It goes on to say, "Those two sessions can reduce overall body fat by about three percentage points in just 10 weeks, even if you don't cut a single calorie."  I think women avoid weights because they fear that it will cause them to bulk up and look manly.  The bottom line is that women's bodies are not designed to do this.  We don't have enough testosterone to support such a change.  Lifting weights builds muscle, which burns fat and boosts your metabolism.  Not only that, but lifting weights is fun and interesting; it makes me feel strong. 

When I started this process I purchased a pair of 5 lb weights from Target for $16.  I highly recommend the investment.  There are five key muscle groups to target when doing an upper body workout: chest, shoulders, back, biceps and triceps.  It's important to hit each one and try different techniques for each area.  Let me take a step back.  I want this to be accessible, so in this next session I'm actually going to get into the very basics of how to lift weights.

The basics
The standard thought on conceptualizing lifting weights involves sets and reps.  When I lifted weights in high school with my mom and sister, we'd typically do something like three sets for each muscle group, 5-7 repetitions (reps) of the motion.  In between sets, it's generally thought that you should rest for about 30 seconds.

According to (my favorite website) ivillage, it is actually bad to rest between sets.  The article I linked, 11 exercise myths, says, "Stopping to rest for a minute or so after every exercise can sabotage results. 'Too much rest lets lactic acid dissipate,' said Rubenstein. And muscle growth (and tone and definition) requires lactic acid. Instead, keep up the intensity by moving quickly from one exercise to the next. 'You should be somewhat recovered but not completely,' says Rubenstein. If you can do 15 reps the first set, and one or two fewer on the next, you're on the right track."

Because of this, I've been doing many more reps.  I think my 5 lb weights are getting a little light for me, so I find myself doing about 20 reps of each exercise.  As with most exercise, the key here is form and control.  It's better to use a lighter weight and do the motion correctly than it is to stress your body too quickly using something 5 lbs. too heavy.  For example, when doing a bicep curl, the idea is to keep your body still, lock your elbows at your side and only raise your forearm.  Never allow your arms to lock or you'll stress the muscle.  I also have to focus extra hard to keep my core in check. 


Suggested exercises
First of all, it just occurred to me that I no longer know the names of most of the workouts I do.  So I'm going to start by sending you to this really cool website with some tutorials and suggested workouts.

As for the ones I do remember or was able to describe well in the search bar, here are some suggestions.  First is the concentration curl.  I like to hold both weights in one hand when I do this one.  There is also the dumbbell lateral raise which, while I am suggesting you try it, is really hard.  My biggest accomplishment in life is that I'm finally able to do this exercise without making a stupid face.  This last one is another favorite.  It's the dumbbell triceps extension.  I also do this one with two weights.

Please feel free to ask questions or give any suggestions.  This is such a great and useful workout.  I hope you decide to try it out!

Progress Photo

I can't believe it's been almost a whole month since my last post!  I am not quitting on you now, I've just been extremely busy and unfortunately this blog moved down low on my priorities list.  I'd like to take this opportunity to present my first two comparison photos.  These two pictures might be unfair comparisons because they were taken at different angles and wearing slightly different clothes (yes, I know that I own two practically identical tank tops), but I like to think that the picture on the bottom shows a narrower face, waist, and arms (though those have barely reduced).  Even if there is no real change, I'll accept my new photo as progress.

2/6/12

3/17/12

While I might have had progress since beginning this activity, it has really slowed in the last few weeks.  I was away this weekend and was unable to workout Saturday or Sunday, or do my measurements.  I did, however, run 1 mile in under 15 minutes on Friday (it's a long story, but that's huge progress from my 18 minute miles I was doing before), I also hiked up a mountain on Saturday for about 2 hours.  According to my measurements taken on March 11, I've still only lost 5 pounds in total but have lost 6 inches off my body.  The weird progress here is that 4 of those inches have come off while maintaining my current weight.  In addition to the jeans that used to refuse to button just months ago, last night I tried on several tops that fit like they did several years ago or better.  One of my favorite shirts was always a little snug in the arms, but last night was probably looser than ever before.

I know I owe a longer post, but this is all I have in me for now.  More to come later!

One Week at a Time

It's ironic. My last post dealt with stress and this week ended up being one of the most stressful weeks of my life. The irony here is that while I was expecting stress, new things kept popping up to make it worse and worse. You know how it is...you think things have reached the lowest of the low and then your car gets towed. No, seriously, my car got towed on Thursday.

Like last week, these painful moments in life take a toll on my goals. In truth, since I've started working out I've stopped making eating goals. But you get my meaning. How can I follow the basic rules when I'm ready to rip out my hair?

As the week started and I felt like my world was spinning out of control I had no appetite. Of course I was eating, but for the first time in my life my response to stress was to eat less. I even bought a really expensive bar of dark chocolate to nibble on, just in case (I read that dark chocolate, 70% or higher, is better for cravings because it's a bit healthier, and because the strong flavor makes you eat less). I think it was Tuesday night that I found myself eating two bowls of Cinnamon Toast Crunch for dinner. I justified it because I barely at that day. Then on Thursday I found myself gorging. I needed bread and our work retreat had some really delicious, bready options. Unfortunately one day of gorging leads to more. I bought a deep dish pizza with cheesy bread last night and had three pieces of each. It was delicious, but I should have at least gotten thin crust.

Through the week I was actually able to workout on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday. Unfortunately I had more pressing issues (like getting my car back) that prevented me from working out on those days I didn't.

The good news is, while my weight is remaining the same, I've lost two inches in total (half an inch here and there on different parts).

This post is kind of hard to write. I don't blame you if you didn't read this far. The reason I'm writing it is because when I started this blog I wanted to be honest about the things I think we all struggle with but are too afraid to say. I don't want this blog to only reflect the easy moments in this journey. It's really, really hard. It gets a bit easier every day, but there are these continual stumbling blocks that life just has to throw our way no matter what. I can either throw in the towel or just keep swimming.

Giving up lead me to where I was in December: almost 190 lbs. and feeling incredibly depressed about my life. Now I'm down to 182. I've lost 5 lbs. and 4 inches. Yes, it is a struggle each day to stick to it, and I sometimes don't. But I have to convince myself that it's worth it. Even if the numbers stand still, it has to be worth it.

And then life happened

This week, my journey has taken an unfortunate turn. While I exercised vigorously on Sunday and Monday, I didn't get to the gym again until this morning. That means that I took 4 days off, which is supposed to be a big no-no. Rather than getting angry at myself, I want to dig deeper and understand what happened.

Work

My first and most obvious answer here is that I had to work extra hours almost every night this week. I started a new project this week. If you're wondering, it's an evaluation of HIV/AIDS funding streams in South Africa. I thought that this new project would be a small intro into evaluations (something that my firm specializes in, but I have never worked on). I was convinced it would be easy and perhaps even fun-an interesting challenge. Unfortunately it is becoming very clear that I was wrong. My work load is getting much bigger than I thought. My other 7 projects are also in a critical stage and it's looking like the coming weeks are going to be a bit hellish.

Stress

The other element here, that coincides with work is stress. I have been feeling particularly stressed out with this new project. I didn't want to make it a header, but it's also that time of the month, so I'm particularly sensitive to stress and other emotional factors. On Wednesday I actually had my workout clothes on, but simply couldn't get past the first 5 minutes of my workout video. I just felt exhausted. My mind was racing and my body wasn't getting it like it was last time.

I allowed myself to take the break from the workout if I did some research into stress and stress management.

Stress can do some pretty harmful things to our bodies. According to the Mayo Clinic, " Stress that's left unchecked can contribute to health problems such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and diabetes." Check out the article I found that from, it has an interesting table that shows the different areas stress can affect: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stress-symptoms/SR00008_D.

Additionally, stress is linked to cortisol production in the body, cortisol is a hormone that causes your blood pressure and blood sugar levels to increase. It also causes a buildup of unhealthy fat around the abdomen because it blocks insulin from breaking that down.

Basically stress is a bigger problem than many of us might realize. I just keep thinking back to Friday, as my heart rate was up high, my mood was down quite low, and I felt like there was no way for me to finish work before 5:00. Time and time again I've had the debilitating feeling, that weight that pulls me down, makes me slow and very stressed. Of course my next question is-how do I stop or at least manage these stresses?

Stress Relief

One site, I think it was ivillage, suggested that because stress is linked to weight gain, it is good to meditate and practice relaxation exercises for at least ten minutes each day at work.

The Mayo Clinic suggests a few relaxation techniques that are quite similar to meditation. Here's a few that might be doable:

• Autogenic relaxation. Autogenic means something that comes from within you. In this relaxation technique, you use both visual imagery and body awareness to reduce stress. You repeat words or suggestions in your mind to relax and reduce muscle tension. For example, you may imagine a peaceful setting and then focus on controlled, relaxing breathing, slowing your heart rate, or feeling different physical sensations, such as relaxing each arm or leg one by one.

• Visualization. In this relaxation technique, you form mental images to take a visual journey to a peaceful, calming place or situation. During visualization, try to use as many senses as you can, including smell, sight, sound and touch. If you imagine relaxing at the ocean, for instance, think about such things as the smell of salt water, the sound of crashing waves and the warmth of the sun on your body. You may want to close your eyes, sit in a quiet spot and loosen any tight clothing.

The article goes on to suggest that it is important to practice these methods, because it takes practice to really get them down and actually lead to health benefits. Now, I'm not sure if I will actually meditate at work, I share an office with two other women, but I do plan to start trying some of this out.

Update

Before I close out today, I have some exciting news! Even though I barely worked out and ate, well, junk all week, I have actually lost 2 pounds since last weekend! This brings my total weight loss to 5 pounds since Christmas.

Quick Update

Okay, okay, yesterday's post may have been a bit hasty. While I'm still disappointed in my poundage, I measured myself this morning and found that I've lost 2 inches off my waist (from 35 to 33, I know you're curious) since January 22. I had planned to wait until February 22 to re-measure, but I needed to feel better. Bad news is, every other measurement is still the same. Maybe I should look on the bright side, because who knows how many inches I could have gained had I not been changing my ways.

Gym update
Yesterday at the gym I felt similar struggles to keep up a fast pace. I know that putting the treadmill on a steep incline and speed walking can be just as effective, I was looking forward to running again, but just couldn't quite get there. Even with 10 minutes warming up I found myself being held back with the strenuous jog. Today I spent 30 minutes on the recumbent bike, hopped on the treadmill, and again found myself going way faster than I normally do. Now, I had it on a much lower incline than normal so I can't say for sure that it was the bike that did the trick, but I can say that I was able to go twice as fast for twice as long for a whopping 25 minutes.

And boy, did I sweat. I never realized how fantastic sweat is. I love that feeling of it seeping down, soaking my clothes. I love wiping my hand across my forehead and then my hand across my shirt. Nothing, and I mean nothing, gets me as sweaty as the treadmill, and it is by far the most liberating feeling of my life.