Self Reduction Adventure: Week #1 Report

It was approximately one week ago that I launched my self reduction adventure.  Since baring my soul and making it public in a blog post, which you can read here if you missed it, numerous readers have encouraged me and asked me to make public my weight loss journey.  Several have even asked if we can be accountability buddies.  It would seem that losing weight and becoming more healthy is a very common endeavor these days.

So, with all of the very kind and positive feedback, I've decided to give a report at the beginning of each new week.  Normally I will plan to do this on Mondays, but as I was away spending time with family at and following the memorial service for my sister-in-law, this first report is a bit late.

Several people have point blank asked me what I have defined as my goals, so I will spell them out here.

GOALS - There are three:

1.  Lose weight slowly and safely until I am at a healthy BMI (Body Mass Index).  For a person of my height, the middle of the healthy BMI range is at a weight of about 145.  That means I have a lot of weight to lose.

2.  Be able to participate in some strenuous sports as I did before.  Kickboxing and Judo.

3.  Maintain a practice of healthy eating that I can sustain for the rest of my life.


METHOD - The Compound Effect

Basically I will make lifestyle, dietary, and exercise changes, one week at a time, compounding them over time.  At this time I am not able to do much physical activity due to some injuries and surgery.  I will incorporate exercise into the mix later.


PLAN FOR WEEK #1:

My plan for the first week was to eliminate all evening snacking completely.  Nothing to eat at all after dinner.  I knew that this modification would be extremely hard for me.  I did accomplish my plan this week, as there were no evenings in which I snacked.


COMMENTS FOLLOWING WEEK #1:

1.  Thank you Sharon and Sarah for offering to be accountability partners with me throughout this journey.

2.  Thank you Pamela for offering to support me in prayer.  I will certainly return the kindness.

3.  For now, I have decided to step on the scale every morning and record my numbers.  I may change my mind about this later.

4.  The husband/lover/best friend decided to join me on this adventure, but apparently forgot that the evening he sat next to me eating pretzels out of the bag in front of me.  He probably lost five pounds this week just thinking about it.

5.  I spent a bit of time thinking about and researching possible future exercise regimens, and as always I gravitate towards the martial arts/kickboxing/boxing types.  I may start eventually with a walking program like Shapely Girls or Leslie Sansone's "Walk Away the Pounds."  Later I will progress to Les Mills "Body Combat."  I ordered the Body Combat program, because I know that having it in my possession will inspire me.  Finally, I will return to the gym for kickboxing and possibly judo.  I do like the social aspect of working out with others, but I know that I must feel confident first.

6.  I cannot deny that evenings were very tough.  I wanted to eat snacks.  I really wanted to eat snacks.  I thought about it every five minutes.  It's a bad habit that won't die without a fight.  I'm a fighter though, and I will win.

7.  I attended the memorial service for my sister-in-law on Saturday.  I found myself wanting to find comfort foods throughout the next few days.  Grief makes me want to comfort myself by eating.  That is another tough battleground.

POUNDS LOST FOR WEEK #1:

I lost only 4/10 of one pound, which I found a bit discouraging until I looked up what a picture of one pound of fat looks like.  See it here, in all its grossness:

PLAN FOR WEEK #2:

In addition to the changes of week #1, for week two and thereafter, I will reduce my soda intake to only one 16 ounce soda per week and my adult beverage intake to one small one per week.

These are tough battles for me, but I am tenacious.
Hang on, this ride might be bumpy.