Stats and Progress

Weight: 210
Body Fat: 39%


Progress is happening. Slower than I would like, but at least it's there. 

Let's talk about weight...

When I first started this blog I was 214. Then I had a couple weeks where I bounced between 215 and 217. I am saying I've lost 5 pounds so far, but really, if you go from my highest at this time, it's more like 7 pounds. I find that I have a "base weight", and I am sure the same is true for most people. It's the weight between my "good" days and my "bad" days. For instance... right now I am holding steady at 210, but some days the scale can say 212 and I have seen it as low as 209. When I first started blogging, my "base" weight was 215, going as low as 214 and as high as 217. This is why I don't freak when some days I get on the scale and it puts me a pound or two higher... just as easily it fluctuates back down. The "base" weight is what I pay attention to. Yeah it feels great when suddenly I am two pounds lighter... but I try not to celebrate until I am STEADILY that much lighter.

Now for body fat...

There's no way to accurately measure body fat without taking a ton of measurements and using the little "pinch" tool, or having a team of highly trained scientists with expensive equipment. What I have at home is a little hand held device that sends a signal across your upper body and compares that to your weight, height, and age. This thing has a margin of error of about 1%. I can do it three times in a row and it will give me 3 different readings, all within less than a percent. I use this as a guideline. Back in May, I was averaging anywhere from 40% to 41%. Now it's in the lower 39s, upper 38s. This means that I have dropped roughly 1%-2% body fat. 

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Things may not be progressing as quickly as I like, but they ARE progressing. I try to keep that in mind when I start to get discouraged. I did not gain all this weight in a short time. It's been a lifetime of riding the emotional roller coaster with food and body image. It's totally unrealistic that I am going to change every habit I ever developed at the drop of a hat and just magically get fit. But I am better, and I continue to improve. I find myself overeating less and less, I find that my major struggles now are not emotional connections with food but rather bad decisions brought on from "convenience". I try to remember that two years ago I was 30-50 pounds heavier, and celebrate the fact that I overcame that... especially when I see a photo or video of myself where I go "YUCK! I look like that???"... because if I feel that way now, imagine how I would feel with another 50 pounds hanging off me.