Tough Week

It really was a hair puller this week. I suppose there's a reason that common wisdom is don't weigh yourself every day. It can get really exasperating. For quite a while early in the week I thought I was headed for another low loss week like last week. The meager .8 pound loss that I had then was still bothering me. It shouldn't. Any loss is a good loss, and sure beats going in the other direction, but where I am right now, it's just too little. So I ended up obsessing over the scale all this week, and it nearly killed me. I'm going to have to really force myself to stay away from it until the official weigh in day each week and just take it like a big girl, whatever the number is.

This week actually turned out good though. I had a 2.8 pound total loss, which is great. Sure, who wouldn't love the numbers that people on those big weight loss shows on television have, right? That's not realistic though. I exercise a lot--for a normal person. I get in at least an hour a day 2 to 3 days a week, and an hour and a half 3 to 4 days a week, with one rest day in there to let myself recover. On those shows the players are expected to exercise 5 or more hours a day. Who in real life has that kind of time, not to mention how dangerous that is for the body, the chances for injury, etc, and most of us don't have a doctor on call in the next room. There have also been a lot of rumors, even former contestants who have said they were made to do things diet-wise or take supplements that weren't condoned on air. Regardless of the whys though, any reasonable person would have to acknowledge that anything over 5 pounds a week, even for the heaviest person is probably way too fast, especially without surgery.

What really makes me laugh, thinking about those shows (and for the record, I watch just about all of them, I can't help it. I'm a glutton for punishment.) is the juxtaposition in viewpoints from one of my favorites. I love Chris Powell's Extreme Weight Loss, but on the show he pushes contestants to lose extreme amounts of weight, upwards of 5 pounds a week in some cases. However, in most of his pre-show books and writings, and even some written during the show's span, he says that safe weight loss should not be more than 2% of your total body weight per week, making my maximum safe loss 3.5 pounds. So, 2.8 is pretty close to that. Not max, but up there.

Oh, and by the way---this week's loss puts me over the 60 pound total loss mark at 61.8 pounds lost.

Found Something I LOVE

I hate carrying stuff when I walk, and even though I have a drink holder on my bike, it doesn't stay put well when a full bottle is in it. This is SUCH a cool idea. I love it.

It's a Hydration Pack with 1.5 L Backpack Water Bladder (the picture is of the back of it). The front is just straps, so it's not annoying or in the way. What a great idea. 

It has a 50oz. bladder, so more than enough for any trip I normally take when out either walking, jogging or biking. It's waterproof, and it comes with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. That's cool. The regular price is very affordable, but it's on the Amazon.com lightning deal list today. Got to get it!

The Disconnect

Watching the documentary "From Fat to Finish Line" yesterday, there was one line in one of the runner's story that really hit home to me. All of the runners in the group of people who had lost 100 pounds or more in the cross country relay race told their weight loss stories from how they began to how they got to where they were. The one man said that one day, the disconnect between the person he was on the inside and the life he was living and person he was on the outside was so obvious, and he finally felt it.

That really sums up what a lot of heavy people experience, but maybe can't put into a thought process. I know for me, it was always, I felt like I could do anything--in my head, in my mind. But, of course, when I'd try to do those things, I couldn't. In some cases, even though I could, I knew my weight was making it harder than it had to be, or should be. That should be enough to make people like I was then and still am now, stop and do better about getting healthy, but it's not. There has to be something that turns the switch on. That's what it feels like, like someone turned on the light in my head and showed me that I WAS that person I felt on the inside, I just had to bring her out. I had to make it happen, and I COULD make it happen.



I think, sometimes, that is why thin people who have never had a weight problem tend to be so hard, or even mean to people who are very overweight. They just don't understand that it is a disconnect. A physical, mental and emotional problem that needs to be overcome, and nasty remarks are only that much more hurtful.