Weigh-In Aggrevation

28 FEB 2017. Aggravated! That’s how I feel this morning. Why won’t these pounds come off like they’re supposed to?!  

I thought the number on the scale would be better, much better this morning for my weekly weigh-in on my bathroom scales after I woke up. 

I feel better. I have energy. I look better. My blue jeans are loose. My wife said my face and eyes are not puffy any more. I ate healthily and walked at least a mile each day this week. I did everything right according to the book. But, but…aggravating! The pounds hang on and aren’t melting away like I thought and hoped they would. I want them to slide off the mountain like an avalanche, but no, they hang on like an ice cycle and melt one slow drop at a time. 

Fat is a persistent thing like a clingy piece of plastic wrap that won’t let go of your finger! Grr. Let go! I don’t want you anymore!  Get lost!

Last Tuesday morning, I weighed 234.3. And this morning?  233.6. A loss of a measly .7 pounds. That’s it!  Not even a pound!  Aggrevating!

I’ve got to spin this to make me feel better. You know, look on the positive side and not get so down on myself as I am prone to do when things don’t go the way I plan. 

Minus .7 is better, far better than plus .7. At least it’s going down. I was 239.6 on January 17th. When I look at it that way, that’s a loss of 6 pounds in a little over a month. Not too bad. At least it’s going down slowly but surely. But, it’s not fast enough!  Aghh!  

At this rate, I won’t get out of the 230’s until late March or early April. That’s forever it seems. I feel that I won’t reach my target weight of 180 until I’m 100!  I’ll be 66 on May 14.  

Patience is not one of my virtues. I want to see significant results now!  But, it’s not happening. Aggrevating!

I can see why people give up on weight loss and quit. It’s discouraging and enough to make you quit for impatient people like me. I honestly thought after my weigh-in this morning, “What’s the use?  Just eat, drink, and be merry!  It’s hopeless!”

But back mon the positive side again, I’ve read that it’s harder for senior citizens to lose weight. Something about slow metabolism. Yea, things are slowing down for me. I walk slower. I react slower. When I throw a football with my grandson, I throw slower. Indeed, things have slowed down for me including my metabolism. 

I’ve read that as you get older your muscles tend to decrease in size, fat increases (I’ll say AMEN to that!) and your metabolism slows down. When you are younger, you have a fast metabolism and keeping off that extra weight and staying slim is an easy task. (Yep, it was. I’ve never been so fat as I am now.) But as you begin to age and your metabolism decreases, weight loss becomes more difficult to achieve. 

Knowing this fact helps assuage the loss of only .7 pounds a little. But, I am still aggravated!

It also helps me to realize that I didn’t get fat overnight. It’s been a slow process of gaining weight. I was a long time couch potato. I ate pretty much whatever I wanted with no regard of eating smaller healthy portions, processed food, fast food, or restaurant food. Exercise? Ha! Are you kidding? 

I didn’t even know about the connection between weight and eating whatever until I began reading about nutrition around the first of January when the scale hit 240, and I knew I had a problem. Talk about a wake-up call!  I devoured books on nutrition and weight loss like I consumed food in the past few years.

You can’t fix things if you don’t know how to fix them. I didn’t have a clue on how to fix my obesity. Isn’t it interesting that there are no books out there on how to get obese in three easy steps?  No, we can do fine with piling on the pounds without instructions!

Well, I’ve learned in the past two months how to restore my body to a better condition. But, why does it take so long to see better result???  Aggrevating!  It doesn’t take a mechanic this long to fix a car. Just zip, zip, and “You can pick it up this afternoon.”  And then, it drives as good as new. Maybe I need to take my body to a mechanic. 

I have to accept my .7 weight loss and be glad. I really don’t have a choice. I also have to accept that I put in some stuff in my old car last night that probably has something to do with the number this morning. 

My wife and I went shopping yesterday afternoon. On the way home is our favorite Mexican restaurant.   I said, “Why don’t we stop and get some Mexican?” And, we did. My weakness for Mexican food got the best of me. I should’ve taken a different route home. 

But, but, I only ate a small portion, counted out and only ate ten chips, no cheese dip, and a small Margarita. What could that hurt?  Obviously, it hurt a little. It had an effect on my weigh-in this morning. Can’t I cheat just a little?  Apparently, I can’t. Not even a little. I should have come home and eaten a salad and drank water, but I’m about saladed out. There isn’t much you can do with tomatoes and lettuce. 

But, I’ve lost 6 pounds in six weeks. That’s a pound a week. I read testimonies of people who lose 30 pounds in six weeks. I read advertisements of magic pills and beverages that promise huge (pun intended) weight loss in just six weeks. These advertisements come complete with pictures of a healthy, toned and tanned woman in a bikini. Whew! The picture gets my attention every time!  But, the model has probably never been fat in her life. 

I do pay attention to those before and after pictures of formerly obese women and men who have lost significant weight over time through healthy eating and exercise. Those are my role models and give me hope and motivation that I can do it too. 

There is a lady in my Facebook Christian Weight Loss group who has done just that. Jennifer Shank from Williamsport, Maryland. She posted a before and after picture and testified that she has lost the pounds simply by switching to healthy eating with moderate exercise and taking natural supplements from the M3 program. Now, that’s someone who I look up too for hope and motivation. See Jennifer’s Facebook page at https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1628376260&tsid=0.6961291704401054&source=typeahead 

According to Livestrong.com, a six week goal of dropping six pounds a week which yields a loss of 36 pounds is nearly impossible. “To achieve such a loss, you need to lose between 3 and 5 pounds per week, on average, which far exceeds the healthy weight-loss rate of 1 to 2 pounds per week recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

“A more realistic weight loss goal in six weeks is a loss between 6 and 12 pounds. You may lose slightly more because when you make dramatic changes in diet and exercise for your body. Water loss may cause you to exceed 1 to 2 pounds of loss when you first start eating small portions of nutritious food instead of junking up on unhealthy food and snacks. 

“Over a few weeks, though, your weight loss levels out to the healthy 1 to 2 pounds per week. The reason this rate is considered healthy is because it’s usually achieved with manageable decreases in portion sizes, improvements in the quality of food choices and greater movement [exercise]. 

“Exercise will also help expedite weight loss, but you’d have to work for several hours every day to lose 3 to 5 pounds per week. The American College of Sports Medicine advises at least 250 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise weekly to produce significant weight loss. That’s at least 50 minutes of jogging, swimming laps, briskly walking or stationary cycling five days per week.”

Source: http://www.livestrong.com/article/545952-how-to-quit-the-hcg-diet-early/

Well, how about those apples!  Five days of jogging fifty minutes a day!  

But, I’m doing OK according to the authorities on weight loss. My expectation of losing a lot of pounds this past week was unrealistic. So, I’ll take my .7 loss this morning. It’s almost a pound. Round it off to the nearest whole number, and it is a pound! Just what the doctor ordered!  But two pounds would have been exciting! 

Almost a pound gone! So, I guess instead of being annoyed, I’ll make myself be delighted and take what I got knowing I’m achieving healthy weight loss. The CDC advises, “Healthy weight loss isn’t just about a “diet” or “program.” It’s about an ongoing lifestyle that includes long-term changes in daily eating and exercise habits.”

See: https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/losing_weight/

The Bible promises that my work of eating small, healthy portions and walking each day will be rewarded. I believe that. One day in the future, I will look down at the scale on my Tuesday weigh-in day, and it will show 180. Persistence, faith and works, and the support of fellow sojourners will get me there. I believe that!

“Every God-begotten person conquers the world’s ways. The conquering power that brings the world to its knees is our faith. The person who wins out over the world’s ways is simply the one who believes Jesus is the Son of God” (1 John 5:4-5 MSG). Yes, I believe.