Sunday, September 19, 2010

Weigh-in no. 6 (-2.0)

 It's weigh-in day....

weigh-in no. 6 (-2.0)
Last week:   316.2
This week:   314.2    
Loss of           -2.0 lbs
Total Loss    -12.8 lbs

:o)))

I must say I am surprised.  I expected that the scale wouldn't have moved this week as I have barely exercised all week and I've eaten out a couple times where I chose well but still had more than I probably would have eating at home.  I barely even weighed myself this week, not wanting to be frustrated because of my lack of exercise and such.  I even debated whether or not I would do a weigh-in on the blog this week in the event that I had either 1) not lost anything or 2) gained (*gasp*).  I had a good excuse - Jim's sister is visiting and so I could have said that I just didn't get the chance and no one would have questioned it.  But I decided that since this is about honesty and full-disclosure, I should go ahead and just accept the results whatever they were.  So I approached the scale with a bit of trepidation this morning.....

But no, I have a loss of -2.0 this week - I'LL TAKE IT!!  You'll hear no complaining or disappointment here this week, my friends.

It does make me wonder though: if I've barely exercised this week and I've still lost, what in the world was I eating and how much of it was going down the guzzle before all this started??  We went to Chiquitos on Sunday night last week and had a UK version of mexican food.  We got a starter of nachos to share and I had a chicken wrap thingy.  In the past, I would have finished it all off, polishing the plate.  But I was pretty proud of myself; I ate my half the starter (I love nachos!!), but only half of my main dish.  I was full after eating half of it and, while it was good, I just didn't want anymore.  I was full and I knew if I kept going, I would be miserable both physically from being too full and mentally/emotionally because I'd be berating myself for eating too much and not stopping when I knew I should have.  Instead, I went away satisfied and happy that I had not over-indulged.  Yay!

So all in all, it's been a better week than I was anticipating.  In fact, it's been a quite important week in some ways.

First, I registered for my FINAL YEAR as a Ph.D student at Trinity College Dublin.  This time next year, I will be turning in my dissertation and moving to the stage of waiting to get the results of 4 years of hard work and hopefully being given the title of Doctor, inshallah.  Kinda crazy.  I still have a hard time envisioning the end of this part of my journey.  At times I get overwhelmed with how much left there is to do, but I work much better with a deadline, so I think I'll be alright.  I'm aware, however, that life will change drastically once that's over.  And part of my reason for losing this weight and changing my life now is so that, hopefully, that change next year will be a bit easier if I'm healthier and have better habits to deal with stress that comes with decision-making, job hunting and general life upheaval.

Second, not being on the scale every morning this week has had a positive effect, I think.  I was more relaxed about this process.  I didn't obsess about what I was eating or how I might fail as much as I have done in the past weeks.  Fears that I had related to all of this was much less present this week.  So that was a good realization.  I was reminded on several occasions of my friend's words last week: "This is a marathon, a life choice that if you stick with, 1.2 lbs or whatever it is will matter little."  And he was right.  I made some good choices this week - despite not exercising - and I'm ok.  Would I be saying this if I had gained 2.0 lbs?  Hmmmm.......I don't know.  Possibly.  I'm not sure yet.
 
Third, I got a new sweater Friday.  I bought it at Sainsbury's, which is like Target only opposite (more groceries and less "general merchandise" - Jo, that was for you!).  It's a UK size 22, which is a US size 20.  Have I lost enough to wear a size 20 top or does it just run a little big?  Maybe a little of both.  I don't want to deprive myself of a little victory, but until I start needing smaller jeans, I'll be cautiously optimistic.  I decided to take a picture of it to show y'all because I thought it was cool with the assymetrical hem, etc.....but unfortunately, I was having issues taking it with the light (it's raining and very grey outside) and with my poor dog Luna and her cone-head at the moment (she got spayed on Friday), so I decided to just go with it....


Fourth, I've decided to look into joining a gym again.  I've hated going to the gym in the past and have spent the week thinking about why I hated it and whether or not it would be a waste of money.  I realized that I hated the "meat market," competitive aspect of gyms the most, so I've begun to think about what joining a women-only gym would do for me - whether or not I'd enjoy it more, etc.  I want to have a session or two a week with a personal trainer if I can afford it, so I'm going to start the hunt and see what I can find.  Unfortunately, there aren't any gyms that are super-local for me either in relation to home or work, so it looks like either way I'll have to do a bit of a drive out of my way to go.  So I've got several aspects to weigh up in the coming week or two.

Here's to lessons learned and keeping on keeping on....

2 comments:

  1. Yay! Good job on the loss, the sweater, the nearly-finished PhD.

    I "studied" for a short time at Trinity College too. We stayed there for our foreign exchange trip back in 2000. It was a six week trip -- we had class in the morning Monday through Thursday and used the weekends to travel. Most of our travel was done in Ireland and some in England. The train conductors were on strike while we were there, so much of our mainland travel was done by bus. Such wonderful memories of Trinity, Dublin, and England! I should share with you some photos sometime.

    And I have to tell you that your dog with its cone on gave me a good chuckle. I hadn't scrolled all the way down yet, so I could just see the top of the cone and a bit of the dog's head. And I was like WTF? What is that? It looked like you were holding something. Not until I got the whole view could I figure it out.

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  2. sarah, sorry i'm just now replying. cool you were at TCD! i'm sure college hasn't changed that much since you were here as change seems to move at a snail's pace!

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