Weight Loss Q & A

 So a fellow blogger posted some weight loss questions and answers and tagged any followers of hers to play along so here goes.... 

1. What is the reason for your weight loss? 

That has changed over the years and there have been many different times I've dieted and tried to lose weight. It's been for holidays or celebrations (son's graduation), but this most recent reason was for me. I had visited the doctor and he put me on BP meds, I had a scare at the hospital one evening a few Christmases ago where I thought I was having a heart attack and I said enough is enough. BTW - I wasn't having a heart attack, my potassium was super low though and the results look the same. But anyways... this time it was for me. I wanted to be healthy and to live long enough to see my grand babies. 

2. What pitfalls have you come across that have made your weight loss unsuccessful? 

Laziness. If I stop trying, the weight just comes back on. I started my journey may 2018 and lost all the weight in the first 7 months. Since then, I had been maintaining although I would love to lose more but over the last year, the weight has slowly started to creep back on. It's laziness. I stop paying attention to what I'm eating. I get complacent, figure a bite here and there won't matter, but it does. IT all creeps in. 

3. What are your favorite meal ideas for weight loss? 

I follow a fairly low carb, higher fat diet so I rarely feel deprived when I eat. My favorite meal is a nice rich protein like a steak or salmon and then have it with a veggie casserole made with lots of yummy veggies and ooey gooey cheese.  

4. What are your favorite exercises? 

I am not currently exercising but I did join a gym in spring of 2019 and was going religiously until March 2020 (pandemic closure). I have not returned since it reopened.  I love lifting weights. I go between loving leg days and then loving back days. I hate cardio! Hate it..... 

5. How do you stay motivated? 

Honestly, it's the number on the scale still for me. I wish it was not, but I need that scale to move in a downward way for me to be motivated. When it goes up... I can lose motivation and feel a woe is me type of attitude. And if I skip the scale all together for a few days or weeks at a time, I lose all motivation. So the dreaded scale is the big one. But if an event or something else is coming up, I do feel motivation to kick myself into gear so that I look how I want to look for the occasion. 

6. How do you celebrate your success? 

Shop! I love to shop! And I love to shop when the size of my clothes changes... but I'll buy shoes too. 

7. Have you got an overall goal? 

I'd like to be in the 160s for awhile and see how that feels.  My overall goal is to be off my meds, so whatever weight goal that is, is my ultimate goal. 

8. Do you follow any weight loss accounts on social media, if so which ones? 

Too many to list :) 

9. Where do you buy your workout clothes? 

Old navy, lululemon, amazon, Under Armor. 

10. What advice would you give to any weight loss newbies? 

Your journey is your own. Don't compare your loss or your weight to anyone else's, but take their success as your motivation. You will have blips in the road, but don't give up. 

Point Two

 A .2 lb loss. What's the point? 

LOL... 

I used to have a scale that only recorded weight in .5 lb increments. So for anything to register your weight had to change by 1/2 a lb. That 1/2 a lb sometimes took awhile to come and it meant something when I saw the scale change. 

This .2 lb stuff is dumb. LOL.... I mean, my socks weight .2 lbs. 

Anyways... a loss is a loss is a loss. But really, is it? 

It's TOM week... I feel it coming on too. The nausea, the need to eat all the food (hence the .2 lb measly loss), the skin irritations etc. 

I really need to start moving my body more. The weather has been horrible so I haven't even been going for my 2 times a day walks with the mutt. 

Covid cases are exploding here so any thoughts of me returning to the gym are not happening. Need to start scouring the internet for some good deals on some exercise equipment. I'd love to get a stationary bike and a weight lifting bench. Otherwise, we have all the dumbells etc we need. I don't really want to buy new cause I do want to eventually get back to the gym and new equipment is so expensive.  

So many excuses. :) 

Quickie Check-In

Nothing overly exciting to see here. Had yesterday off for Remembrance Day (Canadian Version of Veteran's Day). 

But yesterday was also WI day. I hummed and hawed about changing my WI day from Wed to Monday but then decided against it. I have to stay accountable regardless of the day. With Tuesday acting like a Friday for me, I COULD have had a glass of wine or two, but decided against it. I had a big old tumbler of water and went to bed early. 

I lost 1 lb! I'm thrilled about it because my weight was up during the early part of the week which I'm pretty sure if ovulation gain as I was on track but you never know when the body wants to hold only extra weight so I was happy with the 1 lb.  

179.6

Barely in the 170s but I'm there and I do plan to stay there for a bit.... moving down, not up. 

My son's girlfriend just started a job at Starbucks and has some nice employee discounts so she got me this water tumbler. 

It's only 24 OZ so I have to fill it 4 times to get my daily water in, but I lurves it. Keeps my water cold and she's pretty too! 

So that's it... nothing too exciting. Hubby is off work for a few days so we will get an early costco shop in after I finish up work today and then just more of the same here in old Covid Lockdown Vancouver! 

God I hope they haven't bought up all the toilet paper again! :( 

WI Rollercoaster

WI day was today - my WI Wednesday and it was decent. I lost 1.8 from last week which I know was up a bit but I'm now at 180.6. 

The lowest I have been since February is about 180, so I'm about to break a barrier. Let's hope anyways. 

I was actually shocked that my weight was in the 180-181 range but I was pleased.  I had a bad weekend (3 day weekend) and indulged in things I shouldn't have so Monday I was up. Very  much up. 

But I got back to drinking my water for Monday and Tuesday and low and behold the weight dropped off this morning plus a bit extra! 

DRINK YOUR WATER PEEPS! 

I've been going back and forth in my brain on whether I should switch my WI day from Wed to Monday. I know I slack a bit on the weekend and my brain tells me that it's ok cause I have 2 recovery days before my official WI. Stupid. But I need to be accountable for myself and for all my days, regardless of whether they are on the weekend or not. 

So for now,  I'm sticking with Wednesday. I'll see how it plays out the next few weeks. 

Here's the really weird thing though. I went back through my weight diary (cause I do weigh in every day), and for the last few months I've noticed a pattern where I'm lower on Thursday than I am on Wednesday. Every. Single. Time. 

Maybe I should move my WI to Thursday LOL... but that would only move the needle one day forward. 

Such mind games. 

I do know that I need to continue to weigh in daily though because it does keep me accountable and on track as best as I can. 

So we plug on and try to stay the course as best as I can, and did I mention to drink your water!! 

Whatever...

 Ok, the scale is up by a bit, like maybe a couple of lbs, but whatever. It's my TOM, it always goes up at that time, I'm sticking to the plan and eating well and getting my water in so I fully expect that the number will drop by the weekend.  So I'm not fretting it. I'm not writing the number down here, it's in my daily diary on my phone and it will stay there, as a reminder, but that's it. Moving on. :) 

I did do ok on my goals last week. 

I wanted to save some money - ok this one not so well. Is what it is - I need to start shopping for xmas! 

I did well on my water. I drank waaaay more water than before. Still not doing great on the weekends but I did have more than I usually do. 

I also managed to transfer 4 tapes over. I have about 5 left so I'm looking good on getting that done!

So goals for this week are: 

1) continue with water intake

2) get another 1 or 2 tapes done 

3) Get lists started for Christmas. I like to plan Christmas early so it's both financially and emotionally manageable. I buy all the gifts, wrap all the gifts, do all the decorations etc. Living with 3 males gives me that duty. They do the outside decorations but I'm in charge of everything else. I don't mind, but I like a few months to plan as it can get a bit intense. So.. need to start my lists. 

Our Covid numbers have been increasing here in Vancouver, so our PHO has set socialization rules for us.  We can not have more than our immediate family + our safe 6 over at one time. We were supposed to have friends over on friday for drinks and games, but I think I'll cancel. Although they are friends that have been in our safe 6 circle all summer, I think we need to keep the numbers down a bit more. The boys both have their girlfriends over on the weekends so we don't need extra ppl. I will be glad when this covid crap is over. 

Hope Netflix comes up with some good series soon... I'm getting bored with what is on TV! 

I leave you with this guy... honestly, could not survive Covid without him! 

Turning the Corner

 A few updates on things and setting some personal goals. 

First off,  I went for my callback appointment and it was not the same spot that has been in question for a few years, rather a new "spot" on my right breast at 9 o' clock. The other lump is at 7 o'clock.  So as soon as I heard that I started to really panic - thankfully I wasn't told that news until I was actually in the mammogram room.  The technician took a few pics of the girls and then said that I would have to wait a bit for my ultrasound. She was very kind and gentle but never revealed any thoughts that she might have had based on what she saw. So I waited for about 45 minutes and surprisingly the time went by very quickly.  I was taken into the ultrasound room and a different technician and tech student ran the little wand up and down, right to left for about 10 minutes.  They left the room to discuss their "findings" with the radiologist. 

Then the tech student came back into the room and said, we got what we needed, you can go. I asked her if it was another cyst like the other one or something else. She responded that she is not supposed to tell me anything... BUT.... it all looks fine. They could not find anything in that spot so it was likely just tissue. Phew!!! All good. Received another confirmation call from family doctor yesterday saying all was fine and just to resume regular testing each year.  Did I say, Phew?! 

Nick has been good. Really good. He's still not doing any school or work but he's been happy for the last few weeks and getting back to working out daily. He's still seeing his counsellor and says he really enjoys talking to her! Win Win. As a nosey mom, I want to know details, but I know if he wants to share, he will share when he's ready. Or not. I just want to know details. I need to get past that. 

I have been good with my eating. Might have had a few minor slips with a few packs of candy or a cracker here and there, but otherwise I've been good! I'm down 1.2 today from last wednesday, so although we are going slow, we are at least moving in the right direction. 

Goals - I want to set some personal goals. 

1. I really want to pay down some credit cards that have been hanging around for some time. So my goal is to pay down some before I have to ramp them up again for xmas shopping. Maybe this will have to wait until January. :( 

2. Drinking more water. I need to focus on drinking more water. I've been having some leg cramps at night and my body has been a bit achy in the am and I think it's because I'm not drinking enough water, so that needs to change. I have a 1 ltr bottle and yesterday I filled it 3 times. It wasn't easy to drink all that water but I think that is where I want to be. Usually I would only drink 1 of them... maybe. I know that other liquids also count for water intake but I want to start drinking pure water. So yesterday, I managed 3, so I know it's doable. 

3. Work on transferring old video tapes to digital files. I started this project a few months ago and then stopped. I still have another 10 or so tapes to go so I just need to get it done. Hopefully by writing it down as a task it will motivate me to chip away at them. Also, that would help me clean up my office which is a pig sty right now with equipment and wires all over the place! 

Looking forward to how I do on these goals next week! 

The Dreaded Call-back

First off I'm down .6 lbs from last week which is GREAT because it was Canadian Thanksgiving this past weekend plus a friends 50th birthday, so I did have a few unplanned treats. But all in all kept it together for the most part!  So any weight loss is a win! 

The boys spent most of the time at home this weekend with their girlfriends and the weather was awful so it was nice to cuddle up as a family on the couch and watch football and Netflix. 

So the weekend was good. 

what is the call-back about?? 

Last wednesday I went for my annual mammogram screening and sure enough, on friday I received a call from the hospital that I need more testing. It's not the first time I've been called back. 

It's the same cyst ? spot that I've had for a few years... so I guess it's good that they are keeping with it but it always freaks me out. I go tomorrow for a 2 hour detailed mammogram and then ultrasound.

Send me some good feels....