A Pound is a Pound!

Very good news here...I'm back to running!  It feels amazing.  My ankle is doing great, in fact, tomorrow morning I will begin Week 3 of the Couch to 5k running program and then a few hours later will be meeting with my ortho doc about my progress and what's next.  I'm really hoping he allows me to continue the running (don't worry, I cleared it with my pt) but also that I don't have to wear the brace everywhere anymore....maybe just when exercising?  We'll see.  No matter...I'm elated to be back at it.

So I've been puzzled that the last few weeks my weight has stayed pretty much the same.  I'm still hanging at 48 pounds.  This must be what a plateau feels like.  I'm ok with that.  Just getting back to hard core activity (6 days a week total, running every other day and either walking or doing a last chance biggest loser workout on the off days) and I'm sure it will take me some time to catch up. 

I was traveling last week and when I returned home I was changing clothes and Stephen mentioned that I looked smaller.  Throughout this entire journey, he has been really cautious to mention anything about my weight.  Unless I pulled it out of him.  He's way too smart to answer the "do these jeans make my butt look fat" kinda questions.  He said "you're going to need a new bathing suit" which was a funny thing to say, though I was in my underwear.  :)  I guess I am since I gave away my 2x suit that was too big a few months ago. 

I wondered how I could look smaller and not be lighter?  My weigh in answered that question.  My weight was the same, 237.8...but my body fat % has dropped 2% in the last 2 weeks and my BMI is down almost 1.5 points.  This is kind of amazing...and kind of explains to me why my weight hasn't changed.  I'm getting my fat burning muscles back.  I knew I had lost some muscle mass during my 2 month hiaitus from exercise due to my injury.  And that is cool with me.  Bringing 'em back now...and its ON!

So here are some updated stats overall:
Inches lost: 44.5 (most notably, 10 inches off of my hips, 7 off of my stomach and almost 5 off of each thigh)
Pounds lost: 47.2
Body Fat % reduced by: 7.6%
BMI down 8 points

So what if I'm on a sort of rebalancing of my metabolism plateau.  I'm going to be back to losing again as soon as my body rebalances itself.  In the meantime, I am not even a little bit discouraged.  I am paying a little more attention to the "fuel" I put in my body...just as a kind of check in - still not counting calories.  I'm hungry, I eat.  But maybe just more veggies than the last 2 crazy weeks have afforded me.  We had pork loin last night with broccoli and spinach salad.  Don't worry, I'm not giving up carbs (if you thought that you must not know that me without a food group is cranky!) or anything like that.  I'm just not going to have more than I need...and right now I need lots of green!

Once again I've readjusted some goals as far as my timelines go.  I wonder if some people think that is a sign of failure.  I sure don't. I see it as a sign of trusting myself in a way I've never been able to before.  I completely know that a year from now I will be at or almost at my ultimate weight loss goal.  And not a miserable calorie counter, even then.  :)

I started this journey in August of 2009.  I weighed 285 pounds.  I had 3 doctors tell me how much shorter my life would be if I didn't do something NOW. 

Today I'm almost 50 pounds lighter.  My cholesterol is in the normal range.  I have less joint pain.  I can play outside with my little girl.  I can go for a walk and watch her and Stephen ride their bikes.  I can run and jump.  I can live life.

So 8 months into my journey I am becoming an athlete.  I haven't been that since high school...and even then I wasn't as active as I am today. 

Never again will I be almost 300 pounds. I'm way closer to 200 now...and excited to see a "1" as my first number before the end of this year.  By June I will run my first 5k race.  If I still like running then, I will move onward and upward in training. 

Today I am strong.

Tomorrow I will be even stronger.

The only thing that can limit me is ME. And I'm sure as sugar not getting in the way of me right now.

~Clara