Weight Loss Update-Week 2 of the Christmas Challenge

Hello Ladies!

So I'm a few days late in updating.  So, to recap, I set out on a mission to lose 29 pounds by Christmas (this year), which equates to 1.25 lbs per week.  In the first week I lost 2 lbs, went from 199-197.  This week, I am down one more lb to 196.  So overall, even though my numbers aren't that impressive, I'm losing on track.  So basically here's a graph of how my progress should look and how it actually looks:

I have two major issues that need adjusting right now.  One is that I'm so exhausted from working that I very rarely have time to legitimately work out.  Last night I walked Mimi to the park while my husband was at this Kung Foo class and that equated to walking 1/2 mile--whoopty do right?  I know, I need to get back in the habit.  That's all it really is, is adding it as a habit into your daily routine.  "They" (the experts) say it takes anywhere from 18 to 254 days (with an average of 66 day) to form a habit, good or bad.  I had previously heard 21 or 27--but we'll go with "science" here.  So for 66 days I need to add physically activity into my day so that it is a habit and not an "extra" thing I'm trying to fit in.  I'm tempted to do the Couch to 5K program again just to force myself to work back up to running 3 miles.   I've done it before and it's pretty easy--you only have to work at it 3 days a week.  I think I'll do this for now, and work on adding weights back in too.  

My other major issue is reduced nursing/pumping.  I attribute the fact that I am 22 below my pre-pregnancy wieght to nursing/pumping.  Hands down, nursing has allowed to to eat and lose weight with limited time to work out.  Now that Mimi is a year old, and only nurses short sessions on demand, my production has decreased and therefore I burn less calories from milk production.  I've read in several books that breastfeeding burns an average of 500 calories a day, with the typical range from 200 to 600 calories burned a day. It’s estimated that the production of one ounce of breast milk burns 20 calories.  This week I have dropped off my mid-day pumping session and now only pump once in the morning, and once at night.  I nurse her before bed or when we wants it too.  I used to produce 15 oz a day, now I'm down to maybe 10 (~200 calories/day burned).  So I've begun tracking my calories again very carefully.  I normally use the calorie king software I have on my laptop, but because I only use my laptop at home now, I have found a free internet version of the software that seems to be working really well.  I set up a profile stating my height, weight, level of activity, age, gender etc.  Then you set a goal of how many lbs you want to lose by what date.  I entered in 29 lbs by Christmas, and it suggest I eat 1710 calories per day.  I'm going to be realistic and shoot for 1800.  That was the number my trainer recommended to me when I was trying to lose weight before the wedding.  As your weight is reduced though, you need to recalulate this--maybe every 10 lbs or so.  

So I had been keeping an eye on my calories for the last week or so, but yesterday I started serious tracking. Today I even used a food scale to measure the oz of feta cheese on my spinach salad.  So let me just show you what the program does:

So here you can see what I ate yesterday.  The program is extremely easy to use and free with a great food database.  You can see yesterday I actually exceeded my goal by 191 calories--thanks to Mimi's leftover birthday cake staring at me in the fridge!!!  This program also gives food a "grade" like A-D, you can see most of my foods are A's and B's, so my food report card was fairly good.   I honestly don't think that the Taboule salad I had for lunch had 240 calories in it, but I looked up several different brands, and it was pretty consistant, so there you go.

So here is the "nutrition report" which I also found very helpful.  I appears as though I eat too much fat and salt in my diet, along with not enough Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron and Potassium (yikes!).  So this morning I resumed taking my multivitamin and my Iron supplement, which I tend to be anemic anyway and should take it daily.  So you can see this program is pretty idiot proof, free, and helpful in tracking your calories, nutrient, and even exercise.  Which I won't bother showing that part because I only walked 10 minutes home from the park!   I also started being more diligent about my water intake--I'm aiming for 90 fl oz, (or about 3 L) per day.

I'm hoping for continued success as the weeks go by.  I hope never in my life to ever see my scale tip over 200 lbs again--even while pregnant.  Does any of this stuff help anybody else?  What would inspire you to lose weight?  Send me a comment :-)

Update 7/28/2010--was actually 195 today!