Weight: 188 lbs (up 1 pound)
Average Hours of Sleep: 6.2 hours
Total Workout Time: 0
Total Calories Burned: 0
This past week brought an unexpected challenge: The Jewish Holiday of Shavuot. I forgot that during the holiday I wouldn’t be able to write down my points. Usually on Saturdays (when I also can’t write), I just keep track in my head. That works fine for 1 day, but 2 days is too much. I’m quite sure that I would up eating too many points on those days which hindered my ability to shed pounds gained from JSL’s birthday party. Still, I only gained a single pound which isn’t too bad.
With this weigh-in, I bring my 20 Pounds in 20 Weeks challenge to a close. While I didn’t end at or under my goal, I’m not going to count that as losing the challenge. First of all, it’s just one pound. I lost 19 pounds over the past 20 weeks. I can’t see calling those 19 lost pounds a “loss” because one additional pound didn’t drop off. Secondly, I actually hit my goal weight twice. And lastly, well, it is my challenge against myself so why *can’t* I declare myself a victor? 
Next week, I’ll look back over my weigh in and sleep figures and that will be my last Project New Me post.
Weight: 187 lbs (down 1.5 pounds)
Average Hours of Sleep: 5.4 hours
Total Workout Time: 0
Total Calories Burned: 0
Yesterday’s weigh in brought a pleasent surprise. I was at my goal weight. This was a surprise because my parents were in town for JSL’s party and I had eaten some less-than-perfect-for-me foods while we went out to eat. I don’t think I overdid it, but those foods could have easily packed on an extra pound. Instead, my metabolism seems to be able to withstand a day or so of overeating. (I overdid it at JSL’s party yesterday also and did an unofficial weigh in this morning to find myself at 187.5 pounds.) Of course, eating like that continually will lead to trouble, in the form of packed on pounds, but it is nice to know that my body is at the point where I don’t need to worry about the occassional stray into fattening foods.
Weight: 188.5 lbs (up 1.5 pounds)
Average Hours of Sleep: 5.4 hours
Total Workout Time: 0
Total Calories Burned: 0
As expected, I inched a bit above my goal weight this week. I’m not too worried about this. It’s not that high above. One and a half pounds in 2 weeks is completely doable – even if birthday parties for JSL might mess me up a bit. My big problem recently has been sleep. I tend to get very tired around 7pm. Unfortunately, I can’t just go to sleep. I need to help get the kids ready for and into bed. Once this is done, I get a second wind which lasts until about 11pm – 1am (depending on the day). Then my energy levels crash and I drag myself into bed, completely exhausted. Of course, by the time I do this, I don’t get enough sleep during the night and I’m tired the next day. Until it is time to go to sleep, though, at which time my second wind kicks in again. Wash, rinse, repeat. I’ve got to start learning to ignore that second wind (at least most nights) and go to sleep at a reasonable time.
As my Project New Me winds to a close, I’m also thinking of going over the data I collected during the 20 weeks it ran. Obviously, I rarely exercised, so that’s pretty useless. (I only keep those “Workout Time/Calories Burned” lines in there because I copy/paste from the previous week’s post to get the new one started. Total inertia.) However, it might be interesting to see whether my weight fluctuations were tied in any way to my sleep patterns.
Weight: 187 lbs (down 5 pounds)
Average Hours of Sleep: 6.3 hours
Total Workout Time: 0
Total Calories Burned: 0
Last week, upon weighing in, I was surprised to find a 2 pound gain. This time, I was very surprised to find a five pound loss. And not only did I lose five pounds, but I hit my goal. I was actually twenty pounds lighter than when I started and 3 weeks early to boot.
Does this mean my 20 week challenge is over? Not at all. I’m going to continue on for the next three weeks with the goal of staying at my goal weight. I don’t want to go off my diet, step on the scale in three weeks’ time, and see ten extra pounds packed on. So while I’ve achieved my goal and will pat myself on the back appropriately, I also am not letting up. Here’s hoping that, three weeks from now, I’ll be posting a title of “GOOOOAAAALLLL (Still met)”.
Weight: 192 lbs (up 2 pounds)
Average Hours of Sleep: 5.9 hours
Total Workout Time: 0
Total Calories Burned: 0
This week’s weigh-in was a mystery to me. I followed the diet closely and didn’t go over my allotted points. In fact, most days I left many points unused. And yet I still gained two pounds. The key here is to just accept that these fluctuations happen and to look at the bigger picture. I’m still down 15 pounds from when I started and am a mere 5 pounds away. 5 pounds in 4 weeks is completely doable.
Weight: 190 lbs (down 4 pounds)
Average Hours of Sleep: 6 hours
Total Workout Time: 0
Total Calories Burned: 0
I’m now back on my weight loss plan and I’m back on track again. I’ve lost all of the weight I gained during Passover. I now have a mere 3 pounds to lose and 5 weeks left to lose it in. Some potential stumbling blocks coming up are Mother’s Day (May 9th/week 18) and on JSL’s third birthday party (May 16th/week 19). If those don’t trip me up too much, I should be able to complete this 20 week challenge perfectly on track.
Weight: 194 lbs (up 2 pounds)
Average Hours of Sleep: N/A
Total Workout Time: 0
Total Calories Burned: 0
Passover is now over and, as expected, I gained some more weight. My total weight gain for the 8 Passover days and the 6 non-Passover days that I didn’t count points was 4 pounds. I find that quite reasonable. My challenge now is to get back on track with my weight loss. After all, I have a mere 6 weeks to go and now have 7 pounds to lose. That’s not impossible to do, but it will take some effort.
Weight: 192 lbs (up 2 pounds)
Average Hours of Sleep: N/A
Total Workout Time: 0
Total Calories Burned: 0
Well, it’s the middle of Passover (actually, getting toward the end). Given the complexity of cooking for Passover, I decided not to track points. I figured that, I’d gain weight but I’d try to keep it under control by eating healthy wherever possible. I’ll admit to snacking on more than my fair share of Passover cakes, but those tend to be self-limiting as they don’t taste as good as non-Passover cakes. In any event, my weight gain was only 2 pounds which I’d say was pretty good.
I didn’t keep track of my sleep time either, but I think that I got less than average amount of sleep. Between being up until midnight for the Sedars and being up late cleaning, I didn’t get that much sleep. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get more sleep during the upcoming week.
Weight: 190 lbs (no change)
Average Hours of Sleep: 5.7 hours
Total Workout Time: 0
Total Calories Burned: 0
Beginning my Passover Project New Me respite, I’m 190 pounds. This means I’m (like last week) a mere 3 pounds from my goal. Of course, high calorie Passover food won’t help me lose weight. I’ll try to eat as well as I can, but Passover is complicated enough without adding points into the mix. So I won’t be tracking them this week. It should be interesting to see how much I gain at next week’s weighin. (I won’t be tracking points, but I’ll still be weighing in.)
As far as sleep is concerned, I did poorly this week. JSL has had bad nighttime coughing fits. He doesn’t typically wake up from these, but we do. He’s come into our bed many nights where we laid awake listening to him coughing. He seems to be getting better (and Passover cleaning is done) so hopefully this will mean more sleep for us.
Weight: 190 lbs (down 2 pounds)
Average Hours of Sleep: 6.5 hours
Total Workout Time: 0
Total Calories Burned: 0
This is the last week of my Project New Me before I allow myself a 1 1/2 week respite. You see, Passover is next week (starts the night of Monday, March 30th to be exact). During Passover, it is hard enough to figure out what to eat without worrying about points. So I’m going to forget about the points tracking for those days. Since Sunday and Monday will be hectic enough getting ready for Passover, I’m not going to bother with Points on those days either. This doesn’t mean that I’m going to eat a five doughnut breakfast on Sunday morning, of course. I’ll still try to be as healthy as I can be under the circumstances. I just won’t be formally tracking it.
For now, though, I’m positioned really well. I’m within 3 pounds of my goal weight. I’m also getting decent amounts of sleep during the week. Of course, my sleep average was helped by a big nap I took on Wednesday. You see, after my nose cauterization and my lack of sleep that night, I passed out in my bed while JSL and B went out shopping. (NHL was in school.) I woke up at 12:30 to my phone beeping that a picture message was received. I knew it had to be B sending me a photo (she’s the only one who picture messages me) so I went back to sleep. I next woke up to NHL running in the room with JSL. Looking at the clock, I saw it was 3pm. Yes, I had slept for 5 hours! (I also had completely skipped lunch, but that was ok because my body needed sleep more than food at that point.)
I know I’ve been lax on the exercise front. I don’t even remember the last time I worked out. However, with the nose cauterization, I now have a perfectly valid reason: Doctor’s Orders. I’m not to exercise, run, eat hot and/or spicy foods, or use any “in-nose” product (e.g. saline spray) for three weeks. Doing so could result in something bad happening. I’m a bit vague on what “bad thing” would happen, but if a doctor says “don’t do it” I’m not going to do it just to see what will happen.
