St. Valentine's Day

Happy St. Valentine's Day! I always like to emphasize that this is the Feast of Saint Valentine, although I realize that the day has largely been surrendered to secular activities like buying flowers, candy, and dinners. I'm not as militant about this as I am Christmas and Easter.

Today is also my official weekly weigh-in and the result is.... 1 pound of weight GAIN. What?!?!? Actually, I'm not that surprised. I lost 5 pounds last week, most which was water weight. It is not that uncommon for there to be no weight loss or even a gain on the second week. Also, I ate pizza yesterday which I think probably had a great deal of sodium. Very likely I am retaining water, since my wedding band is no longer loose like it was. Bottom line: I'm not bummed. In fact, I am very excited about my future weight loss plan.

But lets look at my goals for the past week and how I did.

Goals:

1) Eat less than an average 2,630 calories every day.
I ate 154 calories over my weekly budget. So, not great, but not crazy bad either.

I will give myself 5 out of 10 for the week.

2) Do cardio exercises for 30 minutes on at least 3 days.

Didn't happen at all! I would like to blame this on weird work hours and family commitments, but to be honest, there is a groove on my couch that my considerable butt has formed that is just way to comfortable. For this week, I will work on getting to the gym.

I will give myself 1 out of 10, since I did do some household chores.

3) I will listen to the latest two episode of Fat2Fit Radio and two episodes of the Nutrition Diva.

I did listen to two episodes of both podcasts

10 out of 10.

4) I will read two more chapters in the Fat2Fit book.

I did not. Crap!

0 out of 10.

5) Be polite to everyone that tells me I should do the latest Weight Watchers, Low-Carb, or Vegetarian diet. 

Only one person sort of bugged me and he was nice about it.  I'm not going to put a score to this.

6) Eat more veggies.  

I did eat more vegtables, but not enough. 

3 out of 10

So, how do I approach this week? I could drop my calorie budget down.  My thought on this is that determing ones Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) and subsequent calories is not an exact science, since we are all different. Perhaps 2630 caloreis is too much for my metabolism. Or, I could focus on working out 3 times this week, which would burn about 300 calories. Of note, my 2630 is based on a sedentary lifestyle with no exercise.

My plan is to keep my calorie budget where it is and just to focus on working out. If next week I have not lost weight or even gained weight, then I will drop my calories by 100. I'll keep adjusting until I get it right. In the past I would have freaked out, but I'm in this for the long haul. I will take my time and get it right. 

Future weight loss goals are:

1 week goal (21 Feb 2011) Lose one pound to 333.6
3 month goal (1 May 2011) Lose 12-3 pounds to reach 325
1 year goal (1 Feb 2012) Lose 52 pounds to reach 286.

3 year goal (1 Feb 2014) Lose 150 pounds to reach 188
Rest of my Life Goal: Maintain this weight.

Hope you all have a great week!

Jeff