Unmotivated

Sorry I haven't checked in for a while. I sort of stopped doing 5:2 or anything like it lately. Been feeling a bit unmotivated. Which isn't great since Summer is upon us in a few short months. The good news is I've been maintaining my weight loss of 6 lbs! Which I am sort of surprised by since I have been not so good a few times each week. All in all I am still calorie counting weekly. 

This coming week I want to get back to doing something like 5:2, but maybe doing slightly higher, like 600 to 700 calories, 2 days a week. I still need to lose about 6 lbs to feel like myself again! 11 lbs would be ideal but lets not get picky ;)  

Something new

I decided to try something new. I hate to think of it as failing and more along the lines of shuffling. Doing 5:2 for over 2 months was hard. I lost 6 lbs but I feel it is time to move on. Last week I started feeling woozy, like I was going to pass out. So I had something to eat and felt immensely better. Then I contemplated what 5:2 really is about. It is restricting calories for 2 days. So at that point I decided that 5:2 had been very good to me but I wanted something more.. to be less hungry/woozy feeling but still gain the weight loss benefits. 

I looked into calorie cycling (also called zig-zagging). My format is this: 1,000 calories for 3 days and 1500 for the other 4 days. This gives me 9,000 cal a week which should still result in fat loss. Doing 5:2 I noticed I was averaging about the same, 9,000. Anyway so far so good. I don't feel horrid anymore and I am still exercising as much as time permits and using my fitbit. I'm optimistic at this point and feeling healthier. Maybe it will be a matter of going back and forth.. doing 5;2 or zig zagging. We will see..  

Whoo!

I weighed in today and I finally lost that pesky pound! I am thrilled. Tom said it would happen and that I needed to just stick it out. Fast day yesterday was pretty hard though. I was SO hungry after my chicken and broccoli dinner. I find that it is easier to stay on 5:2 if I do a lot of repeat meals. So I'm still doing the following on fast days: coffee & hard boiled egg for breakfast, soup (light Progresso kind) for lunch and dinner is either chicken or tilapia with veggies or turkey sausage sautéed in chicken broth with bell peppers and onions. I'm not bored of these meals yet and Tom hasn't complained yet haha. 

It's been about 2 months on the fast (I started on 1/11/2016). So 6 lbs down in 2 months is not bad. I wish it were falling off faster but I am learning I need to be patient because this is my long term goal. I think I will be pretty happy with another 11 lbs lost. But I have 1 more pound to lose and I won't be in the 'overweight' category (according to the BMI chart, which I think is BS). 

Ugh

I have forgotten to make my progress updates. I think I am more annoyed at not having lost anything in almost 2 weeks. But at least I am maintaining my 5 lb loss so far. So that's good. The 5:2 is still going well. Fast days are hard but I keep on going knowing the next day I can eat normally again. I stopped tracking calories on my fitness pal because I hated feeling obsessed over it. I refuse to go through my life tracking every bite I put into my mouth. So now I'm just counting calories on paper on fast days only, nothing more. I hope it's just a weird hormone thing keeping the weight loss from happening. We'll see. 

Finally

I have to admit I've been a little blue the last 2 weeks. I didn't lose anything and was feeling defeated. I expressed this to Tom, my husband, who said I just needed to power through it. He is the sweetest most supportive man I could have married. I am so lucky he found me, especially when he did. I was at one of my lowest points when he messaged me on myspace in 2008. But I digress. I did as he told me, knowing in my heart he would be right- he always is. 

We changed up the fast day this week from Monday to Sunday because Tom works on his feet all day Mondays and it's too hard. It was surprisingly easy sticking to it while being home, around our food all day haha. I went to bed starving though. My stomach hurt from hunger pangs. But it paid off because I lost another pound! Finally!!! So 6 weeks in on the 5:2 diet and I am down 5 lbs. It's going slower than I thought but I am getting there. 

Oh I also amped up my steps with my fitbit. My friend Neil from Texas sent me a 'workweek hustle' challenge. Now I have NEVER considered myself a competitive person. But belonging to that challenge proved that I am haha! I was using my lunch time to get outside and take brief 20 min walks, and using my treadmill a lot more. So I plan on keeping that up too, rather than my lazy 2 to 3 day half-assed work outs. Oh, i came in 4th on the challenge out of 8. I just couldn't let myself be last lol! 

I always read weight loss stories posted online and they all say the same- the weight didn't appear overnight. It was gradually put on, so it will gradually come off. I am trying to hold onto that. I only have about 7 more lbs to go before I can really feel I am getting there. Then an added 5 more (for my next mini goal), so 12 lbs altogether to lose. So hopefully in the next 3 months I will be there. But if not, I will keep doing this because of the way I feel. I am eating far less than I ever was before and the added energy is pretty great :) 

Nada

Weigh in this week resulted in 0 loss :( I'm a little disappointed but not derailed. Nothing in life is going to give without the effort so I just keep on keepin' on. I know it will happen when it needs to. And it doesn't help I'm ovulating and pretty bloated again this week. I swear I feel like it's always hormones keeping a girl down haha. 

We went out to dinner last night, for sushi. And I ordered 2 rolls. It reminded me of the times Tom and I would go for AYCE at the sushi bar and I could easily kill 4 rolls, miso soup and the tempura appetizer. Long gone are those days. The place we went to last night makes very large rolls. Some of the biggest I've ever seen. So big, in fact, that I took a complete roll home with me because I couldn't finish the 2 I ordered. No weight lost this week but my appetite sure is shrinking. I get full much faster now. So no hope lost this week either :)  

I am SO happy to report that I am down another pound this week! 4 lbs lost so far. I am averaging about a pound lost each week. And I feel amazing!! I hope to be at my goal weight by early April, just in time for the hot weather. Something I've noticed- I get colder a lot more with less body fat. I feel like losing these few pounds really lessens my hot flashes. Yay! Ok i don't have much time, just wanted to do a quick check in :)