Finally!

169! 169! 169! 169!



This morning, I finally broke the barrier to the 160s. I literally danced a jig and made Steve come at look at the scale (he was thrilled I woke him up for that. Actually, he really was!). That means only EIGHT more pounds to reach my goal. I've got to stay focused.



I have really been struggling to get there. I've hovered around 170 for about a month now, and I've been so frustrated with myself (as you know from my previous posts). Well, during my Thursday afternoon workout with Darren, I realized something in talking with him. What I have been doing for the last month (and what Steve has been doing for the last several months) is learning how to eat for my new life. All of my binge eating (by the way...I remembered several food items I did not include in the long list of foods I consumed...including doughnuts!) was for a purpose. I am now figuring out what I can eat and still lose weight, what I cannot eat and still lose weight and what I can eat and still maintain my weight. There are some general guidelines, of course (NO ONE will lose weight in a healthy fashion by eating copious quantities of cookie dough, no matter how good it is!), but each person is different and his/her food triggers differ, too.

Darren and I talked about the resting metabolic rate, which is the number of calories you burn just by being alive in a resting state. It does not include any movement whatsoever, so if you are active and exercise, the number increases significantly. The way to estimate this rate (according to Darren's blog!) is to multiply your body weight number by 10. For me, that would now mean that I burn roughly 1690 calories a day without doing anything. Factor in movement and exercise and I think I burn about 2500 calories in an average day. That explains why I lose weight so easily if I stick to calorie counting (of about 1200 or 1300) and the nutrition plan. It really is a simple formula...in theory, anyway. And who knew how much math was involved in losing weight??