Week 4 almost done!

Hiya,

So, I'm in the final days of this challenge and I am thrilled. By tomorrow I should have lost at least 1 more pound, which will bring my total weight loss for the 4 weeks to 8-9 lbs. I expect to gain about 3 of those pounds back, but that means I am at least 5 lbs down officially. I am at 155.8 today. I hope to be at 153.7 tomorrow just to make weight for this challenge, but it is unlikely. However, in the first two weeks I dropped 2 lbs in the last day.

I found the challenge mostly easy to do if you isolate yourself (except for your day off / meal off), but in social situations it is just plain annoying. The best part was the daily contact with the other girls, the great skin I now have from eating more veggies and drinking more water, and the boost in motivation for exercise. The drawback was having to plan 5 meals a day, 6 days a week, but even that becomes fairly easy after a few days.

I realized that no matter how much weight you have to lose, everyone approaches weight loss differently. But the great thing is that by communicating with others who are trying to lose weight, you share your "best practices" and eliminate some potentially unhealthy habits/obsessions. For example, others will remind you that you will gain a bit of weight from muscle, that all bodies are not created equal (ahem! in reference to the BMI), that deprivation only pays off in the short-term and moderation is key, that it's actually GOOD to take a day or a week off sometimes...

In my case, I am a very muscular person, always have been. So even when I looked my thinnest (when I was 13-14 probably), I was always heavier than I appeared. So even though I "should" be between 110-130 lbs for my height (5'2") according to BMI charts and statistics, I am aiming for a healthy 140-145 lbs. I think that's when I'll have achieved my goal of getting my outer self to reflect my inner self. I mean that I am a hyper, extremely active person, and I always hated feeling like people see me as lazy. Now I don't care so much what other people think, but I do care about my body's ability to actually perform as I get older.

At 183 lbs I was already starting to feel pains all over and have hip and sciatic nerve problems (and a few years back I was almost 200 lbs). Now, with physiotherapy and careful exercise and diet, I can function so much better. It may have taken 7 months to lose almost 30 lbs, but it's a very important 30 lbs to me. It is very difficult for me to slim down. I am built thick and my body likes to stay this way. I normally would get more and more depressed as I got heavier, and thus less likely to persist long enough to actually lose weight, but this time life pushed me into a corner. I am thankful, because without the breakup, the horrible living situation at times, and this constant state of not knowing where I'll be in the next few months, I would have never focused so adamantly on my health.

For those trying to lose much more weight than I had to lose, I send you persistence. That is all it takes. You will fall off the wagon sometimes, but what's important is starting over, again and again. Make it fun for yourself as it gets easier. Make it a little more challenging. Try new things, new foods, new exercises, new good habits. And when it gets really tough, take a day off and start over the next day. Don't focus strictly on weight loss: take measurements, focus on how many veggies you eat in a day or how much water, and naturally the weight will come off as a side effect. Focus on every aspect of your well-being and your body will thank you.

I still have another 10-15 lbs to lose and these will be the hardest of all I am seeing. I keep seeing the scale go up and down like never before. I am doing everything I can and it's going at a snail's pace. So even though it's only 10 lbs, I still need that strength too...

Good luck everyone!