Wednesday Weigh In, Diet Coke Pedometer App

This morning the scales were down 0.6 lbs from last week.  I'm not sure why but I'll take it.  If I can consistently lose about half a pound a week, I'll be glad.

I'm guessing it is the more concentrated effort to drink water the past couple of days.  My eating has been OK, but not stellar.  I didn't find myself editing my intake because I didn't want to document it.  I ate cake twice over the weekend and wrote it down.  I know that my life has got to include cake every now and then.  Probably not twice in one weekend very often, but we celebrated two birthdays on two different days, so there were two cakes.

I wish that next week was a more typical week so that I could test my theory but it isn't so I won't stress about it.  I will, however, take lots of bottled water because the water at camp is gross.  I learned over the weekend that I enjoy water more than I thought.

I had a chance to drink Diet Coke over the weekend.  (Not as the same time as I was eating cake.) I have been doing a good job of avoiding artificial sweeteners so I'm not sure when I last had my beloved Diet Coke.  There once was a time that I drank so much, I laughed and said I would bleed Diet Coke if I were cut.  (This was in my middle and late 20's, when I did not grasp the dangers of artificial sweeteners.)  Anyway, I poured myself a glass and then nearly choked on the first sip.  The stuff tasted like metal.  It had been poured from a 2 liter bottle, which was plastic.  I had to dump it out.

I gladly went back to my water.  I still like my sweet tea, as far as I know.  I haven't had any of that in a while.  I'm saving that for the next special occasion.  I'm not sure when that will be.

Finally, I have two issue with the pedometer app.  One I have to remember to carry it or tuck it in my waistband when I move around. I'm not doing a very good job of that.  It is, however, a habit I can learn.  The other is, the app seems to eat up battery life like crazy.  I might have to use it to track steps when I'm actually on a walk.  I can create my challenge to get x number of work out steps per week or something like that.  I won't worry about that until I get back from camp.

The baby and mommy leave in the morning.  It will be back to my usual pattern until I leave for camp Sunday morning.  I'll probably weigh again before I leave since I won't be able to next week.  It will be interesting to see how the week impacts my weight.

My Weekend

I had a great weekend with family.  I got in lots of fun with my nieces and lots of snuggles with the baby.  My nephew has gone back to home, his wife and the baby are staying a few more days so more time for cuddling.

I've done a decent job of keeping my food intake recorded.  I didn't always take my notebook with me since when family is in town we have a roving party from house to house.  I feel good about recording the food I ate, it is the water that I'm not sure of.  

I have a favorite water bottle that I carry almost all of the time.  I kept it with me all weekend and kept it topped off.  I didn't keep a good awareness of how many times, I topped it off.  I think, I came up short on the water.  Funny thing, that is the one thing I thought I had no issues regarding.  I drink a lot of water every day.  I drink water almost exclusively.

Other than the possible need to increase water intake, I've not found anything that is glaringly obvious to change with my food.  I'll keep the journal through the rest of the week.  I'll not try to keep up with it during camp next week.  I'll just eat what is prepared and pick up the food journal when I get back.

My very early conclusions are that eating is OK, and water could increase.  Wouldn't it be funny if all along, all I needed to do was add another glass or two of water to start shedding the weight!!??

The final component of my weight loss trifecta is exercise.  My fitness level is coming back and will continue to as long as I push myself.  Sadly, the pedometer challenge is on hiatus for now.  I dropped the pedometer and it stopped working.  

On Saturday, I went to the bathroom and it slipped off my waistband as I took my pants down.  It has happened plenty of times before in that situation.  I thought little off it and clipped it back on.  Saturday night, when I looked to see how many steps I had, I was shocked to see just over 3000.  I'd taken it off for a while when I was in the pool but even allowing for that, it seemed far too low. 

Sunday morning, I clipped the pedometer to my skirt and went to church.  Imagine my surprise, when I checked my number of steps mid morning and saw 0.  I walk about 1000 steps in the morning getting dressed!  By this time, I had dressed, gone to church and had taught the 4 and 5 year olds!  I was expecting 1500 minimum and more like 2000.  That is when I realized the pedometer probably broke in the bathroom.  I probably had 6000 steps if not more on Saturday considering the time of day it fell and what I did for the rest of the day.  (I walked the baby every chance I got!)

I've downloaded a step counter app to my iPod.  I'll see how that works.  I've got to have it with me all the time and I don't have a handy clip like the old school pedometer.  I'm not planning to take my iPod to camp since it is worthless there  since there is no wifi.  I've got a few days to see how this step counter app works.  In the meantime, I'm open to suggestions.

Smashed My Goal

I managed to average 6262 steps per day for the last half of the month!  I have earned myself a new outfit.  In fact, I've already ordered it.  And, I never bought myself the consolation prize of one article of clothing from the thrift store.  I think I'll table that second place prize for another time.  I'm going to the thrift store next week to get some grubby clothes for church camp.  If I find something dressy that I like I might get it or I might not.

Here are a few fun facts.   Since I started wearing the pedometer on May 15:

I have walked a total of 304,588 steps

I have averaged 6481 steps per day (all that beach walking is bringing it up)

I have burned 12,269 calories (which should translate to about a 3.5 lb loss)

I have walked 104.33 miles, or averaged 2.2 miles per day

Overall I'm pleased with the challenge, except for the not losing 3.5 pounds part.  I feel stronger.  I am definitely pushing my limits. I feel like I am on the right track and if I just stay with it the weight loss will follow.  It will take a while for me to get to the ultimate goal of 10,000 steps per day but I will if I don't quit.

I'm not upping my goal for the first 16 days of July mostly because I don't know how.  Family, including a newborn I have not yet met, is arriving today.  Parties are planned starting tomorrow through Monday.  The mommy and baby are staying through the end of the week.  Daddy has to go back home Tuesday morning.  I expect that a good portion of my free time next week will be spent with family.  My sister has a pool so I will take full advantage of that every chance I get.  Probably not a lot of steps but certainly a lot of fun!  Swimming is excellent exercise and if my sister lived closer I'd be giving myself swimming challenges.

The next week, I'll be at church camp.  I'm one of four people assigned to care for the peewee campers.  They range in age from 17 months to 8 years old.  We will have 14 every day but one.  That day we will have 16.  My job is to teach them a Bible lesson each day.  They will be with us for about an hour and they will have a craft to do too.  The others are taking care of that.  I'm not sure how I will fill up the other 23 hours of the day.  I know it will involve a lot of walking.  I hope I am strong enough from the last 6 weeks, that I won't overdo or set myself back in some way.  I am taking my cane and Rx in case things get bad.  Let's hope I don't need either.  I am also taking my own lawn chair that doesn't sink down so much, and has arms .

So, it could be lighter on steps next week and heavy the week after.  I'm hoping the average will still be 6000 per day.   If so, I'll get myself a nice casual outfit.  When I get back from camp, I'll assess the outcome and set a goal for the 17th through the end of the month, and decide on another reward.

I'll just be popping in and out from now until camp week.  Then I'll be totally off the grid.  I'll be having fun and will have lots of tales to tell.