Falling Off a Cliff (in a good way)

In 2006 after we first moved to Seattle and I started my new job, I walked obsessively.  Before work, lunch breaks, after work.  I dropped about 27 pounds, decided I'd had enough, stopped, and put it all back on.  And then some.  I came to conclude that I had a resting weight of around 190 or so.  I even used that phrase with a doctor during a physical and he rolled right along like that was a legitimate term.  (He did tell me I needed to lose weight.)

We got the Wii in April 2008 and I thought it would help.  But over time, I began only doing Free Step.  I can do it while watching TV or using the computer (doing it right now) but even though I was doing (and still do) 90 minutes a day of Free Step, I wasn't seeing much in the way of results.

Earlier this year, I decided I wanted a Blizzard, and I wasn't going to get it until I had lost 10 pounds.  And I would tweet every day how close to the goal I was.  I had my ups and downs, but I progressed towards the goal.  I had said Blizzard and then I decided on a new goal.  I hadn't picked a prize yet, but I knew the next level I wanted to reach.

Only I wasn't reaching it.  The numbers were going back up slightly.

I finally installed an app on my iPhone that my friends had told me about. Lose-It.  In order to use it, you enter in your calfories for all your food and then all of your exercise.  You have a daily budget of calories and you can also see your weekly progress (I guess the idea is that one bad day needn't wreak you).  

I also started running on occasion.  This might have helped with the angle of decline on the chart, or it might just allow me to eat unhealthy food with more frequency -- and that is the real reason I took up running - so I could lose weight while continuing to eat the kinds of food I liked.

Things really took off when Lori had her iPhone upgraded to the latest software and it had to be completely wiped out.  It ended up downloading all of my apps off our computer and now that Lose-It was on her computer, she decided to check it out.  Now she was less annoyed when I insisted on knowing calorie counts for food she was preparing -- she found a great website Spark Recipes that lets you enter in a recipe and it calculates health info. And she herself began seeing that some of the stuff she thought was healthy really wasn't and how she had been sabotaging her own efforts.

So despite myself, I find myself looking for the lower calorie items, opting for a salad, limiting salad dressing, stuff like that.  In some ways, it had become a game to top the previous week in unused calories.  I had over 3,000 of 11,000 calories "unspent" last week because I had done so much exercising. I don't think I'll be able to top that any time soon.

But yeah, I think I'm going to get great ratings on next spring's health assessment at work.  And, I'm only a few pounds away from my next reward: a trip to Zoopa. (It's like Souplanation or Fresh Tomatoes.)  And the reward after that when I reach my new resting weight (even if it takes work to rest there) is not too far after that: A trip to Men's Wearhouse to get a new pair of tailored dress pants and The Gap (or equivalent) for a new belt or two.  (My current one I bought at The Gap at The Aladdin during PBP'00 because I realized I'd forgotten to pack one for church.  That must have been 2000... I think The Aladdin is now another Hard Rock Hotel or something.)

I know, I haven't really fallen off a cliff in terms of weight loss.  More like steep "as you wish" hills.