This morning's weigh-in marked the passage from the official overweight category to now being in a normal weight range for my height. Horray!

In total, I have lost about 35 pounds since January 10th. I am not finished yet of course. I will be continuing to diet down to the 'ideal' weight that I am supposed to be according to the 'experts', 143 pounds. From here on though, I will be taking photos at 5 pound increments and keeping a log of what my current health is as I travel down to that target. Somehow, I just don't trust the experts to know my body as well as I will, so I will decide my own ideal and by experiencing how I feel at the different weights When I find the one that I feel best at and don't have to be totally neurotic to be capable of staying at, then that will be my set-point that I will aim to maintain long-term.

Well, I am now at a bit over 5 weeks on the diet. I have been keeping a handmade chart that shows metabolism (top), weight (middle), actual calories, and calories minus cardio (bottom). I have two goals. One is to reach 160 which is wabout where I anticipate that I will feel the healthiest. If all goes according to plan, I should be there about the middle of July. My ideal weight is a secondary goal. It is supposed to be 143 pounds. However, I have seen way to many people look and feel terrible at the supposed ideal weight, so I will be experimentally losing weight form 160 to 140 and stop where it seems my health and appearance are at best.

You can click the chart I made of progress so far to see it full size:

I really expected with charting the data that I would clearly see some logic to trends, but alas a diet is not so predictable as you might think when you first get started. There were days when I didn't eat much and actually gained and days where I topped out to my caloire budget and actually lost weight. LOL. Even exercise was not very predictive. I went for round two with this flu and quit exercising for six days and lost at the fastest rate yet. sigh. Of course that was with fever and zero appetite plus my sluggish plumbing finally got in gear after nearly a whole month off. Yes, I went almost a whole month without normal activity down there. I lost 4 pounds in three days when it decided to get back to work.

Some of the things that I have learned from this diet it how many nutrients I have really been bad at getting. With the DietPower software I not only can track calories and weight but I can also track all the nutrients. My original menu option had me way low on fiber (hence the plumbing issue), potassium, folate, vitamin E, and iron. With learning this, I have sought out additions to make to my food menu that will give these a boost. Fiber One cereal is the highest fiber source I could find. One serving is 51% of the daily requirements!  Potasium is a bit harder. Supplements give you only 99mg by law which means if you don't eat potassium rich foods in great abundance, you have to take many pills to boost it. You need 4770 mg each day and except for seaweed one of the best sources is spinach. However, even a whole 1/2 cup of boiled spinach gives you only 419 mg. Raw spinach is 158mg for 1/2 cup. The folate and vitamin E are easy to supplement if needed. It has been an interesting thing to diet. It has led to a new awareness of nutrition that goes beyond just me because it impacts how I prepare food for the whole family.

Exercise is a new addition to my routine. I am soooooo computer-oriented that I end up sitting at the desk much of the day creating slides for the online classes, teaching online, creating digital artwork, and surfing. Obviously most of my kids are getting bigger to allow the luxury of that time. LOL. But, it takes its toll in that I don't get enough exercise. For the past four weeks I have taken up jogging. The weather outside is too cold for outdoor jogging so I have been jogging in place. Typically I aim for 40 minutes a day. Originally I jogged in ten minute stretches because that was about all I could do. Now I am doing two 20 minute sets per day. In the last week or two though my ankles have begun to give me trouble. They ache and get very stiff when I hold still for even a short time. That and the fact that John wants to begin exercising has led us to decide on getting an eliptical. John could never jog since his neck gets messed up at the slightest jar. The low impact design of the eliptical seems to be just the ticket. We ordered this one http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8145314. It should be here by the weekend. My ankles are excited. LOL

Yes, I am one of those New Year Resoluters who set their minds to dieting and really sticking to it this year. Never mind that I hadn't started it by the 10th of January when all of a sudden I was hit with the flu. I had a high fever for about a week and pretty much only drank sodas to keep hydrated. The last thing I wanted was food. I was spared any nausea as this flu was the type that hits the lungs not the stomach, but I guess my body was more interested in using energy to run fever than to digest food.

After the seven days I was delighted to find that I lost 5 pounds. Well, that is good encouragement to go ahead and begin that diet. That next week I was giddy with delight as I lost another four pounds. This is week three and all the giddy has gotten up and gone. I have stalled out this week. I have only lost one pound despite begining my jogging routine this week. I began by just jogging abou 10 to 20 minutes in two sessions last Thursday and now I am up to 5 ten minute sessions a day. I haven't eaten any more calories than I was last week. It is a bit discouraging, but I am thinking that I am putting on some muscle mass at least in my calf muscles that may be why the scale isn't dropping. Plus I am coming up to the monthly time and know that I begin to gain a bit of bloat weight about now. So that is moderating the discouragement with some hope that in a week or two more I will see it begin to drop again.

I am trying out a neat weight loss software called DietPower. This is the fourth day of the trial with fifteen total days to examine it. I really like it so far. You drag and drop the food and exercise involved in your day and it computes your nutrition, calories, exercise caloric use, and each day charts your progres and adjusts the number of calories you need that day based on your goal and what your computed metabolism is. Pretty neat! One thing that helps me is it has a water minder. I am really bad not to get enough to drink. This tracks the water in my food and beverages and keeps me updated on how much more I might need. It even adjusts my needs based on if I exercise and at what temeperature I exercise at.

Another neat site for weight loss and improving the choices of foods you make each day is http://www.nutritiondata.com/. You can register free and it sets you up with a pantry page. On this page you can add foods to your favorite list that you tend to eat. You update the amounts you eat and it tracks your nutrition and calories. It has other tools to help you calculate your ideal weight based on your height and age. It also has tons of neat diagrams and charts that let you discover foods nutriyional quatient and fullnes factor (how long you will feel full). I am visual and this site makes that side of me very happy.

Well, tomorrow will be day 21 on the diet (if you count the flu in there too). My ideal weight is still 55 ponds away; though my personal goal is more like 38 pounds away. I was at my ideal weight in my twenties and I really don't think I was very healthy at that weight. Of course the fact that I was trying to survive on barely more than minimum wage and could barely afford food may have had something to do with that. LOL. I felt the best when I was about 20 pounds more than that when the kids were little. I will wait until I get to my own goal weight and then experiment from there to find the place where I feel the fittest.

Another two pounds lighter today. That makes for 4 pounds in total since I began the diet on Monday. It is fun to see it drop like that, but I am braced for when it slows down to a more typical weight loss of 2 to 4 pounds a week. That was the rate it settled down to in the spring.

Today was grocery day, so now I am stocked up on diet friendly foods. Lots of veggies, some tuna, and some diet soda, etc. Last spring the diet sodas gave me some trouble, especially diet Cheerwine soda. I would bloat up in the abdomen on that like I was going to pop. It definitely was not a good match for me. I am going to try a few different brands and sweeteners for a bit to see if I can find one that agrees. If not, then I will go the tap water route with bottled back-up since our city water is not wonderfully consistent - sometimes it is tea to orange colored. Blech!

This is day 2 of my diet and it has collided with Tim's newly arrived used computer.

Gregory is doing the lion's share of the set up for it, but I feel edgy. It was my plan to get Tim's schoolwork loaded on and have him move forward today. He has been without the use of his own system since about the time school started. His files are scattered among the various systems that have served as his temporary work stations.

The e-notebooks that we have running right now have a heavy dose of synchronization between the kids as well as with the co-op. Having Melody out with her oral surgery and Tim's system in limbo have made the progress in these e-notebooks fall way behind normal.

Tim and I have handled the complications of delayed computer prior to this just fine. Even the ridiculous delays that we have had in getting this system, which we ordered over three weeks ago, haven't raised any feathers. Now that it has finally arrived though, I want it all done with and let's get a move on with normalcy.

I know. It is crazy to let it get to me, and this is TOTALLY way out of character. That makes me suspect the diet as the root cause. I was fine with all of these setbacks before today. But today, I feel tired and under the surface I am having to hold the reins in on my nerves. I don't remember feeling this way when I began the diet last spring. Perhaps the fact that I restarted the diet with a fast on such a big day as a co-op day has been a factor. Oh yeah, and we had unexpected company during the day and into late evening.  I didn't have a bit of a problem yesterday though. I felt fantastic, had energy to spare, and was too busy to even take the time to be hungry much. I had a blast during the co-op and loved having our friends in as company.

I lost two pounds as of this morning which was really encouraging. However, I think that I am going to cut the fast short and move to the regular diet phase. Getting into bed on time tonight will be helpful too. That may get everything back to an even keel.

Well, thanks for listening to my rant. Maybe I will have a better report of how it is going tomorrow.

OK, I have hopes that I will feel some accountability to sticking to my diet if I post quick updates here on my blog. I figure I might forgo that secret handful of chocolate chips if I will have to admit it later. LOL.

So here goes. Today is the first day of my diet. I won't get much of a chance to walk today, it is co-op day. I will however, begin a fast today that I plan on doing for three days. Then I will shift to healthy low cal, low fat, fruits, veggies, and meats diet. Gee, doesn't chocolate count under that heading? LOL.

Actually, I think it may be easy to go without the chocolate. It has had a tendency to make my heart race lately and I don't like that. I guess as I am getting older, I am more sensitive to the natural stimulant effects of it.

I considered posting a before picture, but that would be too humiliating. I will see if John will take one, but you will not see it until I have a triumphant skinny picture to post right beside it. :0)

Amount I want to lose: 30 lbs. That will put me in the range where I have felt the healthiest is the past. Last time I was there was 2001. I am hoping to find other moms that are dieting too. It would be nice to have the support and commaraderie. If you are dieting too, post a comment and tell me your blog name. Maybe we can be an encouragement to one another. :0)