Let's look at the numbers. I had hoped to lose 0.183 pounds a day - this will get my to my goal weight on my birthday in February. I started off well - was even ahead of pace by two pounds a couple of times. But then real life happened. ;) Went for a really strenuous hike but then had pizza and gained two pounds overnight, which took me a week to lose. Walked 10 miles in a day but went to an ice cream social fundraiser, and put those two pounds right back on. Finally took them off again, but didn't walk on Saturday and nibbled my way through Sunday and gained a pound - so my weight for August 31 kinda sucked, but what can you do?
Overall for August, looking at straight numbers, I lost 3.0 pounds. Looking at
physicsdiet.com's "average weight", I lost 1.54 pounds - and
myweightracker.com's "true weight" I lost 2.5 pounds. Both of those sites are based on "
the Hacker's Diet" but they each use different calculations to come up with trends instead of focusing on the individual day's weight. Through August, I was up 2.6 pounds from my start and ended 3 pounds down from the start, so overall I'll take that as a successful month.
As far as my weight loss goal pace of 0.183 pounds, I am 1.33 pounds behind right now. But I am not going to throw in the towel just yet. I'm not re-calculating any goals or anything right now. I can do this. I really want to finally, FINALLY lose this weight.
I'm making sacrifices, which of course sucks, but needs to be done. Bailed on a BBQ on Saturday, drove by countless restaurants where I could've grabbed something quick and delicious when I was really hungry that afternoon, but instead waited until I got home to eat something healthier. I'm really trying to be smart about this. In retrospect, that pizza dinner after hiking was a total let-down (heck, there's no retrospect there - I knew while eating it that the pizza was meh, but I kept on eating because I was hungry and I had bought it already), and that ice cream social was absolutely not worth it. I dragged some friends out hiking one day the day after that ice cream social and it turned out to be a really short hike, but then we all ended up at a pricey restaurant afterward (I thought we were going to go grab coffee somewhere but that didn't happen). I was hungry (and cheap as always), but didn't jump in on the food there. There wasn't really anything healthy to choose from, and I just plain didn't want to eat empty calories. Sure, the chips & dip and mac & cheese and burger and salmon and all that looked great, but I just couldn't do it - I didn't want to see yet another weight gain the next day. I felt like a total party-pooper, but I need to be strict when it's just not worth it. Because there are so many other times when I really do want to take part and I know it's tasty. ;)
Yesterday was a weird day for me. My body is definitely unsettled right now. I had been walking a lot during August, but on Saturday, it was too hot to move, let alone try to walk in that miserable heat. Sunday, I spent the whole day in the kitchen making jam. My typical weekend step counts had been over 30,000 - and instead those two days, I hit 7,000 total. Doh. When I woke up yesterday morning, my body just didn't feel right. Stomach issues I guess, but I wasn't hungry and didn't have the energy to work out in the morning. I did drag myself out for a walk last night, but my stomach got its revenge around 2am. Glargh. This morning, I slept in an hour instead of working out, and I'm still pretty darned tired. I do need to go for a walk when I get home today, but I vow to be in bed early tonight. :)