Friday, February 26, 2016

Happy Scale!

OK, so I'm not happy with my scale at the moment - I'm up a few pounds from the birthday weekend of indulgence, but I trust it will come back down soon.

However, I discovered a new-to-me app for my phone that I'm happy about: Happy Scale.  It's nicely designed (I believe a redesign came out recently, so their web site doesn't have the prettier screen shots) and I love the functionality.

In particular, it allows you to focus on smaller milestones and the overall trends.  From where I started a year ago, I want to lose 100 pounds - and this app nicely breaks it up into 10 milestones for me (I could choose more or less milestones, too) and then helps me see how much until I hit the next milestone.  Lovely motivation!

I also love the focus on trends.  Yep, I've gained 1.2 in the past 7 days when you look at the trend (and not the 5 1/2 pounds if you look at the raw numbers) -- and honestly, I'm still 38.5 pounds down for the past year, so yeah me.  Doesn't look like I'm going to hit 4 pounds for February, but that's another story... ;)

And yes, the free version has a simple banner ad at the bottom that I didn't even notice until I took this screenshot ;)
Here's the report chart for the past 90 days for me -- I LOVE that it has an option to export this chart without the weight values listed!  Y'all don't need to know the exact weights ;)

Again, the focus is on the trend here - the dots are the individual weights for the days, but the smoother blue line is the overall trend.  Creatively, the green area is showing the difference from that date and 30 days prior (which would be red if that trend is higher than it was 30 days ago).

Overall, I love this app.  I think there are some more advanced features that you can unlock if you upgrade to the deluxe version (and it eliminates the ads), but for now, this is working well for me.  Kudos to you, Mr. Happy Scale developer! ;)


Monday, February 22, 2016

Goal smashed and crashed

Last Thursday was my birthday - and I SMASHED MY GOAL!  I was so thrilled!  Couldn't believe it!  Actually re-weighed myself twice. ;)  Beat my goal by over a pound.  Awesomeness!

and then...there have been many baked goods and celebrating and blah blah blah, gained 5 pounds in 4 days.  Ugh.  I'm extra frustrated because I have worked out at least an hour every day in this timespan, yet the weight crept back on.

Naturally, I'm also having various pains from working out perhaps too much (most worrisome is pain in the ball of my left foot, but I've also horked up my left tricep and both shoulders are sore too).  Due to scheduling issues, I won't be able to make it to my usual U-Jam classes tomorrow or Wednesday, but I should be able to get to the gym for an hour in the morning tomorrow and will probably just jump on a bike to keep stress off my foot and shoulders.

So here's to making it back to that big goal weight in the next week or so, and then continuing the downward trend overall! :)

Friday, February 12, 2016

trends and reality

Oy, so the Super Bowl & birthday party combination did me in on Sunday -- gained 2 1/2 pounds, and five days later, I've only lost half of it.  Frustrating!

However, looking at the trends does help keep things in perspective.  Here's the handy graph from the Hacker Diet's site looking at my weight since January 1 this year:

I love this site. ;)  The little tick marks on the left are for each pound, the white dots are the actual weight that day, and the red line is the trend.  You can see how losing weight pulls the trend line down - and for the most part this year, I've been doing that!  But then you see the jump at the end of the graph with the Super Bowl nonsense and too many treats at an event I attended on Tuesday night. However, as dramatic as the weight gain was, it didn't really ruin the trend.  It just put a stop to it for a couple of days, and now we're slowly pulling that line down again.

I must admit my frustration at the timing however.  My birthday is one week away, and if I had kept up that one-pound-a-week weight loss, I would've hit a big goal on my big day.  Now I'm two pounds away.  Ugh.

Watching shows like "Biggest Loser" make it seem like only losing two pounds in a week is a failure, but for real life, it's not like that.  Weight loss is a continuous struggle, and a two pound weight loss in a week is a thing to celebrate!  I've managed to injure my shoulder/tricep with too much dancing (oops!), so I'm also trying to take a step back from that and add in more rest time than I did last month.  Still aiming for those 20 workouts a month though!

And one last bit of perspective for me: my weight today, even with that Super Bowl bounce, is still lower than it's been in over 4 1/2 years.  PROGRESS!


Saturday, February 6, 2016

Trader Joe's Crunchy Curls

Trader Joe's Crunchy Curls are a delightful and unexpected snack!  I tried these on a whim over a year ago, and these are definitely my go-to snack these days.  They're vegan!  They're gluten-free!  They've got FOUR grams of fiber in a serving!  No sugar!  What else could you want? ;)

The portion size feels generous (I always have to weigh it because I tend to overestimate and not pour a full serving).  These curls are so crunchy, and have a pleasing if a bit bland flavor.  You don't taste lentils per se - it's more of the potato flavor that comes through (reminds me of plain popchips).  I love that there's four grams of fiber in a serving, plus the bonus of 3 grams of protein.  I can't think of many other salty snacks that can provide that.  Bonus points: my kid LOVES these. ;)

Highly recommended!

Nutrition Facts for 1 ounce - approximately 31 curls
Calories 130
Total Fat 4.5 g
Saturated Fat 0.5 g
Trans Fat 0
Cholesterol 0 mg
Sodium 380 mg
Carb 18 g
Fiber 4 g
Sugars 0 g
Protein 3 g

Monday, February 1, 2016

Goals - January report

January is done! Let's review the goals:
  1. Lose an average of one pound a week - met!  Down 5.2 pounds for the month according to the scale - and the more important version is the "trend" numbers (averages things out so one spike or drop doesn't throw everything off).  I use the old school Hacker's Diet web site to analyze the trends, and for the past month, I lost 1.1 pounds per week, 4.4 pounds for the month. (For the past year, my trend is 0.5 pounds a week - slow and steady, or something?) ;)
  2. Work out at least 20 times a month - met!  29 workouts this month, including two 90 minute classes and two days with two workouts each day.  Of course, that means four days I didn't work out at all, which is fine.  I wish two of those days hadn't been back to back, but husband had to work late and that takes priority!  
  3. Cook one new (and healthy!) recipe a month - met!  I made goat cheese (it was not that great) earlier this month, and on Saturday I made herbed pork tenderloin and roasted balsamic and thyme mushrooms (both tasty and will make again).  Yay!  Not sure what I'm going to make this month yet.
  4. Make an effort to eat clean and healthy the majority of the time - met, mostly ;)  An on-going challenge, of course.  I did cave on the french fries, after one of those 90 minute workouts - In-n-Out, and honestly, it wasn't as good as I had hoped.  Otherwise, I feel like I'm eating pretty well overall.  
I'm happy that I'm meeting my goals, but I must admit that I'm frustrated that I'm not smashing the weight loss goal.  With all those workouts, I'd expect the scale to move a little faster in the right direction -- or at least for my clothes to fit better.  Frustratingly, I'm still wearing the same jeans I wore a year ago.  Lame.  I've got some sore muscles today, so maybe that's contributing to the weight side of things, but I'd like to drop into a smaller size soon. ;)

I'm expecting some challenges in February with my birthday celebration and a Super Bowl party and several kids parties and Valentines party and blah blah blah.  Hopefully I can still squeak out a pound a week!