Weight loss update, week 12

I've been at this weight-loss thing for 12 weeks now. Wow! Go me! I'm proud of making this commitment to my health and sticking with it this long. Joining Jenny Craig has helped with that significantly, I think: the structured plan, the weekly weigh-ins, and the feedback. I don't love everything about the program, but it has helped immensely to feel like a lot of the effort has been taken out of this for me. I just have to do what I'm told and stay the course. Which is not nothing; it's still taken considerable commitment. But as someone who has never done a structured weight loss program before (I've always been a DIY dieter), well, the difference is quite noticeable. Have I ever stuck with a weight-loss effort this long before? Yes. But I was always really struggling by this point in the game previously (I also lost weight A LOT more slowly when doing the weight loss on my own). Add in the stress of my job plus caring for a 16 month old, and I don't think there is any way this weight loss would have happened without the additional support and ease factor this program has given me. 

Over the last 12 weeks, the weight has come off pretty rapidly. And while yes, it has taken effort and commitment, it hasn't felt like it has taken herculean effort for the most part (a major exception was this weekend when Will decided to bake my favorite kind of cupcakes. Arrrgh! WILL!!! But despite the significant temptation, I did not indulge, and I was proud of myself afterward. The cupcakes are tucked out of sight somewhere in our kitchen, at my request, and I am not going to be seeking them out. I knew that if I had to look at them, it would just be a matter of time until I caved and ate them.)

I went into this week's weigh-in feeling...I guess the best way to describe it is open-minded but unsure. I'm so close to the finish line at this point, who knew what the scale would show? I was diet-adherent this week eating my planned Jenny Craig cuisine and lots of veggies plus yogurt, although I actually underate a couple of days because I was (first) caring for and cleaning up after Magpie who caught a nasty stomach bug (I love you, Magpie, but gross!), which sort of killed my desire to eat, and then (second) a few days later I was dealing with mild symptoms of said GI bug (I have learned that it is hard not to catch someone's virus when they repeatedly vomit all over you). But the sickness seems to have passed for both of us, and I have returned to my regularly scheduled diet. 

So, moment of truth, what did the scale show this week?

Weekly Weight Loss

Starting BMI just after Thanksgiving = 25.2 (officially overweight)
Week 1:     - 4.4 pounds (back into normal BMI territory, less than 25!)
Week 2:     - 0.8 pounds
Week 3:     - 3.6 pounds

Week 4:     out of town so no Jenny food and no weigh-in (Christmas travel madness!)

Week 5:     - 4.4 pounds since last weigh-in

Week 6:     - 2 pounds

Week 7:     - 1.6 pounds

Week 8:     - 1.4 pounds

Week 9:     + 0.4  pounds
Week 10:     -4.2 pounds  

Week 11:     -0.2 pounds  

Week 12:     -3.0 pounds 

Grand Total So Far: 25.2 pounds lost (BMI = 21!)

Yup, I was shocked too - I LOST 3 POUNDS!!! Needless to say, I was thrilled with the weight loss this week. I couldn't believe it! Looking back, I think that probably a good chunk of the weight loss occurred in the prior week but didn't show on the scale for some reason. It just seems more realistic that I lost 1.5 pounds each week than that I lost basically nothing last week and then 3 pounds this week (especially now that I don't have far to go with the weight). I've been doing all the right things all along, so that makes more sense than these strange fluctuations. 

So yay!! Very, very soon I'll have to choose my weight loss stopping point. At the MOST, I might lose another 3ish pounds, but we'll see how it goes and what feels right. Wow! So close now!

Mo

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