January 13, 2016

Week 22 Weigh-in (Eeek!)

Some pretty exciting news to share today! :) For the first time EVER on Runs for Cookies (which I started in April 2011), my "official" Wednesday Weigh-in weight was in the 120's...


I have no idea what my body was thinking this week, but I dropped three pounds since last week, leaving me at 128! I did my body fat percentage and waist measurement as well, since it's been a while and my weight has changed about five pounds in the meantime. Body fat was 20.1%, and waist measurement was 25 inches. That's the smallest my waist has ever been. The last time I was at this weight (for a brief moment in 2010), I hadn't gotten my skin removal surgery yet. My body is looking very different now--in a good way :)

While my official "goal weight" is 133 pounds, I am happy to be under that weight and have a cushion--this way, if I overindulge a bit, I can still stay under my goal. Also, since I set a very lofty goal of PR'ing my 10K this spring, the extra weight loss will certainly help with my running speed. Here is a chart from RunnersWorld.com that shows a rough estimate of how much faster you can run with a bit of weight loss:


I wasn't necessarily trying to lose weight this week, but my calories were a little less than the past few weeks. My average daily calorie intake was 1,620. I didn't really do anything very differently, so I'm not sure why the large weight loss, but I am happy with it.

The part that is most exciting for me, however, is that I am back to being 125 pounds down from my starting weight! When I initially lost 125 pounds, the last 10 of it was when my jaw was broken (in November-December 2010). My jaws were wired shut, so I had to live off of a liquid diet (a ton of smoothies!), and I'm pretty sure that's how I got down to 128. I was only in the 120's for a week or so before I could eat solid food again and I gained 10 pounds back almost right away. I just looked at my old weigh-in log, and here it is:


So, while I technically lost 125 pounds in 16 months back then, it was short-lived. Today, however, I can say that I am 125 pounds down from my 253-pound starting weight in August 2009! I am SO glad to be back to this point. I was thrilled to get to 133, which is my goal weight, but like I said, a little cushion is nice. When I was at this weight before, I was hoping to get to 126.5, because that would be exactly half of my starting weight--I always thought it would be so cool to say that I was half my size! I'm not exactly aiming for that number now, but I certainly won't be upset if I see it ;)

I did well on my new year's goals again this week:

Step goal: My goal is to get in 7,000+ steps per day for at least six days a week, and I did that every day except for Monday.

Binge-free streak: Still going strong! Today is Day 162. I did struggle a lot with binge thoughts this week, but I've been working hard to overcome them. Working on a puzzle at night has been the most helpful--the time flies by, and I actually don't even want to be "bothered" to stop to eat! My back hurts when I do puzzles for very long, so I try to change it up. Something else that I've been doing is taking Joey for a quick stroll around the neighborhood (one mile) if I'm feeling like bingeing. 

Recipes: My goal is to cook one new recipe per week, and I posted about this week's recipe yesterday.

For some reason, my anxiety has been extremely high this week. I have generalized anxiety disorder, so I don't worry about one particular thing; I just have a constant feeling of dread/worry that makes it hard to focus on anything else. I've noticed that what works the best to ease it, even better than a Xanax, is when I nail a hard run. Thursday's run kept me feeling amazing for a couple of days! And then yesterday, when my anxiety was bad again, I was talking to Jerry about it. As I was talking, and telling him how bad I felt about the run, I realized that I would probably feel better if I "re-did" my run that I'd quit earlier... and so I did. And I felt a million times better. 

For so many years (all through my teens and twenties), my anxiety was actually secondary to depression; but for the past few years, it's been anxiety that is the dominant problem. Now that I've noticed a correlation between a good, hard run and easing my anxiety, I'm going to try and use that to my advantage. Having a tough goal to hit and then actually reaching it gives me a nice "high" feeling that overrides the anxiety, at least temporarily. Tomorrow, I have another tough run on the schedule--12 x 60 seconds at faster than race pace. I'm going to try and push the pace hard for those intervals, because they are so short. And no, I won't be drinking wine tonight! ;) haha

Anyway, I am SO very excited to be back down to this weight--I honestly never thought I'd see it again, nor did I even try to get here again. Calorie counting is working out so well for me!

41 comments:

  1. Congrats! That's amazing!!

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  2. Congratulations Katie! I really admire your hard work.

    I also want to thank you for writing openly about anxiety and depression. I deal with generalized anxiety as well, and I think the more people can talk about it might inspire others to seek help and realize they aren't alone. Thank you!

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    1. Thank you Monica! I haven't been writing about it much lately, because I hate to sound like a downer--but mid-2014 to mid 2015 was a VERY tough year for me. You definitely aren't alone!

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  3. Congrats on your weigh in!

    Do you really take Joey for a mile walk? It's been so cold lately! Once it's below 32, my dog has to settle for play time in the house. Brrrrr! Good for you if can get in the activity for you and him despite the weather.

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    1. Yes, I actually really like the cold (when it's not windy! If there is wind, forget it, haha). Joey happens to LOVE the snow, so I try to take him to places he can run off leash :)

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  4. I just checked my first ever 5k and my last 5k (12/8 and 1/08, exactly a month apart) and I lost 11 lbs between those 5k's, my pace was faster by a little over a minute. Crazy! Congrats on the weigh in!!

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  5. Congrats skinny Minnie! You're amazing!!

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  6. Congrats!! After seeing that chart from Runners World I'm really hoping to drop a significant amount of weight before the Detroit Marathon. Thanks for posting!

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  7. Congratulation! I know exactly what you mean about a cushion. That is a nice thing to have. You can enjoy a meal or a night out without the stress of what might happen on the scale. Especially as women - it seems we can just rocket up a few pounds on the scale. Could be that time of the month or just the wrong food. I love having a cushion. Again - Congratulations! It was fun to see this :)

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  8. Wonderful! Congratulations on the weight loss!

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  9. Wonderful! Congratulations on the weight loss!

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  10. Awesomesause!!!!

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  11. That's amazing!! Good for you!

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  12. Good for you!! That's awesome!!

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  13. Congrats! I love seeing you knock every one of your goals out of the park :)

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  14. Congratulations!!! That's so awesome! I actually didn't realize that you'd only been in the 120s after your jaw surgery. What a super-awesome feeling to get back there through hard work and dedication!

    I think that you've really come up with a good game plan for your anxiety. And I'm glad you talked to Jerry about it...that's the most important step, I'm sure!

    Yay for you!!!

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  15. Holy cow, that's awesome!!! Congratulations, I'm so happy that you're doing so well and seem so happy! :D

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  16. What app are you using to track your habits? I think this would help me out a ton! Congrats on your weight loss. I hope to be like you someday as your journey truly inspires me to keep going.

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    1. It's an app called Momentum on my iPhone :)

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  17. Congrats on your exciting weigh-in! You Rock! I have anxiety, too...and it's frustrating when it gets to be the main thing you're thinking about. Then I'll have a day or two where it doesn't bother me at all, and when I realize it, I feel great!

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  18. That is awesome. Congratulations, you have worked really hard and I am thankful you share your stories!

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  19. Congratulations! I've really been enjoying seeing your progress because it helps me keep my head in the game.

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  20. How exciting!!! You did it, sister! You may have to take new skinny pictures, how cool. Your breakthrough shows us that there IS a way to get it done:
    1) counting calories
    2) charting exercise
    3) making it more like "play" (setting up fun challenges)

    Thank you!
    ~Lise in Indy

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  21. Congrats! Looks like you had a great week!

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  22. Katie - way to go on your accomplishment! I have been reading your blog for a while and while I haven't gotten on a running schedule yet, I am using your blog for motivation and trying to setup a game plan for both my eating habits and fitness. Thank you so much - you are a great inspiration!

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  23. Congrats!
    I have a story very similar to yours and you inspire me when things get tough for me. Well, despite the new year, new start, new resolutions I have been struggling the past couple weeks. I have a question for you: i have really been struggling with binge eating, and I have been thinking that maybe I need to purge my house of all fattening/tempting foods. But then I get mad because I think I should be strong enough to not be tempted. What is your recommendation about that? I am just so tired because ever since I lost most of my weight I have yo-yo'd 20-40 pounds (I lost 140 originally) every year and it is becoming increasingly frustrating and hard not to just give up. I don't know how to finally overcome this and appreciate your input. Thanks!

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    1. I have a tough time with that as well, so I have two solutions: 1) I only buy a single serving of a "binge" food (ice cream, for example). That way, I can eat ice cream, but I can only have the one portion that I planned ahead of time; 2) I use my Kitchen Safe! There is a link on my "Favorite Things" tab of my blog. It's a little safe that you can set a timer, and it won't open until the timer gets to 00:00. I keep smaller things in there (chocolate, for example) and it only opens once a day (in the morning). I'll take out one portion, so I can eat it sometime during the day, and then I lock it until the next morning again. There is no override!
      There are some "junk" foods that I can keep around without bingeing on, however. I like being able to prove to myself that just because I have access to something doesn't mean I have to eat it. But some foods are just too tempting!

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    2. I read an article about Prof. Brian Wansink. He claims it is much much easier for people to change their environments than their food choices: there are just too many choices and a limited amount of mental resources to keep track of everything and make the right choice every time. I haven't read his book Mindless Eating, but just hearing about it made some sense to me. So I don't think changing your environment to fit your goals (i.e. keeping binge triggers out of the house) is at all a bad thing! I think it's a great choices that simplifies things later on.

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    3. Thanks so much for your input, Katie and Michal. So kind of you both to respond. I'm slowly starting to think that I need to keep the really tempting, binge-inducing foods out of the house altogether. But I like the idea of keeping some treats around, just more hidden....out of sight, out of mind. You've given me new motivation to try this route and keep fighting. Thanks! :)

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    4. Thank you so much for your input, Katie and Michal. It is so kind of you to respond. I think I will try a bit of both of your suggestions: to keep the extremely tempting, binge-inducing out of my house and keep a few treats "out of sight, out of mind". It's worth a shot, right? I guess that's the trick, to not give up! Thanks for motivating me to keep fighting. :)

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  24. Yay for you!!!! I was going thru nearly the same thing as you...gained about 30lbs and couldn't take it back off for the life of me. But since October I got back to calorie counting hardcore (I lost 80lbs using SparkPeople about 6 years ago) and am happy to say that I am down 15lbs. I'm very happy its not coming off super fast, but I do have to say that the first 5 were the hardest and the last 10 literally melted off. I still have 5 more to go till goal weight again.

    Thanks for being an inspiration!

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  25. this is total speculation but...I really believe that when we finally stop trying really hard on a #, the weight loss happens easier. I hope that makes sense. Like, you weren't trying to reach 128, you were just maintaining and eating a normal, healthy amount of calories, yet it happened anyway. It's awesome. And I totally hear you about WL in regards to race speed. I was so mad I didn't lose weight pre marathon to help increase my speed, but I'm still working on it. You're awesome.

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  26. That's great Katie! So excited for you. Something similar happened to me over a longer time once: I started college at a certain weight, and by graduation I realized I weighed about 10lbs less. I have no idea how that happened! I'm not the kind of person who forgets to eat or just doesn't really think about it, haha. Anyhow, that was a totally welcome change.

    Thanks for writing and sharing with us! Happy you're happy!

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  27. Congratulations on your weigh-in! Have you ever had blood work to check your thyroid hormone levels? If you are hyperthyroid (over active) one symptom is anxiety.

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    1. Yes, I get them checked every year, but my thyroid is normal. Anxiety runs in my family, unfortunately.

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  28. Congratulations on a new low weight. I am sure you have blogged this already but how did you decide on a final goal weight? I am setting goals 5lbs at a time but need a realistic ultimate goal.

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    1. I was originally shooting for 126, which would be half my starting weight (I just thought it would be cool to say I lost half my weight); but then it was really difficult to get there, and I was very happy with my size at 133 pounds--so I just decided to choose 133. I would just pick a goal to work toward, and then when you get there, reevaluate and see if you need to change it.

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I used to publish ALL comments (even the mean ones) but I recently chose not to publish those. I always welcome constructive comments/criticism, but there is no need for unnecessary rudeness/hate. But please--I love reading what you have to say! (This comment form is super finicky, so I apologize if you're unable to comment)

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