Well, slowly coming up on two years. Kind of crazy how time can move both so quickly and so slowly at the same time. Perception is a weird thing.
I've been doing okay with my gym attendance this past week! I managed to go five times which I think is great. It's still not easy to go- as I mentioned in my last entry, I still definitely don't love exercise. But I am managing to make it into part of my routine where it's just the expectation that I go.
I'm finding it hard to write today. I'm happy with the loss this week because certainly anything over a pound at this stage in my weight loss journey is fantastic. I do feel that it's because of the gym more than anything else though. I know they say you can't out-exercise a bad diet and they're right, but I feel like the exercise I'm doing is giving my metabolism enough of a boost that it's healing and coming back online to the way that it should. Maybe that isn't accurate; I remember watching the Biggest Loser when I was younger and reading followups that showed that those contestants still had permanent metabolic damage years later and were burning fewer calories than people of their age and sex and weight who had never been obese. Either way though, the scale is moving and I'm eating more calories than I used to in my previous weight loss journey back in 2010 when I started this blog!
Nutrisystem generally allowed for a 1400-1600 calorie diet when you were 100lbs or more over your goal weight, and 1200-1400 when you had less than that to lose. They said if you were really active you could add an extra 200ish calories to your plan. Then again, I remember the "gold standard" back then was the 1200 calorie diet for weight loss, so it only makes sense that was the recommendation. Now, I'm eating 1700-1900ish calories daily, balanced but with an emphasis on protein, and still losing weight. I also have more muscle than I've ever had at any time in my life, which is great. If I wasn't still taking in sufficient calories I wouldn't be building muscle. Hopefully there is also some body recomposition taking place! I've noticed when I'm bent over at the gym that I notice my stomach kind of sagging in ways it didn't before, so I think that I'm losing fat in my stomach and the skin is getting looser. I don't particularly love the way that looks, but I'd rather by far have saggy skin than skin taut with fat, so I guess we'll see how it goes in time.
In the meantime, I'm continuing with the philosophy to eat as many calories as I can daily while still losing weight, as this is supposed to be the best for your metabolism and ongoing maintenance once you finish losing weight. I'd much rather eat more and lose more slowly but keep it off than eat 1200 calories and regain it all as soon as I put a french fry in my mouth! This isn't a journey to the finish line; that's just another starting point.
OZ Week 99 loss: 1.8 lbs
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