Those of you who are following this blog, all six of you, know that I am taking part in the Columbia Slimdown Challenge. This morning, I decided to record my weight loss and was shocked to see that I've already lost 4% of my body weight! I'm off to a big start, and actually I'm hoping to lose another 3-5 pounds by my first self-declared official weigh-in on May 7.
One question you may be asking yourself is, how have I lost weight so quickly? That is particularly a good question if you've read my blog and you know that my weight has greatly fluctuated, even this week, as I continue my bad habit of weighing myself almost every day. But really, the weight loss was easy this week and I'll tell you my secret: calorie loading.
That's right, the week before the weigh in, I took in extra food, extra calories, and less exercise. I knew that I would put on several pounds and that as soon as I went back to my regularly scheduled program, I would drop the weight quickly. Hey, it's a competition. You can't tell me that the people on the Biggest Loser don't do the same. Natch, I'm not competing for $250,000 (if I were, I would have taken advantage of the closed eyes of my kiosk companions and held onto my diaper bag - and my toddler - while I was weighing in), but I have every intention of winning or at least making a good showing. If that means wearing my big girl shoes to weigh in and going barefoot to weigh out, that's what I'm going to do.
In all reality, I know that I don't have any chance of actually winning the grand prize for the slimdown. I'm short and small boned and every single pound shows, which is why I look at myself and still see a chubby, frumpy housewife. I could lose another 10 pounds easily. I could push it and lose another 15. Twenty? Probably not going to happen, and any more than that and I would start losing hair and teeth and stuff. However, I saw some of the other people who were weighing in. Many are already clearly very healthy and fit and are taking part in the challenge probably due to encouragement by a civic group or employer and not because they actually need to lose weight. Others have more weight to lose and will do so and honestly, good luck to them. Despite the fact that I stood around the kiosk talking to people weighing in about donuts (yes, I did), I do hope everyone who takes part in this challenge finds a way to get healthier and more fit.
In other news, I started using My Fitness Pal to track calories and exercise. Since I dropped Weight Watchers last month, I needed a new tool for tracking food. I was using a notepad and paper, but I decided to utilize technology again so that I don't have to manually calculate calories. It's a good thing, because this will keep me more honest with my snacks. I already found myself eating fewer handfuls of almonds and more closely monitoring the amount of olive oil I put on my veggies.
Speaking of veggies, I had a bit of an "unclean" meal last night. We stopped at Aldi to pick up milk and I found some very inexpensive frozen pizzas. I picked one up for myself that was made with spinach, mozzarella, and tomatoes. For only 175 calories a slice, I couldn't resist. I paired one slice of pizza with some veggies sauteed in olive oil and 1/2 cup of low-fat cottage cheese. Delicious!
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