Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Time to Get Serious About My Weight

So far, 2014 has been a struggle for me in terms of my eating habits and weight. I started out the year with a plan (my experiment) to cut out sugars and grains, not weigh myself, and not count calories. This plan was adapted from a couple of books I had just read.

This so called experiment was supposed to be a liberating experience. I was going to drop weight while freeing myself from the daily roller coaster of watching my weight fluctuate up and down. My starting weight for the experiment was 150 lbs. Not good. Previously I had been hovering between 146-148. I chalked the weight gain up to the holidays.

On Valentine's Day, my official weigh in day following the conclusion of the experiment, the scale read 151
lbs. I gained weight! I concluded it was from all of the nuts I was eating along with cheese and butter and anything else I could stuff in my mouth that wasn't a grain or sugar.

Heavier than I would like
A couple of days later, HS and I boarded a cruise ship to Mexico. I knew I would end up gaining some weight during the 7 day cruise. When I came home, the scale read 154 lbs. Not a surprise, but I still wasn't happy. I was able to get my weight down to 151 by the end of that week.

Fast forward several weeks. I honestly felt like I had been doing a good job with my eating although my fear of the scale prevented me from knowing if I was right or not. Yesterday, after a lack luster showing at the Ice Breaker Triathlon, I decided that it was time to get serious about my racing season and more importantly Barb's Race. I got on the scale feeling bloated and yucky, and braced myself for the number. The scale read 154 lbs!!! OMG!

At that point, I decided that I was going to journal all of my food. I've have pledged to do this before, but usually give up late in the first afternoon. Today is the second day thanks to a handy little app called My Diet Diary. It is extremely easy to use which means I will be more likely to use it.

My Goal

Yesterday I read "Chris McCormack on the Triathlete Weight Debate". This article got me thinking about my desired race weight. Of course, when people hear that I want to lose 17 lbs (this will get me to 135 lbs), they think I'm nuts.

Really?

Do you really think a 5'7" woman that weighs 135 lbs is too thin? I don't. All I know is that if I am smart about my weight loss (I've given myself until July 4 to reach my goal), Barb's Race will be a lot better this year. Think of it this way, I will be hauling around 12-14 lbs less than I did last year.  That is huge over 70.3 miles!

For the next 3 months, I am going to work to stay focused on my goal. I am going to use all my races leading up to Barb's Race to judge if and how my weight is affecting my performance. I can tell you this, while my swim and bike legs were quicker than last year at the Ice Breaker, my run was slower and the hills felt much harder. Could it have been the extra 6 lbs?



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2 comments:

  1. UnknownApril 8, 2014 at 2:24 PM

    Frosted Mini Wheats LOL

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tracy PengillyApril 8, 2014 at 3:56 PM

    Frosted Mini Wheats, Altoids like they are candy, wine, pop corn...UGH!

    ReplyDelete

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