Last week, I bumped back up to 237 from 234. I wasn't too suprised. Like most people, my weight fluctuates in a range from day to day, and 234 was definitely a lower number than I expected, on the lowest end of my daily weight shifts. Last week's weigh in also followed by weekend at Mysticon, so I'd had three days of no real excercise and eating out leading into that weigh in. But, this week, I have no excuse. I'd walked over ten miles the previous week and had been under my calorie goals all but one day. Oh well. I'm trying to console myself that I'm still down seven pounds for this contest, better than a pound a week, which doesn't suck.
This week also brought a milestone. I track my calories using a program called "My Fitness Pal" and yesterday it informed me that I'd logged on for 180 days in a row. Six months of continuous weight loss isn't a bad milestone, and helps me to remember to keep a long term perspective. The real achievement won't be the weight I'm at the end of this contest. It will be if I'm still keeping the pounds off a year from now.
Still, I do wonder just how to get past this plateau. The days are getting long enough to get in walks in the evening, but I have a finite amount of time in my days, and I'm not sure I can carve out that many more hours. Plus, I don't know if my knees can take it. My knees feel fine when I'm walking, but after I rest a while, my left knee aches enough that I limp. The stiffness and pain go away once I walk for a while, but I'm taking the pain as a warning that pushing much more might lead to real injury. Haven't tried biking yet this season. I wonder if that will hurt my knee?
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Biking sounds like the ticket, though at the beginning of this saga I was tempted to say that you can hardly expect to really work your way all the way down to your fighting weight without running. That's precisely because you will run out of time for walking, which takes a lot longer just to reach the same result. Calorie loss is measured in miles not speed, so running gets you to your calorie-loss goals faster. Meanwhile, cardiopulmonary fitness is improved by the speed in which you cover the ground--and that kind of fitness translates into a higher metabolism and more efficient minute-to-minute caloric use. That, in turn, translates into keeping the weight off.
But, obviously, running is a lot more of a high-impact sort of deal, so biking may be the way to go for your knee. Either way, invest (the seven bucks) in an Ace bandage. Only use it when you exercise, which will support it while you are strengthening it. You'll should see a big difference in joint stress almost immediately.
Thanks for the tip! I actually bought an xl slide on knee sleeve but it wouldn't fit over my Popeye-like calves, so I returned it. I'll invest in one that straps on.
Ugh. I grew up hating the slide-ons because they pull your hair out by the roots. Also they slip sideways. I used to occasionally wear one that had a rigid plastic hinge along the inside for lots of extra stability (feeling like that was my best protection against hyperextending). Of course, that meant is was nearly impossible--at least with that model--to ever use it on my other leg if necessary. So I ditched the whole thing for the bandage, which was much more versatile, giving me all the control I could ever want regarding position and tightness (and if you're losing inches, I imagine this will become pretty important) and which knee I wanted to support. Plus it never pulled my hair.
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