Chronicles of a Late Bloomer

Celebrating: 45 pounds gone!

Grateful for: all that I am learning about myself in this process.

Starting weight: 354.6 pounds
Last week: 311.4
This week: 309.0
Change this week: -2.4
Total change: -45.6
Next milestone: 50 pounds gone

This week’s mantra: Achieving goals is good; there is no need to sabotage them.

Celebrating: 40 pounds gone

Grateful for: living in a body that knows how to heal itself.

Starting weight: 354.6 pounds
Last week: 312.0
This week: 311.4
Change this week: -0.6
Total change: -43.2
Next milestone: 45 pounds gone

This week’s mantra: put the so-called energy bar down and back away from the table.

Celebrating: 5.6 BMI points and 12% of my “starting” weight gone!

Grateful for: always having room for improvement.

Starting weight: 354.6 pounds
Last week: 313.6
This week: 312.0
Change this week: -1.6
Total change: -42.6
Next milestone: 45 pounds gone

This week’s mantra: Losing weight is nice, sure, but let’s focus on fitness.

Celebrating: 40 pounds gone!

Grateful for: having my internet access back this week.

Starting weight: 354.6 pounds
Last week: 315.0
This week: 313.6
Change this week: -1.4
Total change: -41.0
Next milestone: 45 pounds gone

This week’s mantra: As silly as it sounds, this week I want to focus on FITNESS and FLOSSING. (Of course, this morning I had a little waxing-at-home accident which also means that the words ALOE VERA and RAW SKIN IN AWFUL PLACES are going to figure in prominently, too.)

Celebrating: Recovery from medical emergencies.

Grateful for: Eggs. I dunno, I just feel affectionate toward their protein-y, yellow-y, jiggle-y goodness today.

Starting weight: 354.6 pounds
Last week: 325.8
This week: 315.0
Change this week: -10.8
Total change: -39.6
Next milestone: 40 pounds gone (just 0.4 pounds away!)

This week’s mantra: 10 pounds? Man, that was a big cyst.

My favorite brother was in town this weekend to help me work on a video project. Naturally, I tried to stay with my “mostly right” line of food choices and accepted the fact that entertaining my brother would likely result in a small gain on the scale.

So, you can imagine my surprise when, on Saturday — a mere halfway through his visit — I stepped up and found that I had gained over 8 pounds. I was all the way up to 325.8, in spite of being “mostly” on track. Ouch.

The double (quintuple) ouch came Sunday afternoon, about 2 hours after I took him to the airport and said goodbye. My ex-boyfriend was over and we had a nice healthy salad lunch at our favorite cafe. Then, as we settled onto the couch, I said, “Man, my tummy hurts. Maybe I ate too much salad.”

Well, the pain gradually worsened until I doubled over, held my stomach, groaned, and said, “Maybe food poisoning?”

Of course, I hadn’t eaten tomatoes or jalapenos at lunch, and the pain just kept coming. I broke into a sweat that quickly soaked through my hair and clothing and made it look like I had just sprung, fully-clothed, from a refreshing shower. It didn’t take long for me to soak the couch and render it unusable, while I writhed and moaned in pain. The ex, while sweet and very helpful, was obviously freaking out. I’d seen the look before — the “trying to be supportive but scared out of his mind” look. The last time I saw it, I was already on my way to the emergency room.

I knew exactly what was happening — and going to the emergency room wouldn’t help. It was an ovarian cyst rupture, and there was nothing to do but wait it out. Ex-boyfriend stood over me, fanning me with a hand towel and alternating telling me funny stories with giving words of gentle support.

Then, as I knew from previous experience that it would, the pain suddenly subsided. It took about 20 minutes to go from a 10 down to a 7, which is apparently the pain level where I still hurt, but not so much that I’m incapable of crying. The tears came, then, in a great flood, adding to the soaked-through sweat of everything. It was over.

Now, two days later, my weight is back down under 320. I can’t help but attribute the killer gain and loss to whatever monster ovarian cyst chose to squat in my innards and then, finding the accommodations inadequate, blew out of there like a tumorous Hindenberg. We’ll see how this week’s weigh-in goes, but I have a feeling that all will be right with the world again.

Celebrating: No trip to the emergency room this week.

Grateful for: The sheer luck of not being alone when my innards erupted.

Starting weight: 354.6 pounds
Last week: 318.2
This week: 325.8
Change this week: +8.6
Total change: -28.8
Next milestone: complete recovery from medical trauma.

This week’s mantra: Next time, bring more towels.

Celebrating: 35 pounds (and 10% of starting weight) gone

Grateful for: my 2 wonderful dogs, so that I don’t wake up alone during a week like this.

Starting weight: 354.6 pounds
Last week: 318.2
This week: 317.2
Change this week: -1.0
Total change: -37.4
Next milestone: 40 pounds gone

This week’s mantra: Every muscle I stretch (both figurative and literal) makes me stronger.

Celebrating: 35 pounds gone (and 30 pounds gone, too)

Grateful for: alternative coping mechanisms

Starting weight: 354.6 pounds
Last week: 326.4
This week: 318.2
Change this week: -8.2
Total change: -36.4
Next milestone: 40 pounds gone

This week’s mantra: Stay on target. It’s going to be a rough week.

Celebrating: 25 pounds gone (still)

Grateful for: losing a little weight, even though the dreaded PMS has yet to deliver on its promises.

Starting weight: 354.6 pounds
Last week: 329.2
This week: 326.4
Change this week: -2.8
Total change: -28.2
Next milestone: 30 pounds gone

This week’s mantra: Migraines cannot stop me.

Celebrating: 25 pounds gone

Grateful for: hormones that are thoughtful enough to peak on a semi-consistent basis.

Starting weight: 354.6 pounds
Last week: 327.4
This week: 329.2
Change this week: +1.8
Total change: -25.4
Next milestone: 30 pounds gone

This week’s mantra: It is the behavioral, not the numerical changes that matter from week to week.