Week Three Update

The third week of my “50 in 52” is done and I’m not happy with the results!

There is good news; however, my energy is back! The bad news is that I made some pretty foolish choices this week with food.

Here is a brief recap of the 5 goals I had set for this week, accompanied by the results.

Goal #1 was to walk 14 miles a week and this week I walked 10 ½. That includes a 3 mile walk yesterday and my 5 ½ mile walk this morning, as well as one mile for each shift that I work.

Goal #2 was to workout 4 times a week; 2 upper body workouts and 2 lower body. This is a goal that I did not meet; I worked my lower body yesterday and my upper body tonight. I’ve added some high intensity cardio to my workouts, mostly freestyle aerobics in the privacy of my workout room.

Goal #3 was to keep a food diary each day of the week, and I did not meet this goal. I am finding this difficult and possibly resisting it for some reason. I kept a record of my intake for four days this week, averaging 1900 calories per day. It is a bit of a challenge to properly track my intake at work, but since I abhor excuses of any kind, I’m guessing there is a deeper reason behind my lack of commitment to my Food Diary.

Goal #4 was to drink 3-4 litres of water a day, or 21-28 litres in a week. I drank 16 litres this week, which is an improvement from the week before. After going a full 12 hour shift without voiding, I realized that I was not drinking enough while working. The very next shift I believe I drank two litres in twelve hours.

Goal #5 was to kick the McDonalds Diet Coke habit, and I’ve kicked it if the only criterion is sticking to a behavior for 21 days. There were a few instances this week that I could practically taste the Diet Coke; I craved it so badly! In fact, I almost “treated” myself to one yesterday on payday. In reality, I’ve “kicked” this habit many times and have relapsed with the phrase “just one won’t hurt.” I guess in this sense it is just like any other addiction, I’ll have to watch myself closely for a very long time.

My weight went from 183.3 lbs to 185.3, a gain of two pounds. I consider this a result of the large doses of estrogen last week, as well as the decreased level of activity and increased caloric intake. My waist measurement stayed the same although I feel super-fat these days. The pounds of bodyfat that I carry went up by ½ pound from last week but the bodyfat percentage dropped from 36.8 to 36.7. It is the BF% that I am paying the most attention to, as it is a more accurate reflector of the body’s changes than simply using the weight as a measure of progress.

The results of this week do certainly not make me happy; according to the goals I’ve set, I should be 181 pounds today, not 186. And, I know the times that I’ve had mini-binges have contributed to the gain as well.

For years I’ve struggled with night eating, which could be more accurately described as “night binging.” Since the start of sharing my progress with you, I’ve had no episodes of binging on unhealthy foods at night, unless you call eating a piece of fruit a “binge.” Because I work shift work and regularly eat at night at work, I do allow a certain amount of leeway when it comes to waking up at night at home and feeling the need to eat. The problem in the past has been that I’ve eaten almost entire boxes of cereal in one sitting. That type of excess consumption seems to have stopped and I’ve been able to keep it healthy, right up until this week.

Just as my post “Craving Sweet and Salty Foods” indicated, I’ve been having trouble with cravings this week. One night I woke with a craving for sweet; my self-control and good judgment had fled for lands unknown that night. As a result, I had three mini ice cream cones, one right after the other. There must have been ¾ of a cup of ice cream left in the bucket and I ate it all. When compared to some other “binges” from the past, this pales, but I was still very disappointed in myself for having allowed myself to do it.


Last week my mini-goal was to add one serving of vegetables to my diet each day. I’ve been adding veggies to my food, but have not been eating them as a snack up till this time. I’m sure I would feel even better if I ate raw veggies rather than veggies simply added to something else. I will continue with this goal this week and see how it goes this week.

In the upcoming week, I will work on the same goals as the last three weeks. Similar to the past weeks, I’d like to add on a mini goal for myself; no McDonalds for a week.

Despite being unhappy with the past week, I will start again with a new week tomorrow morning. My reaction to this week could either be to throw in the towel as I’ve done many times before, or keep picking myself up and keep going.

I’d love to hear your stories about how you lost weight. If you’ve got a night-eating habit, tell me about that, too. Its only in the past year that I’ve been able to talk about it openly and admit that I have a problem.