Frustrations

As of my weigh-in this morning, I'm at exactly 332 pounds. For those playing along at home, that's a loss of .6 pounds. Yes, it's still a loss and that's a good thing, but it's a bit frustrating to be losing less than a pound this past week and to continue to be down from what had been my usual 2 pound per week average.

I do appreciate that I'm still losing weight, and I also ackowledge my body is still shrinking since the jeans I bought at the first of the year are into the same fit state as the ones they replaced (notably they're very loose, to the point I could likely smuggle a midget in the seat of them right now).

Part of this, I completely release, is due to my eating habits and I need to get back into the groove I'd had earlier. Part of this will be accomplished by picking up some of the Healthy Choice Cafe Steamer meals rather than going out to lunch five days a week. Five to six points for lunch compared to ten to twelve will go a long way to helping with getting back on the weight loss track.

The other thing I need to do is look at moving to going to the gym five days a week instead of just three (or two). Part of the hold up there has been the need to buy more work-out clothes. I have three pairs of sweat pants that I wear, and I really need to buy new shorts for the gym.

Yes, this post is a bit more of a whine than I've had in the past, but I figure I'm allowed now and again. I do recognize that I've come a long way at this point (68 pounds to date), but another part of me is impatient to reach my final goal and move into simply maintaining a healthy lifestyle. I just have to control that part of my mind, though, to ensure I don't derail myself in frustration.

Life Insurance and Weight Loss

Given that I have a young son, a wife, and a daughter on the way, I've been looking at upping the amount of life insurance I'm currently carrying. One of the interesting things I've found at this point is how insurance companies look at weight loss and how it impacts coverage.

Many people tend to yo-yo on weight loss. They'll lose a lot and then gain back half of it or more in a short period. I've done this before as have many other people. This time around, it's been a slow and steady decline for me and the weight is staying off. Regardless, until you've gone a year with the weight off, most insurance companies will only credit you with half the weight you've lose when looking at their coverage charts. For instance, at this point, I've lost 67 pounds. I am only credited, however, with 33.5 of that, so I'm actually shown for life insurance purposes at 366.5 rather than the 333 the scale shows.

I just talked to the agent at Select Quote, and it looks like all we have to do is wait until my one year anniversary of starting Weight Watchers (this would be the first week in July) and they'll be able to credit me with the whole amount and move forward.

While it's a little annoying not to be able to get the coverage now (since what I get through work is minimal at best)--especially after the car accident on GA400 last week, I find the whole process amusing. Of course, the Insurance business is all about providing coverage while minimizing losses. They're a business and out to make money, which they can't do if they give policies to obese people who then keel over from a heart attack two years later.

Regardless, the agent is on the ball, has a plan, and we can keep rewriting my policy as I keep losing weight until I get to a steady "good" weight, at which point we can lock in a rate for 10-15 years. It's kind of amusing at times to watch how other things shift up and down as you drop weight, even when they're not something that's directly related (like my need yet again for more pants is a directly related thing).

Little set backs

Weigh in this week was a bit of a set back, with the scale showing me going up 1.6 pounds. This isn't horrible and it's something I've come to expect now and again, but it doesn't make it any less of a downer. I am, however, able to look back over the last week and see where I made my mistakes. My usual pattern has me hording my weekly flex points to use in one swoop (usually about half of them). Last week, though, I nickle and dimed my way through them, meaning I was eating more on a daily basis than usual. I stayed within my points for the week, but the extra on each day built up.

Not to be a complete downer, I did make it to the gym three times again last week, which is good. My right knee, however, started aching about 2/3s of the way through my cardio on Saturday, so I cut it short to keep from sparking an injury that would take me out of the gym completely. Regardless of shortened workouts, I made it all three days, even though I had to force myself to go on Saturday. I need to find the time to start working my weight circuit back into things as well as getting the gym to reactivate my Fitlinxx account to help me with tracking things.

Right now, I have three months to drop 36 pounds to stay on target for my goal. That's twelve pounds a month for the next three months. It's doable, but it's on the top end of doable. We'll see if I'm able to make it and break the 300 pound barrier by my one year Weight Watchers anniversary. It would certainly be nice to be under 300 by my birthday.