Week 51 & 52

Soo....  I WROTE a blog for week 51, but never actually published it.  I'll just post it here, and then get on with the final post.

Week 51:

PJ Weight : 161.4
Week Gain +1.2
Cumulative Loss -30.2


Seth Weight: 181.4
Week Gain:  +2.8
Cumulative Loss:  -17.9

So.  Another stellar week.

*Shrug*

I did experiment with quinoa this week, which was tasty.  Seth wasn't really a fan of the black bean and quinoa mix we went with, so we'll try a different recipe next time, but we've found a new and interesting side dish.

Also, we found the world's best diet food.  Weight Watchers blueberry muffins.  One taste of these and you won't want food again for at least an hour.  The overpowering medicine-like fake-blueberry taste will linger on your tongue despite the ingestion of any liquid or solid ingested with the purpose of dislodging it.

I considered cutting out my own tongue to get rid of it.  It was that good.  Imagine how much weight I'd probably have lost if I cut out my taste buds.  Right?

Diet superfood.

(For the slow kids: DO NOT BUY WEIGHT WATCHERS BLUEBERRY MUFFINS.)

The truly disappointing thing is that their blueberry muffins used to be a little bigger and vastly better.  They evidently found the need to reduce the Point value of the muffins, and at the same time make them wholly inedible.

I shudder just thinking about them.

In any event, this is the second to last blog.  At this point, I'm pretty much done, though as ever, I'm frustrated with how quickly weight piles back on even when I'm not being BAD.  It's not like I've gone out and had cookies and ice cream every day for the past 3 weeks, yet I've brought home 5 of my lost pounds.

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And now:
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Week 52: The Final Blog

PJ Weight:  161.6
Week Gain:  +0.2
Final Cumulative Loss: 30.0


Seth Weight 181.4
Week Loss: 0.0
Cumulative Loss: 17.9

And so the blog experiment ends.

I'm kind of relieved.  A year is a long time to stay focused, and we really lost our focus over the last quarter. It's sort of fun to blog when you're on track and feeling motivated.  It's a lot harder when you're sick of the word 'diet' and all you want in the world is a bucket full of cannolis.

In any case, I not going to post any final before-and-after photos since the ones I posted way back whenever it was (January? maybe?) are likely better than any result I'd take now.  I'm plus a handful of pounds since then, and I'm not feeling motivated to find the camera.  You'll have to content yourself with this pretty graph:

(click to embiggen)

It's an interesting graph, and I'm kind of proud of it as it shows that we lost a whole bunch of weight.  So, yay.  It also shows that Seth regained about 10 pounds from his lightest, while I regained 5 from mine.  Even so, not so bad, really.  I'm proud of us.

Thus concludes the experiment.  I hope you've found our struggles interesting, entertaining, or better, both.  I may log back on at some point in the future and try another blog experiment.  Perhaps one day we'll try another exercise program, or something to that effect.  Until then, though, I'm officially done with diet blogging.

Where'd I put that bucket of cannolis?

(Just kidding.  Sort of.)

Week 50

PJ Weight:  160.6
Week Gain: +2.0
Cumulative Loss: 31.0

Seth Weight: 178.6
Week Loss: 0
Cumulative Loss: -20.7

Aargh.

Not a happy scale week for me, but good for Seth in that he managed not to gain anything.

Some people would become more motivated as the end of their proclaimed year of dieting drew nearer.  I am evidently not one of them.

In happy but unrelated news, I just created a sewing nook in the corner of my bedroom where the dog bed used to be.  Sorry dogs, but it's not like you used it anyway.  You guys just spend all night sleeping on my torso.  This just formalizes the arrangement.

And as for new & interesting food-related things:  I picked up a southwestern-style quinoa and black bean mix to try, and some tofu-filled ravioli.  So I'm still experimenting with healthier choices, and still trying.  I'm just not quite as passionate about it as I was 50 weeks ago.

But heck, I weigh a lot less now and I have no designs on supermodeldom.  (Is that a word?  It is now.) Why should I be very passionate about losing more?  :-)


PS - As a follow up from last week, our new twin cousins are Leo (Lionel) and Nico.  I just can't wait for the Thanksgiving gathering chaos!  I'll have tiny babies to cuddle!!  Yay!!

Week 49

PJ Weight: 158.6
Week Gain: +1.2
Cumulative Loss: 33.0

Seth Weight: 178.6
Week Gain: +0.4
Cumulative Loss: -20.7

So, there's that gain that I was expecting last week.

Yep.

Rather than write about the depressing numbers up there, I'll just chalk it up to the remaining girl scout cookies and a rather large portion of indifference.

Things that I'm definitely NOT indifferent about: Our cousins are expecting a set of twins* tomorrow afternoon (via c section - hence the specific arrival time) and we're super excited about it.  Jade and Raven will have some playmates at the Thanksgiving get-together, and two of the most amazing people I've ever been fortunate enough to meet will be parents two times over.  (Whether or not you're reading this, good luck guys!!)

At least SOMEONE will be losing weight this week!

And, on that happy note, I'll see you next week.


* An interesting factoid about my growing extended family:  While twins do not run in my or Seth's direct lineage, all of our cousins who have had kids have had twins.  That's 4 sets now.  My first cousins on both my mom's side and my dad's side, and then Seth's first cousins on his Mom's side, and now his ... kind of obscure-relationship'd cousin [mother's first cousin's daughter... Wikipedia failed me... we're going with "cousin"] also on his Mom's side.
(And we're also excited for Seth's cousin on his dad's side, even though she'll be breaking our cousin-twin-streak in a few months!)

Week 48

PJ Weight: 157.4
Week Loss: -1.0
Cumulative Loss: -34.2

Seth Weight:  178.2
Week Gain:  +2.4
Cumulative Loss:  -21.1

I managed to pull off a loss this week, which amazes me.  I had not been very diet-minded since we got our Girl Scout Cookies.  Those things are a plague and a curse.

A tasty, tasty curse.

So, given my long-standing policy of "An Open Box is an Empty Box", I'm surprised I managed to lose.  But in my defense, I only ate one* and shared the rest of them.

And while I'm talking about food that falls into the not-so-good-for-you category, I offer you this picture of my brunch from the other day:

Pancakes are yummy, but are not generally diet food.  Oh well.  At least they were entertaining.

'Til next week then.  (4 to go!)


*box.

Week 47

PJ Weight: 158.4
Week Loss: -0.4
Cumulative Loss: -33.2

Seth Weight:  175.8
Week -0.4
Cumulative Loss: -23.5

I weighed myself yesterday morning and was 157.0.  This morning for the official weigh in, I'm up a pound and a half.

My scale is laughing at me.  

Even so, I lost something this week, so I'll take it.

I managed to make several good choices this week, like eating some apples for a snack instead of donuts, and eating some strawberries or some yogurt for breakfast instead of donuts, and pretty much trying NOT to eat donuts.  I think I had one this week.  Possibly two.  Either way, that's not a bad number.

I cooked my first ever lasagna on Friday night, which came out pretty well, had some homemade gelato that a friend made on Sunday, and I had two nights where there was pizza for dinner, so the fact that I was down a pound and a half yesterday (and half a pound today - STUPID SCALE) should tell you just how good I was the rest of the time.

With any luck the scale will better reflect my efforts next week.

Until next time!

Week 46: Drat! Missed one!

PJ Weight:  158.8
2-week Gain:  +2.4
Cumulative Loss:  -32.8

Seth Weight:  176.2
2-week Loss:  -2.6
Cumulative Loss:  -23.1

So last week was the first week I missed in this 52-week experiment.  At least I have a good excuse.  I was flat on my back for the better part of last week with what the doctors say is benign positional vertigo.  I just call it bloody annoying dizziness.  I was immobilized and therefore getting absolutely no exercise.  I was also bored out of my mind, and couldn't have cared less what I was eating.  Therefore the gain, while not welcome, was not unexpected either.

Seth lost weight over the past two weeks, so Team Mintz actually is down a net 0.2 pounds.  Go us?  Yeah.  Go us!

I have no qualms whatsoever about basking in the glow of Seth's success if it means I can more or less ignore my less than stellar performance this week.  Go Team Go!

While I did have a significant gain, I've been making some healthier choices.  I've been drinking more water - more a product of just being really thirsty than a real desire to avoid soda, but it's a healthier choice nonetheless.  I've also been cutting back on the sweets the past several days.  I had let go while I was sick, but I've reined in again.

Hopefully I will see that gain reverse itself over the next couple weeks.  I'd like to end this whole experience on a happy note.

That's it for me for now.  Have a good week!

Week 44

PJ Weight: 156.4
Week Loss: -1.0
Cumulative Loss: -35.2

Seth Weight: 178.8
Week Gain: +4.0
Cumulative Loss: 20.5

Poor Seth.  He had a week where the only thing to ask is "WTF, Scale?"  He's committed himself to starting anew and really trying to watch himself this coming week, since he was way off the wagon this week past.  And I'm here to cheer him on.  You can do it!  I have faith in you!

I had a decent week despite a cooking a huge pasta and meat sauce dinner on Sunday night to celebrate the Game of Thrones premiere.  I also consumed a whole lot of garlic bread.  So... I'm kind of surprised I pulled out a loss this week.  I'll take it, though!

I also did 10 squats today.  Therefore, I get a gold star for doing something, even if it's only 10 squats.

Oh - and I get another gold star for not eating the piles of cake and hamburgers and hot dogs at the free BBQ buffet at work today.  I just had a half hamburger, and the rest was all veggies, grilled chicken, beans (just a few) and watermelon.  Yay!

Every time I get to a weight around 156.x, I start to think "Hey, maybe this is the week where I'll finally crack into the 155.x's....."

And maybe it is.  If I don't get ambushed by too many chocolate bunnies*.

*Vicious creatures, bunnies.  I'm not alone on this one.  
"Look, that rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide! It's a killer!"  -- Tim, Monty Python and the Holy Grail