Weight Loss Journey – Ki’s Progress
It’s October. Oh boy…it’s October. Okay so, October is a pretty fun month what with Halloween and the holidays approaching and whatnot. But for me, there’s been a pattern over the last decade where things just go wrong in my life and it winds up being a highly stressful month which usually causes me to move mountains to make it through the month.
One year, it was that my truck broke down and I needed to spend over $3,000 to replace the engine. Another year, something went wrong with my insurance enrollment and caused me to not get a paycheck for a month and a half! It’s almost always something financial that tries to break me during the month of October and it always starts the first week and carries on throughout the month.
Since I’m aware that this has been the pattern over the last decade or so, I usually prepare for it ahead of time whenever possible. I set up an “October fund” and save up as much extra money as I can to cover the expenses of the October attack. This year I forgot.
On top of that, I ran out of pain meds early in September and the pharmacy informed me there were no more authorized refills. I have to see my doctor again to get them refilled. I have an appointment in November and probably wouldn’t convince the VA to let me in sooner. For those of you that are unfamiliar with Rheumatoid Arthritis, with the meds… every joint in my body just aches 24/7. My elbows, my knuckles, my shoulders, my hips, my knees, my ankles, even my toes…they just ache. It just eats at me.
On the meds, I tend to forget how much it just eats at you so, off the meds, it seems I start getting depressed and my strength as a fighter starts to diminish. My best friend called me yesterday and asked me what was going on. As I was spilling the stress out, I realized that I was letting it defeat me. I guess maybe as we get older, we more quickly get tired of fighting. Of course, Beck offered some suggestions and some help, but really it was the, “you’re a fighter, you’re strong and you should be proud of yourself for listening to your body,” that served as the kick in the ass to not let this stuff defeat me.
I’ll call the doc today while I lace up my gloves and stare at October on the other side of the ring. It’s on.
This Week’s Stats
It was toward the end of the week that I took a rapid decline and started to give up, but I started off the week real strong. Despite my two down days, I beat my goal five days this week compared to only once on my baseline! I took 25,040 more steps this week with an average of 6,055 steps per day.
I worked out 3 of 3 days instead of the 0 of 3 in my baseline and walked 10.46 miles more than the last week. I even slept 50 minutes more than last week, only 2 minutes short of that 7 hour goal I set way back when! And with all of that effort, I lost 2.2 pounds. Despite October, it was a very successful week.
As far as the October Killer Cardio challenge goes, I missed Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I am very disappointed in myself for that because it was just a combination of the arthritis, my back injury, and October that ganged up on me and beat me down. I stayed down for a couple of days but guess what, I got back up ready to fight. So let’s do this.
New Goals
Goal #1 – Diet Log – My diet goal for this week was to start tracking every food or drink I consume again. I did very well with it. I tracked everything except some of the Halloween candy my son and I have been munching on. Yes, I know…candy is so not conducive to losing weight. I’m going to worry about that in November. October is a stressful month, the sweets will keep me sweet.
My caloric intake is okay for the most part, most days. But I obviously have a problem with sugar and salt. Sugar will be a problem all month. It is what it is. But I need to start working on bringing that sodium down so I can keep my blood pressure under control. So this week’s goal will be to keep sodium intake to under 3,000.
Goal #2 – 30 Min. Cardio / 7 days – My exercise goal this week was to get at least 30 minutes of cardio in every single day. I did not meet this goal. As I explained in my Sunday Stats post, I’m out of pain meds and I got sidetracked with something stressful on Friday and the challenge went out the window for the weekend. I am back on track today and will keep this goal the same this week even though I already missed Sunday.
Goal #3 – 64 ounces of water per day tracked – I didn’t do well with this challenge either this week. I ate out twice and, both times, I consumed enough soda to match the day’s requirement in Mountain Dew. Not cool, I know. So, this goal also will stay the same this week. I need to make this a habit and stick to it.
Goal #4 – 6 hours of sleep per night – My sleep goal this week was to get 6 hours or more of sleep each night. I achieved that all but 1 day this week. I missed it by 4 minutes. I’m going to call this a successful week for sleep. I felt good and did not get sleepy throughout the week. So, I’m going to keep this goal the same at 6 hours of sleep each night.
Lets Go!
Overall, my week was pretty good. Had I not eaten out twice, and not allowed my son to bring home my Reese’s Peanut Butter cups, we would’ve done really well. But it’s a stressful week and the chronic pain is starting to get to me, so I’m going to treat myself to sugar this month for Halloween and make up for it next month.
I’ll be back this time next week to let you know if I met these goals of mine.
How was your week? Did you meet your goals this week? What are you currently trying? Let us know in the comments below!
Remember, forget skinny…train to be a fit badass!
~Ki
a.k.a. Roadrunner
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