100 Pounds in a Year?

Happy Thanksgiving weekend everyone.  I'll tell you more about my weekend a little later, but first, I have a bigger landmark I'd like to talk about.

Today is the 1-year anniversary of the beginning of my journey.  365 days ago I started this blog with a simple and incredibly ambitious goal, to lose 100 pounds over the course of a year.

So, a year later, how have I fared?  When I started 52 weeks ago, I weighed 296 pounds.  I was ashamed of my weight.  I felt unhealthy.  And I was extremely frustrated.  A year later, I weigh 245.7.  I've lost 50.3 pounds.  I didn't make my goal of losing 100 pounds in a year.

I started my first post by posing the question, "Am I being too ambitious?"  It's a year later and I know the answer.  No.  If I hadn't set the bar so high, I wouldn't have lost anywhere near the 50 pounds that I lost.  It doesn't matter that I missed my goal.  My health, my looks, and my self esteem are all 10 times better than they were a year ago. 

Where does this leave me now?  Well, I'm not giving up on my goal to lose 100 pounds.  I'm halfway there as it is.  In the next few days I'll put together a new time-line to reach my goal.  Over the next few months, I'm going to redouble my efforts and really work for weight loss.  It's very clear that I've done some coasting, but I'm going to change that. 

I'm also thinking of changing the name of my blog since I didn't lose 100 pounds in a year.  Any suggestions?

I have had a busy weekend.  On Thanksgiving, we went over to Claire's aunt and uncle's house.  I didn't restrict my eating but I logged everything I ate.  I noticed that even though I didn't restrict my diet, sometimes writing things down made decide not to eat them.  The extra step it took to eat food made me think twice about snacking.  For your scrutiny, I present my thanksgiving meal.

3 pieces of my mother-in-law's delicious s'mores fudge.  Yum!
3 servings of crackers
2 servings of cheese (cheddar and pepper jack)
1 handful of mixed nuts (almonds, pistachios, cashews, brazil nuts)
3 pieces of almond bark
1 brie and chive biscuit
2 cups of mashed potatoes made with sour cream and butter
2 cups of turkey
1/2 cup wild rice stuffing
3/4 cup bread stuffing
1/4 cup gravy
1 piece of dutch apple pie
2 tablespoons of whipped cream

I also had two blueberry muffins for breakfast that day.  The total calorie count was around 3500 calories.  That's almost 300 calories below the average American's daily caloric intake. *  It is kind of gross that the average American eats more on a regular day than I ate on Thanksgiving.

I woke up early on Friday morning to stand in line for a Black Friday deal on a printer.  I was extremely cold.  Extremely cold.  I think that here in the northernmost contiguous state, we should move Black Friday to August. 

After a morning of shopping, I headed to the gym to get the most intense workout I've had in a while.  Since the weather has turned inhospitable to my ability to stay upright on a bike, I've started to lose some strength and endurance. 

I performed "poor" on the treadmill fitness test.  Last time I scored "fair" (which sounds mediocre, but was really a big deal for me).  Afterward, I did bench press, curls, shoulder press, and lunges, then spent 20 minutes on the elliptical.  I thought the muscles I built in my legs from cycling so much the last few months would help with the lunges.  Nope.  I can barely walk now.

Yesterday, we went to my parents for Thanksgiving part 2.  We had a nice lasagna with wheat noodles, 93% lean ground beef, and cottage cheese.  Very healthy.  Thanks mom!

I'm really not sure what my weigh in is going to look like tomorrow.  I know one thing, no matter what the result, I'm proud of how far I've come in the last 365 days.  Let's see what I can do in the next 365.

*I was unable to find a primary source on this number.