Twenty-five down

Ever since I posted Hoop Dreams back in February, I've been steadily hooping, dieting, and losing weight, documented mostly in the comments there and occasionally on Facebook.  Time for a Rixo progress report!

This morning, for the first time, I tipped the scales at twenty-five pounds less than I weighed in mid-February when I started keeping track.  That probably represents a slightly larger weight loss, since I didn't dare weigh myself for the first couple of weeks of the diet-and-hoop plan.  But it's a nice, substantial number to reach and represents the halfway point of my goal of fifty pounds total weight loss.  It's only one pound over the lowest weight I've been in the last five years (at least), though I'm cheating somewhat with that comparison since that was before surgery removed five pounds in one fell swoop.

I was actually a little startled at this morning's weigh-in results.  I'd been hovering around a twenty- to twenty-three-pound weight loss for about five weeks now.  I thought I'd plateaued and was planning to just stay in that range for a few months while my metabolism adjusted.  I'm delighted that the weight loss has resumed, though I'm still not making a big effort at it right now since I don't want my body to decide I'm actually starving to death and start conserving calories.

This weight loss has been achieved entirely by controlling my total calorie intake per day and by regular sessions with my hula hoops.  There's no secret, no wacky diet, no restrictions on what foods I can eat, and no gym time or exercise other than hooping and my usual dancing.  But it's working beautifully.

A few notes on the process so far:

1) My eating habits have definitely been altered.  The CalorieCount website I've been using does some not-terribly-subtle behavioral modification in the way it slowly reduces the number of calories you can eat every day and the number of calories exercise burns as you lose weight.  What you eat doesn't matter in theory, but in practice, I end up avoiding high-calorie snacks because that brings my total for the day up too fast.  I haven't actually been tracking my daily calories consistently for the last month, but I've gotten very good at keeping a loose mental tally that apparently is close enough to work.  In very general terms, I eat three meals of about 450 calories each and three snacks of about 100 calories each.  That brings me past my daily minimum of 1600, but I do eat unauthorized snacks and occasionally larger dinners (if I go out with friends).  But I try to keep it under 2000 overall and to stay at about a 500-calories-a-day deficit, which in theory should lead to a one pound weight loss every week.  I'm exceeding that rate slightly.

2) I'm able to hold it steady through stress.  I used to deal with being depressed by eating more.  Not lately.  I went through some pretty serious depression in May and early June.  During the worst of it, I actually didn't eat for two days.  That isn't great, but it's better than wolfing down 6000 calories a day of comfort food.  And when the depression lifted enough to leave me merely grey and down, I went on autopilot and was able to slip back into my routine of particular meals and snacks that give me a predictable number of calories at proper intervals without having to think much about it.

3) Hooping is fun.  I keep learning new tricks.  Lately I've learned to walk around while hooping, which sounds very basic but actually was one of those things that took me forever to get the hang of and develop enough muscle tone for.  I can also spin the hoop on either elbow and toss it from one elbow to the other hand by free-spinning it high in the air.  I'm still not terribly graceful with my lift-ups much of the time, and I'm only slowly making progress on hooping on the upper chest, but I have enough interesting moves to do a forty-five minute workout two to four times a week without getting bored.

4) I have new muscles.  I'm very conscious that hoop moves that were simply impossible for me earlier are now easily doable and that my endurance has increased noticeably.  In February, I could barely keep my big hoop going for a minute without muscle fatigue.  Now I can go for twenty minutes without even thinking about it, and probably could do more except that I switch to doing off-body moves during my workouts.  My little hoop, which I couldn't spin at all as recently as March, I can now keep going indefinitely.  And the upper-body hooping, which involves a move called "cat-cow" (alternate arching the back and thrusting the torso forward in rapid succession) is coming along, when six weeks ago I couldn't do it at all.  Walking while hooping similarly takes dramatic arch-and-thrust motions which are quite easy for me now.  Everything is still buried under a layer of fat, but my core strength is definitely improved, and if I ever manage to peel off all the fat I know there's more muscle underneath it.

5) And I have less flab.  There's still more than I like, especially in my four major trouble spots, but overall, it's a very noticeable difference.  My calves are visibly slimmer, as are my upper legs.  I've lost two inches off my waist and hip measurements and an inch off my thighs and my upper arms.  Clothing fits better; I tried on my 1950s poodle skirt outfit and was amazed at the difference.  And I fit into my 1920s costume without looking like a sausage and without feeling the need to add an overtunic to camoulflage my shape.  I can once again wear skirts I haven't worn in years.  I am buying size L instead of XL.

6) I've established a positive feedback loop.  Every time I weigh in at a new low, I get more enthusiastic about this diet/exercise plan and even better about sticking to it.  I'm losing steadily enough that I get constant good news, which in turn motivates me to keep hooping and keep counting calories.

I don't imagine the next twenty-five pounds will be as easily lost as the first twenty-five (which took four months almost to the day).  And I expect that my weight will fluctuate for a few weeks before settling at this number.  I plan to hold steady on the diet and the hooping without actively trying to reduce calories for the rest of the summer, in order to let my body adjust to its new metabolism.  I will then resume attempts to lose more weight in late August.

Comments

[Carol Witt]

Yay!

[Serge]

Congratulations, Susan!

As for myself, I was pretty much unable to go to the gym for most of the last 2 months. I'm back to my regular visits at ungodly hours. The only reasons I didn't gain any weight and actually lost some is that I had been running around taking care of my wife after her surgery while handling work's constant emergencies and skipping meals inthe process.

I do not recommend that diet.

Again, congratulations.

[Susan de Guardiola]

Skipping meals doesn't work in the long run -- your body decides you are starving and slows your metabolism. That's why I have a minimum number of calories per day.

[Serge]

Luckily for me, my metabolism is so fast that, even when it slows down, it's still ahead of other people's.

[Michael A. Burstein]

Congratulations!

[AJ]

Congratulations, Susan! I'm so glad that you've found something that works for you and makes you happy. It seems like the simple approach is the best, especially for someone as busy as you are.

I love reading about your hoop progress! I went through a similar process of discovering new muscles when I learned belly dance. I'm still discovering new ones, in an effort to improve my rib and ab isolations.

[Mary Aileen]

Congratulations! I'm down 30-35 pounds from May 2008--been pretty stable since last summer. I'm trying to eat somewhat less in general, cutting way down on sodas and sugary snacks, and gradually building up time on my exercise bike. I'd like to lose at least another 15-20 pounds (and love to lost another 50), but I'll be happy just to remain where I am.

Keep up the good work.

[Marilee J. Layman]

Oh great news! I've lost 18 pounds from May 7th until today (nurse called in the middle of the night and I got weighed at the doctor's) and I'm having too many days where I'm not making the required 1000 minimum calories. I'm sure that's part of it, but I'm not showing malnutrition yet.

[Serge]

I don't think I had my minimum of calories over the weekend what with my waking up sick on Saturday. I spent most of that day sleeping until the evening, after which I had about 1.5 glass of water and a few cherries. I felt ok yesterday, but didn't have much appetite: a few scoops of oatmeal, some rice, and the last cherries.

[Susan de Guardiola]

Well, I'm psyched. Without any sort of tracking of my food intake at all I managed to lose another pound over the last week. I imagine that had something to do with the eight hours of exercise a day at my dance week, but I was actually a little worried that I wasn't eating enough food to keep up and my metabolism would shift to starvation mode and prevent any weight loss. And I've been eating like a famine victim since I got back, which seems like it wouldn't help.

I am now at the lowest weight I've been recently (the same place I was in the summer of 2006), but since I cheated with surgery for five pounds, I still need to lose another five to really hit my low point. I'm not actively trying to lose weight right now -- it seems better to just maintain the loss for a few months before another big push this fall -- but I'd be perfectly happy if the pounds just keep trickling away with no big effort on my part.

[Serge]

I'd be perfectly happy if the pounds just keep trickling away

I'm melting, I'm melting!