Check-in: Day 11

The last few days have seen no shortage of things to keep me occupied, but I didn't want to lose sight of my goal from before the new year to shed 25 pounds of fat. Here's where we're at:

I have to own that I haven't been terribly regular with any sort of exercise since the clock started. I've been to the gym a few times (mostly to the pool), but I have yet to set my bike up in my office or clear the boxes off my weight bench. I did manage to get up early on Friday to do some work on my core muscles before school started (oh, sweet gods, but I need to do more of that kind of work), but I didn't even hear my alarm yesterday. I have the ability to set a second alarm on my watch, so I'll do that until I've reached the point where my body's internal clock has adjusted to getting up at 5:30 in the morning.

Another part of the equation of weight and fat loss for me involves medication. I've been taking synthetic thyroid hormone to replace what my thyroid is no longer producing and this, I've discovered, has a dramatic effect my appetite, my energy level and how my body processes food. My doctor and I are still tweaking the official dosage, but I think I've discovered that I need more of it in the fall and winter that I do in the spring and summer. I didn't increase my dosage when school started, which might have contributed to why I put on as much weight as I did when I stopped paying attention to what I was eating. This reinforces the importance of being mindful of my diet during the colder months.

I've been better about paying attention to food lately. Fatty's has come and gone, and there is less on my plate now, with more of it being veggies. I'm drinking more water and less coffee. I had dessert last night, but that was a special treat because we were invited to dinner chez Mahk and Lisa (a wonderful and very welcome surprise). Such indulgences are rare for me anyway, but I'll be particularly aware of them now that I have a goal to meet. It always takes a couple of weeks for me to fully bring myself back into line when it comes to food, but I feel like I'm making good progress.

The journey to lose 25 pounds of fat is one that will take all of the 90 days I committed to it, but I've done much of what I need to do in these early days to see that goal realized. Over the next week, I'll focus on the habit of daily exercise and in making sure that the end-of-semester grading craziness doesn't distract me from eating right or getting good sleep. I'll check in again next week

Day 1: 204 lbs.
Day 9: 200 lbs. (-4)