I started this blog to chronicle my marathon training. I don’t focus on my weight or my history with weight struggles, but I’ve mentioned it here and there. In the last few years I have lost weight through a healthy diet and increased activity, plain and simple. Over the past year I have been stuck at about the same weight. To me this is still somewhat of a success because I never before had a handle on maintaining my weight. Despite staying at the same weight my body changed as I trained for a half marathon and began to strength train on a regular basis. I was starting to feel comfortable in my own skin. However, in the last four or five months not much has changed and I am not entirely comfortable in my body. I still carry an extra 20-30 pounds on my 5’2″ frame.

I saw my primary care physician in the second week of marathon training for a physical. He assessed my vital signs, looked over recent lab results and we talked about my health, my diet, my training and lifestyle. He agreed that everything looked great, but he wanted to do an EKG as a precaution. I have never had an EKG before. The EKG picked up a slight irregularity, T wave inversion. Without getting too clinical this reading on the EKG is insignificant in and of itself and since I was asymptomatic (no chest pain, no difficulty breathing) there was no reason to panic without further examination.

I was sent to a Cardiologist. A repeat EKG was performed with the same results appearing. The Cardiologist sat with me for 45 minutes at the end of a Friday. We talked about my health in-depth including family history. He reviewed my labs. My cholesterol levels had improved over the last few years. I had lost over 60 pounds since giving birth to my son in 2006. I have eliminated meat and most dairy products from my diet. The Cardiologist was pleased with all of this information and he enthusiastically gave me the go ahead to train for the marathon under one condition: that I continue to make weight loss a priority and strive to get down about 20 pounds. This would put me at the high end of normal on the BMI scale. I greatly appreciated that the doctor was not placing unrealistic expectations on me yet he was holding me accountable to myself to keep up the work I had been doing to improve my health. As for the EKG results, the doctor encouraged me to go forth with life without worrying about the irregularity because it is likely benign, but obviously stop activity at the earliest sign of chest pain or shortness of breath and call the office.

From early adolescence weight loss was about appearance for me. Since the birth of my son, weight loss is about creating a healthy body and a healthy lifestyle. I don’t want to simply lose the weight without understanding how to keep it off. I don’t want to necessarily get thin I want to get healthy.

Right now I am participating in Biz’s Holiday 2011 Challenge and I am really committed to it. When I signed up to do the challenge my goal was to lose 20 pounds by New Year’s. I got off to a slow start and then broke my rib which brought my physical activity to a screeching halt. Instead of giving up I decided to journal my food and track calories as much as possible. My weight has hovered at 161.5 for the last few months. It fluctuated a bit in the first week that I wasn’t exercising. I weighed myself one morning and was really disappointed to see 163. Once I got a handle on my limitations I stabilized back to 161.5 pounds.

I have been exercising again for a week. I continue to journal my food as often as I can. I have been really trying to limit my snacking especially at work. Yesterday was my first official weigh in for the Holiday Challenge.

Weigh in #1 = 160.4 pounds

I am beyond thrilled. I have re-evaluated my goal for the challenge and as of right now I am committed to losing enough weight to put me into the 140s by New Year’s. That is 11.4 pounds in 11 weeks. This is a manageable goal. I feel like I’m back on track and I’m ready to lose this weight. I know that I will feel better, run a little faster and be closer to optimal health.

My weigh in day was Thursday this week but next week it will be Saturday because of my work schedule and will alternate that way. I prefer to weigh myself in the morning after a night off.

Sorry for being so wordy tonight. I have been wanting to write this for a few days, but had to wait for the weigh in. Thanks for reading 🙂