THE GAINITUDE 12/20

After hitting 121 last Wednesday, it pretty much stayed there for Thursday and Friday morning. And Saturday morning, I somehow dropped back down to 119. What. The. Eff. Granted, Friday wasn't my greatest eating day, but a two pound drop seemed a bit extreme. So as usual, I had to resolve to get the weight back.
Saturday was a great eating day thanks to some friends who kept stuffing me full of delicious treats while I helped them with a few tasks they needed assistance with. That got me back on track. And then yesterday included a giant feast in honor of my grandpa's 90th birthday party.

122.8 lbs
23.1 lbs in 53 days


It's weird how I initially thought the weekdays were going to be the gaining periods and then weekends were going to be where I stayed the same, and yet the last two weeks, it's been the exact opposite. Weight remains fairly constant during the workweek, and then shoots up during the weekend.

THE GAINITUDE 12/15 AND THE BONUS CHALLENGE

As I've already passed by "120 by Xmas" goal, I wanted to try to get to another marker as a way to keep motivated.

First off though:

121.2 lbs
21.5 lbs in 48 days


125 is obviously the next goalpost. I had mentioned in one of my previous posts that January 3rd was my next clinic appointment, but that I wasn't sure if hitting 125 by then was realistic.

So I figured I'd create a challenge for myself. Can I get to (or eclipse) 125 by then? I don't see this as a make-or-break type thing. If I don't hit 125 lb by 1/3, it's not going to ruin anything. My weight is still on an upwards trajectory and I'm going to weigh-in higher on 1/3/11 than I did on 11/29/10.

I just see this as an extra "bonus game" I can tack on to the regular Gainitude program. 125 isn't too far off, so with the right mindset and eating habits, I think it's attainable.

THE GAINITUDE 12/14

120.4 lbs
20.7 lbs in 47 days

A bit of a hover day, not that I expected another huge increase after the big weekend.

Yesterday was also my first day back at the gym after a few weeks off. The exercise routine is back on track.

THE MILESTONE GAINITUDE 12/13

Last week was a see-saw. One day up, one day down. I was staying between the 116-118 range, but I wasn't making forward progress. I really was worried I had hit a gaining plateau and it was going to take a major change to push it any further. Considering I was still under halfway to my goal weight, I didn't want a stall-out, or even worse, get stuck in a slow and gradual decline.
On Friday, I just refocused on trying to eat as many calories as I could over the weekend. I had the fortune of having holiday parties on both Saturday and Sunday where eating was the main event. A great way to pack in the cals. Add in extra snacks, a couple big meals, and a protein shake here and there, and the weekend was incredibly successful, and it showed on the scale this morning.

120.2 lbs
20.5 lbs in 46 days.


So yes. I hit my next Milestone goal. I had wanted to do it by Christmas...getting there with 12 days to go is nice.

I'm now over halfway to my goal. I've gained 20.5 lbs and need to gain 19.8 lbs to hit 140. I'm shocked I made it this far this fast. Back in October, 120 seemed like a distant pipe dream. And yet a month and a half later, I'm here and still going strong.

The next milestone goal is 125, which is the weight that my dietician at the CF clinic wanted me to hit. I'm not sure if I can hit 125 by my appointment on January 3rd, but I will try. Guess it's time to load up on the Christmas cookies.

THE GAINITUDE 12/07

I was actually a little worried to set foot on the scale this morning. I only had two full meals yesterday, and while the meals were fairly large, it wasn't my normal amount. I also didn't have any extra snacks or a protein shake or anything. It was pretty much a textbook example of a mediocre eating day. I was sure I was going to see a dip on the scale, especially since I thought my number yesterday was inflated.

119.0 lbs
+19.3 lbs in 40 days


Happy to see even a not-so-great eating day got a little bump, even if it's just a point two.

Today is going to be a concentrated effort to eat a ton. I want to reach parity with the clinic scale.

THE GAINITUDE 12/06

I made a good effort over the weekend to pack on some extra calories to make up for whatever was lost in the neutral week.

 118.8 lbs
+19.1 lbs in 39 days


So I'm happy I got weight back on. I think this number may be a tad inflated, but I guess we will see what the scale says tomorrow. Regardless, I'm back on track towards 120+ by Christmas.

THE NEUTRAL POSITION

I apologize to my .3 readers for the lack of updates. Hopefully you'll understand why. This week has unequivocally been stupid as hell, and has made it hard for me to follow The Gainitude program as strictly I had in the past month.

I look at this week as a good learning experience.

After the clinic visit on Monday, I was fully prepared to keep going full steam ahead with the diet and exercise programs as usual. But, as sometimes happens, life gets in the way.

The biggest "issue" this week was stomach related. Not sure what caused it, but Wednesday and Thursday were pretty rough on the old gut. I will not get into gory details, but I was making more bathroom pitstops than I normally do. It's hard for a CF'er to pin down exactly what could be causing GI distress because there's so many factors (bad food, medication). I took steps to try to isolate the issue, and things seem to be returning back to normal.

This episode did cause my to drop a little bit of weigh. Not a lot though. This morning I weighed in at 117. My high before was 118.4, but I did feel this was a bit inflated. In a way, the GI issue acted as a reset to any excess bloat that may have been padding my numbers. My weight didn't drop dramatically. 117 is still good. If anything, I'm happy for the reset. I've been sprinting for a month straight, and my body involuntarily got a little breather. That's fine with me. At least for a couple of days.

The thing I'm most upset about is the lack of exercise this week. The last time I got a workout in was Saturday. Every day I make plans to hit the gym, and something comes up. The first couple missed days can be blamed on some sore muscles in my feet from previous workouts. But the other days were just a myriad of various unforeseen roadblocks: Whether it's helping a friend with a project, staying super late at work, or nursing the previously mentioned stomach. They are legit excuses, but I still feel terrible falling off the bandwagon so easily this week. Luckily, my lungs don't feel like they've suffered too many ill-effects, but I need to get back to the program as soon as possible.

If anything, this week showed me how easy it is to go into neutral (and potentially reverse) on this program. The last thing I want, or need, is to revert back to my old habits. I've decided this week was a lost one in terms of progression. Now I just have to make sure next week is back to the grind.