It was one of those weeks where my body fought back. I'm sure it realized I was going for a long-term calorie deficit, and it responded with a 'hell no we ain't doin' that."  I stepped on the scale to discover I'd lost 0.8 of a pound.  My app is set for 1.5 pounds, and I ate far less calories than I was allowed last week. 

This was discouraging, because I felt like I hadn't understated my calories and I exercised. 

I reminded myself if I let the weekly number on the scale control my perspective about my progress, then I am too narrowly focused on one thing. Yes, I've shown you 'THE NUMBERS' to prove how weight loss works, but I forgot that progress and success are not only measured by a number on the scale. Yes, that number on the scale is important, but it's important over time, not just at one point in time. A number of things can impact our weight in a week:

For women, we can retain water at certain times of the month, which means excess water weight.

Our body decides to slow our metabolism down because it knows we are eating less calories and then our BMR decreases, which means we burn fewer calories just on normal bodily function.

Our body has added some muscle that week and muscle weighs more than fat.

Maybe our digestive system isn't performing regular elimination, and we have excess waste to get rid of.

We didn't exercise as much that week.

Or, maybe, we miscounted our calories.

A lower weight loss than expected can be attributed to some or all of these things.

Last week was a bit challenging for me because we didn't have in-person yoga classes. One cancellation was due to a big snowstorm that barely snow-dusted my back deck, yet the anticipation of a big snow event shut down our small town.  This storm, as you probably heard, dumped 7 inches of snow two hours south of us in the Houston area.  The second cancellation was because our yoga instructor had an appointment.  This means I had to motivate myself to do yoga on my own.  

Self-motivation can be challenging for me at times. For example, I was fine with doing full yoga classes on Tuesday and Thursday online and two 15-minute yoga stretch classes on other days, but on Saturday, the day I usually take the YouTube class, I had to force myself. Maybe it was because we were preparing to leave to go babysit the grandkids not long after that.  It's almost two hours in the car to get to their house.  I was also going to meet up with someone selling a used ski package around the corner from my son's house (which didn't work out as the boots were a 1/2 size too small.) That was looming which was a little stressful because you never know how these meetups are going to go or if the person will even show up.

After we arrived at my son's house, a storm front came through. That, along with the workout agitated my arthritis. Walking was a little painful and I could barely manage to climb the stairs to the second floor of their home as the area around my Achilles tendons was very sore. I used the railing to support myself to climb and descend and felt more like 80 something instead of 60 something.  It was a stark reminder that there is certainly pain with gain and makes me less reluctant to engage in activities that are going to cause me pain later. I popped two Ibuprofen tablets before bed and woke up feeling much better. Better living through LEGAL chemistry is a thing when you get older.  Having gone through all that, I'm very glad I did a yoga class on Saturday because I feel like I accomplished something physical, which keeps me on track. 

My son and daughter-in-law had their date, came home to check on the kids and decided to go pick up ice cream from a local shop around the corner. I am proud that I refused their offer to get me some, slurping up my 80 calorie Greek yogurt instead. I did, however, have a spoonful of my husband's Buckeye crunch.  I'm okay with that. I had calories left over as I'd had salad for dinner. 

I also didn't feel much like walking this week either, but I did get in three two-mile walks.  I would have walked a fourth time, but it was raining out.  I didn't hate it once I got started but getting myself out the door required me to remind myself that I lost more weight by walking the week before last so I dragged my butt out the door.

I know that an outside nudge regarding exercise helps me to be accountable. Knowing I'm going to get a text if I miss yoga is one way that I stay on track. I've also noticed how my strength, flexibility and balance are improving, which definitely helps.  The yoga has benefited me so much that I don't feel like I need to rush back to my old routine at the gym. Yeah, I still haven't gone back to the gym. My wrist is still bothering me so I'm reluctant to do anything to aggravate it further.  I'm pretty sure I sprained it Thanksgiving Day, and because I've not kept it wrapped, it's taking a long time to heal.

We had date night as usual, and we went to the local steakhouse. I like going there as it is familiar, I can easily stick to my diet there, and there isn't much temptation.... except for the dinner rolls. We had a really nice chatty young server who was very accommodating.   The steakhouse serves a basket of tiny bread rolls and I thought "They are small, how many calories could they possibly be?"

When our server came back to ask if we needed anything, I asked her if she knew how much the rolls weighed. My thought was they must weigh them for consistency as they make them there. She didn't look at me like I was a weirdo for asking. She said, "I've never been asked that before, let me check for you."  She flagged down an older gentleman who worked there and asked him, and he said he didn't know but told me he would put one on a scale in the kitchen to check, if I wanted. I asked, "Could you?" and he smiled and nodded. He actually did it and returned to tell me a roll weighed between 0.5 and 0.8 ounces. Okay! that was helpful information. Now I could use that in My Fitness Pal to properly log a roll, if I want one, which I did. I chose 0.65 an ounce and logged a dinner roll at that weight.  People are willing to go above and beyond to help you with your weight loss goals, if only you would ask. 

Since we are talking about bread, I did try another new bread product this week. I bought some keto-friendly L'Oven Fresh bagels (90 calories) at Aldi. They had plain ones so I thought I would try those. I try to eat the keto bagels on days I'm doing yoga as they have more protein than the diet bread I eat for toast. I tried one this morning. As compared to the Sola bagels at 110 calories that I mentioned in a previous post, I think I prefer the Sola bagels, even though they have more calories. The Sola bagels seem a bit denser and have more substance to them than the L'Oven Fresh bagels. The Sola bagels also had more flavor.  One thing about these types of bagels: They are bland, so I think they taste better with something smeared on them. I would splurge on some sugar free low-calorie jam to spread on them, if you are going to try them.   

I'm now getting ads for Royo bagels all over my social media feeds.  These are mail-order, keto-friendly, 80 calorie bagels.  I may try those at some point. Maybe when we are at camp this summer, and I can't find the low-calorie keto bagels. 

I'm going to ignore what the scale said this week because I feel like I did well. If my weight loss slows some more, I'm going to have to revisit it.  I do have a thyroid issue that is controlled with medication. It could be that the amount of medication I need for that condition has changed and impacted my metabolism, but I doubt it as I do not have any other symptoms pointing to that. 

It was a really good week with respect to keeping to the calorie count I wanted to. I did not have any cravings or snacking urges. I think my body is finally adjusting to lower sugar and carbohydrates. 

(Photo courtesy of Dmitry Zvolskiy)