Sunday morning at 157.5.

This is how I feel when I look at my scale -- I'm quoting last night's Saturday Night Live: "Nothing matters anymore."

FWIW, I had to eat below 1400 cals for 3 weeks straight before I lost the first 1/2 pound (for 3 weeks, weight actually went up and back down to starting point). Since then, my weight has been inching fractionally lower week by week but with big swings in the wrong direction for DAYS at a time. It apparently takes 10 days for me to gain 5 pounds, but 10 weeks to lose it again. Ugh.

Jessica - hey there! And yes, this is a transition. Don't despair yet.

I've weighed exactly the same (well, plus or minus a few ounces) for five weeks now. I've exercised hard five days every week. I've gotten up at 4am many days to get it in. I got in exercise every day on my busiest work week of the entire year. I've done yoga every single day - halfway through my second 30 day yoga with Adriene camp. I've counted calories. I've logged every day. I've worked on steps and incidental movement. I've been back on track since 3/27. In the first two weeks I lost five pounds. In the five weeks since then, nothing. Not a bit. It is disheartening and makes me not give a flip. I'm trying to say it is a transition, too.

Tomorrow is my birthday. After running all over and hours of driving for MD events this weekend I'm wiped out. I'm taking off work. Day 15 of yoga camp is a 40 minute one, I'll do that. I'm in the middle of the creativity pack on headspace, but I think I'll do a one off single one instead, and coming back to the pack Tuesday. I'm considering a timed 45 or maybe 60 minute. Or, maybe 30,as now that I type it out the longer time is a little scary. I've done headspace 469 days in a row now, but the longest one has been 25 minutes. We'll see. I'm not likely to do much formal exercise. I have a few things to do in the garden, want to take a bath with my bath fizzy my mom gave me. Dinner out maybe. Nothing too complicated. Then start back up Tuesday.

Monday morning, at 158.3. Last week after my doctor appointment and particularly over the weekend, I wiped out any loss I'd managed in the previous week.

I can't blame this on stress. My manager was out on vacation all last week. In fact, even when she's here, she's barely thinking about us because she's so caught up in the transfer of intellectual property & content that is an inevitable followup of the big acquisition. I'm just keeping documents flowing through, keeping operations running, that's all.

Maybe it was less incidental movement than usual over the weekend, as I got a big armload of library books on Saturday, something I haven't done in ages, and spent a good part of both days reading. Just commercial fiction, nothing to be proud of, but getting the reading habit back is big.

Obviously I love reading (as I'm a children's librarian), but it surprises me sometimes that I can go a spell without any real reading. I sat down yesterday and read for quite awhile rather than find something on the TV-- and I read in the tub-- twice-- as I exercised twice yesterday--- it was nice...

Happy birthday Shannon!!!

I had an adventure Saturday running a 50K in our local forest. It was the hardest thing I've ever done. The climbs and descents were steep, 6800' of each, but the worst part was the mud. After days of rain, it was slick and deep everywhere. And like an idiot, I didn't think to get some trail running shoes and just wore street running shoes. Every step I took, I slid. The uphills were Sisyphean - I had to take the same step multiple times before I could get anywhere. Of course it rained the entire race too, and was in the 40s. I had a few good falls and twisted my knee, with 20 miles left to go. But I finished the d*** thing.

Shannon! Happy Birthday!! Have a lovely day.

JZJ - wow! Congrats on the finish! Hope the knee is okay.

Happy birthday Shannon! I'm trying to tell myself that the reason the scale isn't moving is because I've been working so hard on strength training, so the muscle I'm building is offsetting weight loss. It's a nice thought, but if it was true my clothes would fit differently and they don't. Oh well. This may be the case for you though!

And wow JZJ, good job finishing that!

I kept everything in line this weekend for an average calorie count for the week of less than 1300. I've stuck with lower calories long enough now that I'm not hungry all the time, which is good progress. I'm concerned about my upcoming vacation next month though. I had hoped I'd be able to lose a significant amount of weight ("significant" meaning like 5lbs) before then, but it looks less and less likely, and I don't want to have to eat super clean during my vacation.

JZJ - when you don't post for a while I always imagine you're out there doing some incredible sporting feat! Amazing. Look after that knee.

Good to see you here again, Jessica.

Tuesday morning, at 159.4. I am somewhat incredulous. And I've regained this over a week, without eating a single thing that I really enjoyed. One thing I've got is an aching big toe joint. That's likely to be arthritis. We've had a cold, damp spring, with heat coming on every day, but the temperatures are supposed to spike this week and head upward, into nearly 90 degrees.

JZJ, that whole run, that feels like it is just a metaphor for the stuff we have to get through, personally and professionally, and no, we're never wearing the right shoes.

Jessica, you will probably get a whoosh of delayed gratification. As for me, at this point, losing five pounds would take me an entire summer.

JayZeeJay-- that sounds ummm..... like a memorable experience! I hope you're recovered somewhat.

Speaking of appropriate shoes, I've got to figure out what kind of shoes to get for hiking through Italy in the heat of the summer-- I've been looking at both trail shoes and lightweight hiking shoes. Wish I knew which shoes would be best! I'll be hiking 10-15 miles a day-- all sorts of terrain-- some flat and some elevation.

Saef, your metaphor made me chuckle because I was thinking the exact same thing as I slid and swore my way through that sucker - that this is a lot like the rest of life.

Silver, I think I am just more likely to post here when I've done something "extreme" like this. Otherwise life is pretty mundane, and I confess that weight loss/maintenance is not often on my radar these days. Although watching the gazelle-like lead runners dance through mud and up hills as if they were weightless should be motivating; simply losing 20 lbs would likely be better preparation for such a race than all of the training runs that I did.

Michelle, my go-to shoes for those travel situations have been Merrells. They have great hiking shoes, and also cute casual shoes that are incredibly comfortable. Once I walked 30 miles in a day in a pair of their slip-on mesh shoes and was fine.

Part of it depends on the width of your feet. I wear Salomon light hiking shoes year round and I walk on different terrain during the day. I probably do about 15-20K per day. My feet are wide and I find these are the best fit for me. Second would be Merrell and I've also had some success with North Face and LL Bean. Bought light hikers (low cut in summer and ankle cut in other seasons) from all of these manufacturers and they all have a reasonable shoe in different price points. Salomon are also the most lightweight of the brands I mentioned.

Dagmar