I’m very late reporting on my weight loss trials and travails for September. I shouldn’t be late with these weight loss posts as they are my most popular posts on this blog. I think it’s because despite differences in politics, religion, etc., we all share the same struggle with weight control, except for those naturally skinny people with self control who never have to exercise. Oh, I hate them so much. Anyway, here we go, better late than never.
When I last posted about weight, I was 3 lbs below my goal weight at the end of August. Success, right? Well, not exactly. September turned cool, my swimming stopped, and my body started to get ready for a winter hibernation by eating everything in sight. I immediately re-reached my goal weight from the opposite direction and shot up above it by several pounds. That’s just how my body works. It doesn’t matter that my steps were strong again in September.
Geez, wouldn’t you think I would make a little extra effort to average 10K steps? Anyway, my body’s metabolism just slows down in cooler weather, maybe to get ready for my winter hibernation? I would be willing to give hibernation a try as I like long naps. Fortunately, the weather warmed again and some of the weight came off. Right at the end of September, my weight had come down to below my goal weight again, but seemed to be heading up. I waited to see what would happen. Well, here’s what happened.
All September and into October. As I publish this post, I am on the way down again, right at my initial goal weight. If I can stay somewhere in that goal weight neighborhood through fall and winter, I’ll consider it a success. At least I won’t have to inhale to zip my jeans or leave the top unbuttoned.
I may have been able to delay boarding this weight loss rollercoaster by leaving my pool up. The weather warmed enough to allow swimming until mid-October, but it developed a case of mustard algae, and I just gave up on pool maintenance. I did make it a total of 24.4 miles swum this summer which got me across Lake Michigan and just a bit futher up the Indiana shoreline, but still a long way from the Michigan border.
23 of those miles were in the pool, so that equates to 8,050 laps. I won’t do that again next summer. I think I want to try more open water swims in various bodies of water including the actual Lake Michigan next summer. That sounds more interesting than swimming laps in our little pool where the most interesting thing that happens is when I get water up my nose.
I’ve started incorporating what I call the Seven Summits walking workouts into my October walks to stave off weight gain. I’ll let you know how October weight loss/gain goes.
Jim Flanigan Looks at the World 