Hello Again and down 22.6 pounds

I know it has been a while since I blogged. I left for Florida on February 8 and took 2 days to get to FL. It was SO COLD (below zero) initially during the the trip, that we didn't get above freezing until we hit South Georgia late Friday Afternoon on February 9. I had accidentally buried my cinch supplies in the middle of the back of my SUV and it was too cold to dig it out. So I spent the first 2 days on the road traveling, just making good choices. It is surprisingly easy to eat healthy on the road these days. Between Wendy's yogurt and salads, Applebee's healthy meals, Subway, etc., it is no longer the kiss of death in weight loss to have to eat on the road.

Finally we unpacked the car and moved into our time share for a week. However, disaster struck. For some reason, my left leg decided to act up. Way back in 1995 I got bit twice by a Brown Recluse Spider and landed in the hospital for over 2 weeks with a very severe case of cellulitis, that the doctors were afraid it would turn into the flesh eating bacteria and they were marking my leg to cut it off!!!. It recurred in 1996 and then off and on in a much less severe way over the years. Well by Sunday, February 11, my leg was very swollen and it really hurt. So I spent most of the week at the time share in bed with my leg propped up to help contain the swelling. It stayed pretty bad all week and when I got home on February 20, it was still really bad. During that time I was half way cinching, but I had no appetite either.

When I got back, the scale showed me UP 15 pounds!! Thank God for Cinch because I knew it was not a real weight gain. It was all related to my leg flareup. I took good care of myself the first week I was back and 10 pounds was gone (probably all that swelling). During this past week, another 7.6 pounds gone. I even enjoyed birthday cake!! (I turned 52 last Wednesday).

What are the lessons learned from this experience? Sometimes, in spite of our best efforts, our body just betrays us. Something is wrong inside and our weight loss aspirations get derailed. At this point, most people just get upset with themselves, blame themselves and quit trying. I know this feeling intimately, as I did that myself many times over the years on almost any program you can name. I am glad I was taught so much about how Cinch works, because I had no reason to beat myself up or think Cinch wasn't working anymore for me.

Weight loss is a very simple thing, in the big picture. To gain a pound, a person has to eat about 3500 more calories than they burn during that same amount of time. I was gone 12 days during my road trip to Florida. At my weight, my body probably consumes about 3000 or more calories a day (Cinch has me on about 2200 calories each day to LOSE fat and thus weight). For me to "gain" 15 real pounds while I was gone, I would have had to eat 42 THOUSAND EXTRA calories in 12 days over and above the baseline needed to be weight neutral. In 12 days, it would have had to be a 6500 calorie a day binge. I don't think I have ever consumed over 3500 or so calories in one day in my life, let alone almost twice that amount.

It is hard to be rational when you have a weight issue. We strive for quick results and perfection. It is very hard when things go well to tackle a "diet" and stay on it longer than a month or two. I am just wrapping up my 10th week today and the past 4 weeks have been a health issue hell. (I hate it when my leg is messed up, the pain is horrible and it is hard to walk and there are just other issues of discomfort I won't bore you with).

In spite of all of this, I am delighted I am down 22.6 pounds and still happy and enthusiastic about my long term success with this program. Now that my leg is back to normal and my mobility is more back to normal, I expect some more turbo results in the next 4 weeks. What is even better are the results my friends are getting on this program. We are cinching together and are living the "less is more" life with great success on Cinch. Stay tuned.