Week 2, Day 7: Another four pounds have run away from home! Ciao!

I went to my meeting tonight and when they did my weigh-in, I have lost another four pounds!  Combined with last week, that's seven pounds total! I'm stoked. The blood pressure is still high (162/105). When I met with the doctor for my med check he said that if it is still high at the next med check in two weeks that he would refer me to my primary physician for a blood pressure prescription.

But seven pounds! I feel awesome.

The doctor did the class presentation tonight about the importance of exercise in helping us lose the weight and not regain it. Men can work out as much as they want, but they advise women to limit it to no more than 45 minutes a day, as too much exercise on this MWM plan can stall weight loss.  Our group leader handed out pedometers which we are supposed to wear everywhere, all day long. The goal is to walk at least 5000 steps per day, and work up to 10,000 steps. We are also asked to do resistance four times a week.

He told us that if we don't exercise while losing lots of weight, we risk messing up our metabolism for six years. I'm not too sure about that. I think he might have been trying to scare us into exercising. There are probably some people who are metabolically challenged due to illness and/or certain medications, etc. But many folks use their "slow metabolism" as an excuse to remain overweight.

I dusted off my Leslie Sansone DVDs, which have helped me in the past. She does a walking in place routine, a mile at a time, and there is a resistance component as well. I still have the bands from before. I like Leslie...she's sort of like a grown-up chipper cheerleader.

This is exciting. My sciatica is acting up but I am still anxious to start walking. I have my alarm set to get up earlier tomorrow morning to get my first workout in. And then, I hope to do a second one after work. The doctor said it would be okay to break up the 30 minutes, or 45 minutes (whatever we do) into two or three shorter workouts.

I learned an interesting thing and a funny thing in the doctor's lecture. The interesting thing is that "false hunger" lasts about 11 minutes. If we feel the urge to eat when it's not time to eat, he said to drink some water and wait 11 minutes. If it's false hunger, it will pass. If it's real hunger, we will still feel hungry after more than 11 minutes have passed, have some product.

The funny thing: He actually told us not to smoke marijuana! I figured that went without saying, but he said that participants in the past have toked up and since it lowers the inhibitions and at the same time, provokes  the munchies...well, you know the rest.  But while he was talking about pot, he was looking directly at me. I guess I look like the dopehead in the group.

That gave me a giggle...I had to share.