Jackie and Dan’s Journey, Week 9

Taking a trip down nostalgia lane as I write this, listening to the OST for Illusion of Gaia…

Anyhoo, here’s our health journey update for this week!

Dan:

My goals for this week were to sleep at least eight hours a night, and get all my food at work from somewhere on the salad bar.  The sleep issue was difficult for the beginning of the week, as I was struck with a bout of insomnia that lasted until Wednesday night.  Thankfully, after that I managed to get in the groove and pick up between six and eight hours of sleep a night.  Even before that, just going to bed and relaxing in the dark through the insomnia helped.  The salad bar goal went quite well, and I found lots of yummy stuff to sate my hunger there, including rediscovering my love for chickpeas.

All in all, it was a good week, weight-wise.  I dropped 2.2 pounds in the week.  This was also without exercise, as my goal was to normalize my sleep schedule before I attempted to throw exercise into the mix, as the two were starting to destabilize each other.  As such, this week’s goals will be to continue my better sleep schedule and eating habits, and work exercise back into my routine again.  I’m shooting for at least one strength workout and two cardio workouts between now and next Sunday.  Wish me luck!

Last Week’s Weigh-in: 209

This Week’s Weigh-in: 206.8

Jackie:

So another brutal workout week for me.  I also had to go to the gym by myself for the first time.  My trainer(our friend, Steve) wrote up a routine for me and expected me to accomplish it on my own.  I felt silly and self conscious at times, but I persevered!  Overall my experience to date has been extremely emotional and difficult.  My weigh in this week was 196.  This is higher than when I started my new life plan in January.  So 3 months in and into my 4th week working out seriously and I find myself up in weight by 7 lbs since my lowest weigh in of 189.  To say the least it is a serious blow to my belief that I can lose weight.  I have been panicking lately because I NEED to lose weight.  I want to look and feel like a million bucks on my wedding day which is 95 days away.  My biggest failure has to be food.  I just can’t seem to get a grasp on what it is my body needs (or doesn’t) in order to begin losing.  It is extremely emotional to constantly try so hard and do nothing but gain.  It really is a part of me that no one seems to understand.  I’m always surrounded by friends and family (99% male) who change their diet for 1 day and drop 3 lbs.  I had expected to see results by now and I begin to doubt that what I am doing is any good or if I should just quit.  For now, I’m barely hanging in there.

Last Week’s Weigh-in: 193.8

This Week’s Weigh-in: 196

I’m gonna follow up on these posts again to say that Jackie’s predicament is not uncommon among people trying to lose weight.  The emotional aspect of weight loss is frequently the biggest road block for people that are trying to lose weight.  That said, I have to once again reinforce that weight is not the best gauge of fitness.  Jackie was feeling particularly down after that post, so we did a side-by-side comparison of her in underwear from the start of our journey, and today(no, the underwear pictures are never seeing the light of day here).  While she may have gained weight this week because of muscle gain, she has actually lost a significant amount of fat around her abdomen, giving her much more of an hourglass-shaped figure than when we started out(even though she’s a pound heavier now than when we started).

I am immensely proud of my wife for continuing to persevere in the face of these challenges, and I know she’s going to see the kind of progress she’s looking for by the time the wedding comes around in June.

That’s it for today.  Tomorrow is a grab bag post, and then Tuesday starts a new Character Breakdown, with Dante, from the Devil May Cry series!  Until then, live boldly, change the world, and continue to be awesome.

Dan “DaRatmastah” Wallace