Weight Loss Week 18: 6 Pounds to Go

May 6 weight: 168.0
Weight TWO weeks ago: 170
5 day avg weight: 169.8
5 day avg weight two weeks ago: 171.7

All right, finally establishing a beach head in the 160s and just 6 pounds to go. Hopefully I’ll keep the momentum up until I hit my goal. I missed last week’s update because I was traveling and didn’t take the scale with me. So the graph actually has some guesswork in it:

Weight loss graph week 18
Weight loss graph week 18

That’s still about a pound per week, which at this point I’m happy with. My food diary has helped me keep my diet a little more in check, though I still don’t count calories because every time I come across a meal that isn’t prepackaged or served at a restaurant it becomes more trouble than it’s worth to figure out the caloric content and serving size. I’ve just tried to use what I know to eat healthier and in reasonable portions.

The other part of the equation, of course, is that I’m working out a lot. Specifically, I’ve gotten into running more and have been doing weird things like tracking my miles (22 last week) and trying to get my pace down. I’m also running my first 10K race on May 22. I don’t think finishing will be a problem (I ran 13K last Saturday, albeit on a treadmill) so I’m really looking forward to it.

In fact, I’m been so savaged by the running bug that I went out last weekend and did something ludicrous: I bought a pair of shoes specifically designed for running. BEHOLD!

running shoes

The box says they’re “Nike Zoom Structure Trimax+13 size 9.5” I went to a small local shop that specializes in running equipment and the guy there was really helpful. He had me jog the length of the store so he could study my gait –normal, except I turn my right foot a bit and push off of it hard. He then recommended some different kinds of shoes with different types of support that would help me based on that and the types of surfaces I usually run on. I still ended up trying on 8 different pairs before I settled on the ones above. I also decided to go whole hog and buy a couple pairs of socks made from that technical fabric that supposedly “wick away sweat before it reaches the liquid form.” Which is fascinating, because I wasn’t aware that sweat came in any other form than liquid and honestly I’d rather not think about it.

Do the shoes work? Well, they’re definitely lighter, and they feel different. But the psychologist in me wonders how much of any other benefits (less post-workout pain, easier to run, etc.) are are result of the shoes and how much they’re a result of my expectations and desire to justify the expense. Well, either way is fine, I guess.

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