Day 27. Crossing the Line.

Today I woke up to heavy rain and an even heavier me. 324.0 on the scale again. I started thinking where I could have gone wrong yesterday. Maybe I went too hard for too long on my walk and my exercise became anaerobic. Maybe I didn't eat enough calories to keep my metabolism going. Maybe it was both of these things, or maybe it was sodium. Again.

I reviewed my journal and thought about where the sodium was hiding in my meal plan. Sausage patties, check. Soy sauce in my tuna salad recipe, check. The Fritos with the chili last night, check. It was everywhere, and it was driving my progress toward a plateau.

Time to walk it off, one more time.

I dug around in the garage and found a camping poncho that I bought a few years ago and never opened. I was a little nervous about the size on the label, though:

I've been down this road before. "One size fits most" typically doesn't include me. But I opened the poncho and tried it on, and wouldn't you know it? I was good to go!

And into the rainy morning I went.

It took a while to get used to the poncho. Things were definitely heating up under there. By the end of 4.5 miles the torso of my sweatshirt was just as soaked as my sleeves and sneakers. I was confident there was another big water dump, but it was not to be. The post-walk reading was 323.0.

I promised to be honest, so I graphed it:

This measurement marked the first time that I have crossed the line. I can't express how discouraging I found that sight, especially so close to the goal. What else can I do? I've exercised 27 days in a row, kept my blood sugar in check, stopped snacking...why am I not only hitting the plateau, but going in reverse?

I needed a new strategy: Flush the sodium. One glass of water every hour until 7 pm.

Tomorrow morning I'll know if it worked. Until then, I've been preparing myself to implement the nuclear option: a 48-hour fast. This is highly recommended in the book I've been using to direct my weight loss, but I wasn't planning to try it until phase two. But, as the old cliche goes, desperate times call for desperate measures.

Pursuing this goal started out so easy and all of the obstacles were inconsequential. Why do they suddenly seem insurmountable, just days from the end?



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General disclaimers: In my posts I describe things that I am doing to reclaim my health based on what I know about myself. Please don't emulate my actions. I'm not a doctor, and when you read things in my blog they are not meant as advice to you or anyone else. They are simply a record of my own experience. Things like abandoning prescribed medicines and walking for miles while dealing with morbid obesity are bad ideas, but I'm an idiot and do them anyway. Don't be like me. Talk to your doctor before making major lifestyle changes, please. Also, if I write about a product, service or book and provide a link to it, you should assume that I'm part of a related affiliate program. This blog needs to be supported somehow!