I went to the doctor on Wednesday to get her to fill out a release form for the fitness center at my office. The scale at the doctor's office says I'm down to 206. The scale in my bathroom, however, insists I'm still in the 207-208 area. At least both numbers are better than the 215 that registered on the first day I bought the scale.
So what do I believe? The scale in the doctor's office, or the scale in my bathroom? The optimist in me would like to believe the former, but the realist in me thinks the latter number provides more of an incentive to work.
It's been two weeks since I started to work out in earnest, and the novelty of adding a new activity to my day has worn off. I'm already starting to ask myself, "Can I skip today?" Inevitably, I don't give myself permission. At 9 p.m., I put on my shoes, grab the iPod and head to the workout room. For 35 minutes, I'm on that treadmill, working up a sweat.
When I get back to the apartment, I'm pretty much wiped out, and I usually welcome that feeling — it means an easier time going to bed.
But new habits come with new side effects:
- I usually have to go the bathroom right around 4 a.m. because of all the water I drink immediately after working out. Hydration is a bitch.
- It's usually no problem for to go back to sleep after the 4 a.m. wake-up call, but that just means it gets harder for me to gain consciousness at my usual 6 a.m. Even without the 4 a.m. trip, I find myself sleeping so soundly, my internal alarm clock doesn't get triggered.
At the start of the summer, I noticed all my shirts felt a bit tighter, and even the looser shirts would brush against "my girth". Maybe I'm just imagining it, but I think my shirts are just slightly looser now. I would like to think the approximately 5-11 lbs. shaved off makes a difference, but since I can't narrow down how much I've really lost, I'm just going to pass it off as a fluke.
I'll start to believe that feeling when the scale says I'm below 200. That should be in another month if I'm not distracted too much.