Something's Working

So 5 weeks have passed since my endo appointment where I was told to lose 10 pounds in order to help my elevated-but-not-high blood pressure issues.  The first week, I upped my workout routine and decreased my diet mainly be getting rid of snacks and alcohol, and I lost one pound that week.  After that, I was stalled, stuck, not moving, etc. for 3 weeks!!  I stayed at the same weight for 3 weeks, battling lows after workouts, and constantly adjusting my basal rates.  Luckily, I never gained, because I'm unsure if that would have made me give up. 

It finally seemed like I found something that worked, BG-wise, for my basal rates because I stopped having so many unexplained lows and tweaked temporary basals for workouts.  For example, for spinning class, I disconnect Arnold an hour before the class and don't bolus for my afternoon snack, which has to have a good combination of carbs and protein in it.  I was finally able to go a week without having a low after working out.  After that week, I broke my plateau and lost half a pound!  It may not seem like much, but after 3 weeks of no change, I was happy to see any change at all! 

This past week, I decided to change up a few things and do some different workouts via Netflix (other than the Wii.  sorry, virtual trainer.) and increased my intensity at spinning class by increasing my resistance on the bike.  And I did my best to maintain my diet during the week with some splurging on the weekend (I have to, or else I'll go insane!).  I figured all this would (hopefully) lead to another half pound loss, but when I got on the scale this morning I saw a loss of one pound!!!  A whole pound!  I couldn't believe it!  I actually smiled and said, "Huh," which is a lot of emotion for 5 AM in the morning. 

So since my appointment, I have lost 2.5 pounds.  But personally I have lost 4 pounds since the beginning of this year.  Some people might not consider that a big deal, but for a type 1 diabetic having to balance cardio with insulin it's a huge deal!  Plus, I'd rather not lose a whole bunch at once because I'll be more likely to bounce back up.  I would love to keep up a one pound/week loss, but I'd feel safer with half a pound/week.  Besides, it took me about 8 years to gain 20 pounds (hello, Freshman 15 plus five), so it's going to take some time for my body to get used to being lighter and stay that way. 

I still have a ways to go:  7.5 pounds to meet my endo's goal and 14.5 to my personal goal.  I really think the spinning class has a lot to do with it, honestly.  I burn over 300 calories in 45 minutes in that class alone.  One of the things that's a challenge right now is changing up my diet to keep my body guessing.  It's so easy, diabetes-wise, to eat roughly the same thing everyday because I know how my body reacts to it.  I'm slowly introducing different foods into my diet other than Greek yogurt, fiber cereal, and popcorn.  All of those are fine, but I have all of those multiple times during the week.  So I'd love any suggestions for changing up my food wardrobe if you have any. 

I'm feeling really good today, not just because of the weight loss, but because I've found something that I love doing even if my weight loss stalls.  I keep saying to myself, "Just keep spinning, just keep spinning.  Spinning, spinning, spinning . . . "