WUT. Foiled by the body fat machine.

Well, today I got a chance to have myself expertly measured up by a body fat machine – well that’s what I think it is. You put your feet on two metal plates, press your thumbs on these metal grooves whilst holding these odd handles. Anyway, discovered my body fat was 27.3% WAH. I must be using those calipers wrong. I weigh 59.5kg — so not much change from two weeks ago either.

I admit I was quite disturbed to learn my body fat has hardly budged since I first measured it. Also I learnt that I (obviously) carry most of my weight in my trunk or belly. Well, of course. It seems to me as if I can never budge weight off that area either. I know I’m losing it everywhere else, except there. It seems to happily swing anywhere between 31-32″ in circumference. My thoughts have immediately turned to my IUD – 4 weeks and I’m still 27%. Am I not working hard enough? I feel like blaming myself, and sometimes the IUD.

I feel like my joy at what I thought were successes last week weren’t really real at all, and somehow I was seeing the wrong thing in both my head and the mirror.

Well I’ve still got another 4 weeks left to see if it is the IUD and to see if I can lose anymore weight. It’s also another 4 more weeks to plan my game better, but at the same time I have to make concessions for uni, especially now that I will be living further away from it. I will look at my diet first… I can’t really say I’m screwing up in the exercise column – I spend most of the days doing aikido, going for walks, running around on errands, sometimes house cleaning, and doing bodyweight exercises (I did one two days ago and my shoulders are still a bit sore!) — so no fault there. Of course, other factors could be stress (and Uni will be no help in that area!), lack of proper sleep; yes despite being on holidays, I find it hard to fall asleep — I get tired but as soon as my brain/body clicks on that I’m going to bed, it suddenly decides to wake up again like some errant 5 year old child. Or it’s the IUD *dun dun dun*.

When the next four weeks roll by and there’s been no measurable improvement, I’ll say I get down to 56kg/123lb or I lose another inch off the waist, or my body fat goes down by 1.5% — I will definitely start thinking about getting the IUD pulled. But of course this is determinant on me creating a tighter plan for eating and maybe exercising too and really sticking to it, and this will make sure my results can be more clearly attributed to something else besides lax attitudes.

 

IUD + weight loss

As an addendum to my previous post of my weight loss plans, another reason of why I’m recording my weight loss is because I have the sneaking suspicion that my IUD (which I’ve had for about 5-6 months) could stall weight loss. I’m not gaining anything but I’m not losing either. I’ve done aikido for a number of months before deciding to start this plan… and I just thought it was a little odd that I didn’t lose even a little bit but stayed a steady 134-136 pounds/61-61 kg. Of course, it could of been my diet through the last months, lots of bread, many sugary treats, other fast food type junk. Plus the stress of uni in the last few weeks probably didn’t help much either.

But I’ve been reading a lot of anecdotes from other women who claimed to have gained weight or had a difficult time losing the weight on an IUD. A few even said they lost quite a bit once they were off the IUD. Of course, this worried me a bit but at the same time I wasn’t going to assume my IUD was completely at fault.

Anyway besides that tidbit, I’ve have been doing 45-60 min walks almost everyday. I’ve been doing it for a week and a half now, and even now it’s becoming a little bit addictive to go on these walks. It’s interesting exploring the neighbourhood and everyday I usually take a different route to prevent boredom. It’s also good that where I live it’s very hilly. Lots of real steep hills with great views of the city at the top 🙂

I’ve also been reading more of ‘The Primal Blueprint’. Interesting stuff on the perils of excessive insulin and mishandled cholesterol. However, I admit I’m pretty keen to get into the chapters about food and exercise. Sisson, the author, also makes occasional references to the link mind and body and that’s something I hope he expounds upon later in the book.

Finally, a quick product recommendation. After trudging up all those hills today, it’s nice to soak my feet into a warm bowl of water with the Milk Bath from The Body Shop. It’s about $15.00 and it’s great. You add probably about tablespoon or so of this powder into the water, and it all turns all milky white. Smells good, but better yet my feet come out all clean, soft and relaxed. I also add a bit of coconut oil just to make it a bit more moisturizing too.

Well, that’s all for tonight, I’ll see you guys again soon 🙂