Ode to 7 and 5 things I didn't expect about losing 10 pounds

Happy birthday to me!

Did I ever mention that my favourite holiday is my birthday? First I have the pleasure of being born on the 7th day at 7pm weighing 7lbs...(and yes Jasmine has 7 letters).  Can you guess my favorite number? Yep, it's 7. Did you know that 7 is mathmatically defined as a happy number?
A happy number is defined by the following process: Starting with any positive integer, replace the number by the sum of the squares of its digits, and repeat the process until the number equals 1 (source). So with the number 7:

7^2 = 49
4^2 + 9^2 = 97
9^2 + 7^2 = 130
1^2 + 3^2 + 0^2 = 10

1^2 + 0^2 = 1

Isn't that neat? (This is what happens when your Dad studied math in college)


Also,i t's the coldest month in Augusta, Georgia and the best chance for snow around then.  Which meant a snow day!   It's also right around the Superbowl and I had an amazing party for a very dull game. I'm barely clinging to my 20's and 30 is gunning for me.

As I mentioned before the family is doing aweight loss challenge happy to say that I am making my first place lead . I reached my first goal,  down 10 more pounds by my birthday. Last night when I went to the YMCA, I was a bit nervous.  I definitely have been eating a bit more foods I shouldn't be in the past week.  But I was happy to see that I had made it.

People often recount how it feels to lose 30,50, 100 pounds but that's somewhere I've been before. FYI Losing 100lbs feels really odd, good but odd.  I thought it'd be neat to point out those things I've never noticed before.

1. Increased Energy The first few days of increasing my cardio and decreasing my animal product intake was rough. I'd come home and fall straight asleep. That still happens sometimes but when I wake up and right after exercising I have so much more energy. Is it a good thing when an ADHD kid gets even more energy? lol. 
2. I indulged way too often -  Muffins in the office, free sake at my fave Japanese place, 2 Martini Dinners, eating candy 3x a week. These were complete norms last year. Because I have been going to the Y, I was able to lose the weight I gained after accident and keep it off. Still, I was "treating" myself way too often. When I think ahead and say "I don't need this mediocre candy, I'm baking chiffon cake in 2 days!" I could persevere! lol. The week before the super bowl I  kept repeating "x more days to wings and ice cream" and y'know what? It was totally worth the wait. 
3. My local YMCA has an awesome women's center I've been going to the Y for over 2 years and January is my least favorite month it's so busy. One day there were no machines available on the main floor and one of the staff suggested I check out the womens center on the 3rd floor. It's actually like a whole mini gym upstairs.  Quieter, calmer and a much better stretching area. They have cardio machines and a good amount of weights too. It's definitely my default workout area.
4. Haters goin hate -  I track my weight 2 ways, weightloss since the beginning of the challenge and from my highest weight.  It's been over 10 years since I lost the bulk of that weight with the aid of WLS and some people think that shouldn't count.  Allot of that is a lack of understanding that mostwls patients gain some weight back. In the UK up to 30% get back to their original weight. 10lbs down for the challenge and over 150 since the highest. I've lost a good size person...isn't that crazy? 
5. Nice and slow's the way Believe it or not, I actually did talk to my doctor when I started my weight loss plan. She suggested that I do 30-60 minutes of low impact cardio several times a week. I think sometimes when you're overweight but have decent fitness level we have a tendency to overdo it. Going hard on the elliptical for 20 minutes on the elliptical was my default. Nowadays I do 45 on the exercise bike, working up to 10 minutes nonstop on the rowing machine, and 10-15 on the elliptical. On the higher impact day I did 30 minutes on the elliptical, rowing machine and then go lift some weights.

The plan is to see what other little things I discover as the journey continues.

Happy Friday