An Urban Mom’s Weight Loss Diary – Week 4

Week 4: 204.4lbs
Pounds Lost: 12.8

Bittersweet Success

Last week I lost just over 4 pounds!  I was thrilled, buoyed, jubilant! Then my husband stepped on the scale.  He was down 1.6 pounds.  Uh-oh.  He’d lost over 4 pounds each week so far, and I knew he had worked really hard last week kicking up his exercise level, so this would come as a blow to him.  It did.

My little bubble of joy popped.  I came crashing down – how could I celebrate my own success when my weight loss partner was crestfallen?  I actually felt guilty for losing more weight than he did.  What’s that about?  I know the experts all say that it’s best to lose weight with a partner – you motivate each other; celebrating when things are good and supporting each other when things are tough.  The challenge comes when you’re on opposite ends of the spectrum: one wants to celebrate while the other needs to commiserate.

Eventually, he was able to realize that losing nearly 2 pounds in a week was not exactly a disaster.  This is to be expected with weight loss – he averaged just over 4 pounds a week in the first 3 weeks, and his body is adjusting.  To combat this, he’s getting stricter with his eating.  It’s so easy to slide into eating extra calories without realizing it – a tablespoon of low-fat salad dressing counts as no “points” – four tablespoons do not!  Also, both of us began to kick it up a notch in week three with increased levels of activity.  Tune in next week to see how my learn to run program is going!

In the end, we’re still happily working together as a weight loss team.  We know that some weeks I’ll do better, and other weeks he’ll do better.  Between the two of us, we’ve lost over 25 pounds in one month, and that’s something to celebrate!

Kath is mom to two daughters, aged 5.5 and 3 (almost!).  Join her on urbanmoms.ca each week as she chronicles her weight loss journey.  Please share your stories, advice, and encouragement by adding a comment below or sending an email to kath@urbanmoms.ca.