How long will it take me to lose 10 pounds?

March 26, 2013

How long will it take me to lose 10 pounds?

I just got back from a week-long vacation to Walt Disney World with my husband. The trip was a reward I earned for helping a certain number of people with their health and fitness through Team Beachbody, and just about everything except the airfare was paid for. We stayed five nights in the Beach Club resort on the property, had a one-day training conference and three days in the parks, got our pictures taken with all sorts of characters, hobnobbed with the top coaches in the network, worked out with Shaun T and Leandro Carvalho, had an exclusive viewing area for the EPCOT fireworks show … in short, we got to experience the best that Disney and Beachbody had to offer – and that’s saying a LOT.

It’s fair to say we got our exercise in during those five days … besides the workouts, we logged miles of walking through the Magic Kingdom, EPCOT and Hollywood Studios. But our diet? … that’s a different story.

We did do our best to make good choices when choices were available. Instead of going to the restaurant for a carb-laden breakfast of waffles and syrup, we got fruit and yogurt parfaits from the hotel store. We drank water instead of soda. We chose fresh fruit as our side dish instead of fries.

BUT … there were times when we just plain splurged, like our dinner of gourmet burgers at the House of Blues, and a late-night dessert run at the Beaches & Cream soda shop. Then there were other times … when we had to eat something after 10 hours of being on a plane with only a dozen honey-roasted peanuts to tide us over, and the only option at 12:30 a.m. on the highway home was (shudder) a McDonald’s drive-thru. Quarter Pounder with cheese, fries and Diet Coke, down the hatch.

I had done a three-day Shakeology cleanse right before the trip, to put me in my best Beachbody mode, and weighed in at 135 pounds – my goal weight – upon finishing. I came home last night feeling sluggish from too much fat and sodium, dehydrated and bloated. Stepped on the scale this morning expecting the worst – but I hadn’t expected THIS MUCH worst.

TEN POUNDS.

Am I beating myself up over this? Hardly. In fact, I see this as the perfect opportunity to prove that YOU SHOULD NEVER TRUST THE SCALE. The number of pounds you weigh can fluctuate wildly from one day to the next, and I’ll guarantee you I did not pack on 10 pounds of fat over the past week. This is mostly water weight – retained because I didn’t hydrate well enough and the airplane cabin atmosphere was so dry I actually got a nosebleed.

So! I’m treating this as an experiment and inviting you to join me. I’m going to document my food and water intake as well as my exercise and other activity every day until I get back to 135. If you have 10 pounds or more you want to lose, comment here with your commitment and we’ll do it together. Who’s in?

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