Hello hello friends…. wow, what a difference a week can make, eh?! If we certainly didn’t know it before, we know it now. Last week we were told our sessions would continue to take place at the hospital, and then we were told on Monday that they would be virtual until further notice.

The clinic is allowing participants to purchase two weeks of Optifatst at a time in order to limit our exposure time at the hospital. So, I went in Thursday morning as usual to get my shakes and do my weigh-in, but then came home to do the class. I also took my home scale with me so I could see what the difference was in order to be able to do at-home weigh-ins more accurately.

I lost another 4.2 pounds this week, bringing me down to 228.2 pounds. Total lost — 37.6 pounds! I haven’t been this weight since before I had Charles nearly 4 years ago now. It’s a bit surreal. My 15% goal is 40 pounds, and I’m pretty sure I’ll have hit that next week.

Putting it out there publicly now, that I’m going to really stretch my 12-week goal to 20%, which equals 53 pounds. Wish me luck!

I have been continuing with strength training workouts at home, as well as socially distant walks with the dog. I also joined in a video group workout on Zoom this week (which kicked my ass, lemme tell you!)

I’ve made the leap to start doing online workouts with a trainer again, which begins April 1. I really like having a custom program that helps me meet my goals, especially when it comes to pre/rehabbing and functional movements. Also having someone to hold you to account is really motivating. I hate disappointing people!

This week’s virtual group session was all about label reading. The dietician showed us various labels, and how to compare serving size to the big daily nutrients — protein, carbs, fat — as well as sodium, fibre, and sugar. We learned that 40 calories/serving is considered low, 400/serving is considered high, while 100/serving is considered moderate.

She gave us the 5/15 rule, which is how we can tell if something is a low-to-good source of a specific nutrient. Anything less than 5% RDV (recommended daily value) is low, anything more than 15% is high. We want to keep things like fat, sodium, and sugar on the lower end, and things like protein and fibre on the higher end.

We were advised to keep added sugar from about 15-38g depending on how many daily calories we end up eating after the intensive part of the program, which is about 4-10 tsp daily. We were advised to keep sodium to a maximum of 1 tsp, or 2,300mg daily.

We also talked about reading the ingredient lists of packaged foods. There are many hidden sources of sugar and fat, and often healthier swaps we can make or prepare for ourselves at home.

All in all it was a pretty informative class, and I am appreciative for the “cheat sheet” handouts we got with all the numbers that should make comparing labels that much easier. Although the plan is to eat mostly whole foods prepared at home after transition, I am not ashamed to admit I love the convenience of packaged foods from time to time.

Until next week…