Just a small frustration rant...

Maybe I have no business being frustrated. Maybe I should not let a number on a scale run my life as much as it does. I get all that.

But have come so far in my weight loss journey, I am determined to be vigilant, and never gain back the 160 lbs I have lost. So the scale is important. I get on it every day. I let it dictate my behavior in some ways. I think that's positive progress--when I weighed over 300 lbs I NEVER got on the scale, because I didn't want the scale to dictate my behavior. My hands just continously transferred food to my mouth. NOT anymore!

I was at my lowest weight ever (since childhood, anyway!) in early November. Now I can't seem to get back there--I am about 5 lbs over my lowest, and I want it back!

I'm running a lot--more than I've ever run in my life. I feel pretty good, sore muscles of course, and my knees are never 100%, but I feel strong. I will easily top 20 miles of running this week, which has never happened before. I'm already at 16.75 miles this week, I have a long run tonight and a 5K race on Saturday. Why can't I unload these 5 lbs?????

Okay, over the holidays I know I overindulged--the lbs I gained were legitimate. But since January I have been pretty diligent, counting my calories, using good food to fuel my body. What's up with this?? Grrrrr!

Rant over. I'll keep plugging away.


P.S. Small side rant: what's up with the way Sparkpeople figures calories burned for running? Accepted wisdom is that you burn approx. 100 calories per mile for running, no matter how fast or slow you go. If you run 5 minute miles, you burn 100 calories in 5 minutes; 10 minute miles = 100 calories burned in 10 minutes. Obviously, that varies with the terrain, your body weight, prevailing headwinds, etc. etc., but 100 calories/mile is pretty much accepted. So the other day my DD and I ran 6.25 miles, including 3 miles of intense intervals at tempo and higher pace. Of course, SP averages the pace over the whole distance, so it looks slow (we had recovery walks and jogs interspersed with the intervals). But still, SP says we burned only 371 calories that whole workout. We were on the roads running for 72 minutes! I don't usually get hung up on calorie counts--it is obviously an imprecise science--but that seems remarkably wrong to me.