Today’s the end of Week 4 of my little Project Weight Loss here, and not much has changed from last week to this week.
Last week I weighed in at 143.8, today I weighed in at 143.6
Even if it’s not a lot of progress, it’s still progress. I’ll take what I can get! Today I’m celebrating the small victories.
1. the scale did not go up
2. I’ve put away the maternity jeans, I can once again fit into a couple of pairs of old jeans with a button and zipper!
2a. I didn’t have to lay down on the bed and hold my breath in order to zip them up
Sometimes one of best indicators of weight loss progress is that your clothes are fitting better. I’m rolling with that this week! I also realized that I’m very close to the one month mark of making a more serious effort to lose the baby weight. On September 21, I weighed 149. That means as of today, I’ve lost nearly 5 and a half pounds in a month’s time. When I think about it that way, it’s easier to swallow a week with less weight loss as compared to the previous three weeks. I know that’s a reasonable amount of weight lost in a reasonable amount of time, so I’m just going to keep on trucking. If I find myself in a similar situation next week, it might be time to take a closer look to see if I’m miscalculating some calorie math along the way.
Food worth noting this week would be pumpkin muffins!
I made pumpkin bread last fall, and when I went hunting for the recipe I was reminded that I was newly pregnant at this time last year. I’m a sucker for nostalgia, so instead making pumpkin muffins, I made a bunch of silly faces and funny noises at our littlest pumpkin.
And then I composed myself and really did make pumpkin muffins.
I modified last year’s recipe to make these a bit healthier (and lower in calories), but I worried about sacrificing taste . I cut WAY back on the amount of sugar called for, and halved the recipe too. I like having pumpkin muffins around, but I didn’t want a gagillion of them. I especially didn’t want a gagillion pumpkin muffins that no one would eat because I didn’t put enough sugar in them.
But let’s throw a pumpkin muffin parade because this healthier version still passed the family taste test! Less sugar and all.
(Healthier) Pumpkin Muffins
1 (15 oz) can of pumpkin puree
2 eggs
1/3 c oil (I used canola)
1/2 c sugar (as compared to 2 cups from last year’s version)
1 banana (mashed)
1/2 c milk (I used 1%)
2 1/2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground ginger
Pre heat oven to 350. Line muffin pan with muffin tins.
Mix together pumpkin, eggs, oil, milk, sugar and mashed banana until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk together dry ingredients and slowly stir into wet ingredients and then scoop into tins. Muffins will be ready in 25 – 28 minutes, they’re done when the tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean. For a loaf of a pumpkin bread, pour into a lightly oiled bread pan and bake for about 50 minutes.
Makes 13 muffins (I used a 1/3 c to scoop batter into the muffin pan) or 1 loaf of pumpkin bread.
Thanks to The Daily Plate, I was able to easily figure out what the nutritional stats looked like for these muffins. And thanks to the muffin tins, portion control is built right in.
These are low in sugar enough that I felt good letting the girls have these for breakfast this week. I made another batch this morning, I am now off the hook for making breakfast the next couple of days! High five for being a weekend slacker mom.
A run down of the week, day by day.
Friday, 10/12
Weight: 143.8
Net Calories: 1580
Exercise: Run, 35 min, 3.8 miles
Saturday, 10/13
Weight: 144.4
Net Calories: – (took a day off!)
Exercise: Rest
Sunday, 10/14
Weight: -
Net Calories: 1823
Exercise: Run, 49 minutes, 5 miles
Monday, 10/15
Weight: -
Net Calories: 1499
Exercise: Walk, 30 minutes
Tuesday, 10/16
Weight: -
Net Calories: 1486
Exercise: 30 Day Shred, Level 3
Wednesday, 10/17
Weight: 145.0
Net Calories: 1343
Exercise: Run, 3.3 miles, 32 minutes
Thursday, 10/18
Weight: -
Net Calories: 1472
Exercise: 60 minute walk, about 3 miles (wearing an 18 lb snoozing baby in the Ergo!)
Friday, 10/19
Weight: 143.6
What your are favorite non-scale weight loss victories? How do you keep yourself from feeling discouraged when the weight loss slows down?
Whew! I thought you were going to say you used that first, cute pumpkin in your pictures for your muffins. What an adorable smile he has!
I’m right with you this week.
My weight hasn’t moved but like you said, it hasn’t gone up either. 
I didn’t go to the gym this week either so I guess my theory of working out vs not proved me wrong this week. (haha)
You are definitely still losing just by the way your clothes are fitting better. So even though the scale doesn’t show it, good things are happening. That’s a fantastic weight loss since Sept, too. You should be happy!
I’ll have to try that pumpkin recipe. We are all in that “pumpkin” kind of mood, too, and I know the pre-made muffins at the store probably have 6 cups of sugar in them. Seriously. I think one muffin is 650 calories!! No way! So, I’m going to test out this recipe and see what everyone thinks.
Thanks Jennifer for your encouragement! Sorry your exercise theory didn’t pan out this week, get thee back to the gym!
The banana helps with less sugar, I hope your gang likes them if you try them. Even Maxine eagerly eats these, and that’s saying something!
The no weight loss was me last week but in a day I was down 2#. I am like you, if it doesn’t go up, I am usually okay. I can usually pinpoint most of the problem too.
Do u ever compare your net calories with your bmr? I do this and track my deficit in calories. Anytime I am in the average range of -700 to -800 calories, I lose weight.
Good luck this week. I am sure you will see that number go down and Yay for the clothes!!!
Hi Devann, no, I don’t compare my net calories with my BMI – I’m not sure what you mean, can you explain? -700/-800 calories daily?
Not bmi. BMR. The amount of calories you burn just doing basic functions of living. Breathing, blinking, etc…. if you take that # and subtract what you eat and add you exercise calories, that gives you your calorie differentials. Make sense? My bmr is like 1900 or something (sparkpeople does it for me). So on a day I eat 1300 calories and burn 300 calories, it. Would look like this : 1900+300-1300=900. I burned 900 more than what I ate! It works vertically every time for me… of course I look at an average for the week.
Ahh whoops, I misread! And yup, that’s essentially what I do, I just look at it from a different angle, net calories instead of calorie deficit. It works the same way though, I try to keep my net calories at 1500 calories a day (or put the other way, a deficit of 750 calories) to lose around 1.5 pounds a week.
A 900 calorie deficit should be getting you close to 2 lbs lost a week, and it sounds like it’s working for you! Way to go!