I’m pretty sure that I fall into that pesky category of fit and fat. While admittedly, I’m on the small side of large, I’m in that annoying grey area where I can sometimes squeeze into the highest number in the Misses category, and the second lowest size of Plus. I’m growing increasingly skeptical that my Mirena IUD is inhibiting my lasting weight loss, either that, or something with the Weight Watchers program (which has changed since I had my resounding success a few years back) has not been helping.

I have been hovering at the same weight for about a year now. What’s different between now and last year is that I go to the gym at least three times a week, and I’m working with a personal trainer. My trusty scale, which calculates my body fat percentage, says that realistically, if I maintain my current muscle mass, I only have to lose 40 lbs of body fat to be just above the minimum body fat percentage for an athlete. (To get to the top of the healthy BMI, I would have to lose 60-65 lbs.)

I realized that I do not do well when I’m not tracking my food intake, and after becoming so frustrated with the newest iteration of Weight Watchers (360), I decided to try My Fitness Pal. It’s free, works with mobile devices, and syncs with my Fitbit Ultra to help calculate what my actual food intake should be with relation to my exercise level. I’m mostly excited about this right now (consider it NRE) because I’ve logged in for two weeks straight, and have tracked reliably, which is more than I can say about WW in the past year. I’ve also realized that along with possible hormonal impacts to my weightloss, I wasn’t eating enough on Weight Watchers. I thought of myself as sedentary, but it turns out that a mother of a toddler in a highly walkable neighborhood/city is HARDLY sedentary.

I just upgraded my Fitbit to the Fitbit One , which has the added plus of syncing with my mobile device. I justify that this will come in handy during my vacation.

This has been an educational two weeks. I realized that I’m much more active than I gave myself credit for, and I’ve not felt deprived since I’ve been able to have a daily adjusted food intake based on my actual activity level. I have only lost about two pounds so far, and now it’s about seeing if I can lose more than that, which I have been unable to do with Weight Watchers this past year.

The best part of this experiment? I’m not gaining weight, and I’m not forcing myself to eat a piece of fruit when what I really want is a slice of cheese.