First Challenge Weigh-in

I LOST!
YAY!
I weighed in this morning and lost 0.6kgs, which (at the end of the day) I am happy with. This morning I really was hoping for big dramatic "moving off the plateau into a new stage" numbers, but it is a loss and its good!
Sticking to my goals for not eating bonus points, and I don't want to use all my sugar points either, I'd really like to keep that low and hope it effects a good loss. I have also set up my exercise for the week, it looks like this:

SAT - cycle 20mins, 25mins yoga
Sun - swim for 1 hour (I am aiming for 2.5kms!)
Mon - Fitstrip DVD and 20min cycle
Tues - swim morning 40min- 1.7kms, swim evening 1/2 swim & 1/2 aqua running
Wed - pilates morning, 20min cycle
Thurs - Week 8 dvd and 45min swim, 1.8kms
Fri - I'm going to try jogging for 30mins along the bike track.

It's been an interesting day, went to WW, got to go to dinner at a friends (always exciting). I also got the newspaper for the first time in weeks, which (sad to say I know...) has been really quite exciting for me! I have been reading an interesting article about some research saying that they think that the current obesity crisis is caused by a virus. Personally I think it is a bit of a reach, if anything it just makes people more susceptible to weight gain, you still have to eat to much energy and not burn enough for it to work.

I've pasted the article below, as seen in the SMH on the 18th of March.

Virus blamed for obesity epidemic

By Deborah Smith Science Editor, March 18, 2006

AS MANY as one in five Australians may have contracted a virus linked to obesity. Blood tests on 2000 Australians, carried out in the US, showed about 20 per cent of them had been exposed to a virus called Ad-36, which some researchers say can cause weight gain.
The idea that fatness is catching is controversial. However, Richard Atkinson, Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, who did the testing, said a fat virus could help explain the worldwide epidemic of obesity.
"I believe obesity is a complex disease of many causes, one of which is viral infection," he said. How Ad-36 caused fatness was not known exactly, but it had been detected in fat cells in people and animals. In the laboratory it stimulates cells that are pre-fat cells to become fat cells.
Ethically, it was not possible to obtain proof of its role by infecting a lean person with a virus to see whether they got fat, Dr Atkinson said. "We would not have a whole lot of volunteers for that."
But he and colleagues have shown that chickens, mice and marmosets become fatter after infection with Ad-36 - one of more than 50 human adenoviruses that usually cause colds, eye infections and diarrhoea. Ad-36 was easily transmitted between animals in the same cage. "The uninfected animals got infected and got fat," Dr Atkinson said.
Tests on more than 500 Americans found about 30 per cent of obese people had been exposed to the virus, compared with 11 per cent of non-obese people. They identified 26 pairs of twins where only one had been infected with Ad-36.
"And just as we predicted, the infected twins were heavier and fatter," said Dr Atkinson, who has established a company that tests for the virus.
The Australians studied were also twins, but he said labels on their blood samples had been mixed up in another American laboratory, so a similar comparison was not possible. However, Professor Nick Martin, of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, who collaborated on the project, said his analysis found no link between Ad-36 infection and body mass index.
Ian Caterson, Professor of Human Nutrition at the University of Sydney, said that while it was possible a virus contributed to obesity, people should not worry they might have caught it. Any link "is still to be proven".
Obesity in Australia has more than doubled since 1980, a rise blamed on overeating and inactivity.

There was also an article about some tests they have done with mice and genes etc. I really would not like to be a mouse in these labs. They fed some a high energy diet, and guess what? they got fat. Then they fed them a controlled energy diet, and guess what? They lost weight. Then they gave them heaps of healthy food, but instead of maintaning their weight, they gorged on healthy foods and gained there weight back. Great, huh?! So they reackon that the body likes to "protect" its weight. Not good news for us losers, means we have to work really hard to keep it off! The mice also confirmed some things we already new, that genetics do play a part, and some people can eat junk and not gain weight. We ALL know one of those... grr to them...They also talked about the weight around the middle vs around the bottom and seemed to come to the conclusion that that is not just genetics, but related to the foods you eat, which is not what has been said lately, so is interesting... I think I might explore this more later. :)

Basically I feel the moral of the story is that it still comes down to what you eat and how much you exercise, and you can have heaps of excuses that you can blame, but you still have control. Except for the .001% of people who have that rare disease... but seriously, so many things are linked to obesity, and your genetics, health, even stress can affect your weight, but you still get to make the choice of to eat the choc or to not, or to sit on the couch or walk out the door. I chose the happy life! :)