Monday, April 4, 2011

Path of the Past

Last week, there were about 4 days in a row that I did not drop even a tenth of a pound and suddenly I had this mental epiphany in regards to my past attempts at dropping pounds.

Here is how my past attempts have gone:
Start strong and drop weight for a 4-5 weeks
Then, have a week where I don't lose anything
Then, feel frustrated, eat less (thinking that will help),
Weight stays the same, feeling more frustrated,
Then binge, because eating less has caused me to be really hungry and the frustration has gotten to me,
Then, the scale might say down 1/2 pound and I would think "I wonder what it would have been if I hadn't binged".
But then, the really unhealthy thoughts would kick in like "Hmmm I ate a lot and lost, I might as well eat more".
Then I would eat, gain back 2-3 pounds and end up giving up on the "diet du jour".

NOT THIS TIME! Within those recent days where the scale did not change, I felt the urge come on to eat less to see if that would help and that is when the epiphany happened. Weight will fluctuate. I told myself, "Keep doing what you have been doing because it is working".

Someone told me once that when you aren't dropping pounds, your body is reshaping itself and you will lose in measurements. I don't know if that is true but I am hanging on to that belief. I made it through the week, dropping two pounds almost all at once.

So, if what you are doing is working and what you are doing is something you can live with for a long time, keep with it.

Remember "Slow and steady" is the motto at The Tortoise's Weigh.

1 comment:

  1. I can definitely testify to the body changes even when the weight comes off more slowly (or not at all). I exercised a lot for my loss phase, and my first quarterly weigh in showed a whopping...10 pounds lost. Color me devastated. But then I realized that I had lost one whole size and was working on another one. That's when I understood the concept of gaining muscle pounds while losing fat pounds, which can distort the weigh-ins.

    As long as YOU feel good about your efforts, try to keep that scale in its proper place--it's only one measure of success--not THE measure of success! Good for you for sticking to your plan!

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