I am getting tired of reporting on Mondays how little weight loss I can report. 188.6 this morning, after doing another week with two "down" days in a row.
I am starting to get annoyed and resentful of dieting, and I am still on track. Why?
Is it another hormone my body is throwing into the mix in order to derail my efforts? Does becoming irritable and impatient lead back to another mechanism for preservation of my fat?
Or maybe I'm just crabby because the loss is simply not fast enough for me.
Dunno, but I'm too stressed to blog about it today.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
Sixteen Weeks.
Today I weighed in at 191. I'm a smidge higher than three days ago, when I saw 189.4 briefly. It was exhilarating.
Then Mother Nature intervened, and last night was the beginning of this month's cycle. It explains two things I had noticed two days earlier: a ravenous appetite, and a slowdown of weight loss... once again, the diabolical bloat.
The reason I'm annoyed at the bloat, was because mid-week finally saw the last of February's water retention episode go away, and I started to see the scale really move again. Now the brakes are back on because of those pesky female hormones. Rats!
And soon will come the migraines. Double rats! Well, them's the breaks. On the upside, at least now my appetite will normalize, in a few days the bloat will reduce, and I will look forward to at least a week of steady progress. Unless of course, my body decides something else for me.
Today I am doing a second "down" day in a row to shift around my eating cycle, because on this upcoming Saturday, I will be expected to have meals. I had previously posted that I was considering doing two "down" days in a row for the same reason, and I can now report it is a no-brainer. Easy as pie, do-able, etc. No ill effects, no huge energy crash, no shakes, no headaches, no jitteriness. Nothing to indicate anything but smooth sailing. That was back around Valentine's Day, and I was concerned about the blowback from doing the dreaded two "down" days in a row we had been advised against. Of course, if someone has health issues, this may not be as easy.
It's funny what the hormone dance will do to me. When that time of month comes around, my appetite is turbo-boosted, but not my hunger. I'm not hungry, per se, but simply want to eat everything in sight. Until I'm overfull. And then regretful. This is called a binge in some circles, but these binges are controlled, and counted. Being accountable makes me less likely to overeat. I track the calories immediately, and am less likely to grab the next handy item until I read the label and decide how far I'm willing to go.
The really nice thing about this diet is it's forgiveness. If you have a good cycle for the next few days, it all is forgiven, and gains go away. The mistakes are erased, and all you've lost is half a week, if that. Sometimes the scale even surprises you with a loss you didn't expect. Not often, I'll grant, but often enough that people remark on it with glee. It happens rarely with me, but I do love when it happens!
I need to go food shopping now. I'm out of cod.
Then Mother Nature intervened, and last night was the beginning of this month's cycle. It explains two things I had noticed two days earlier: a ravenous appetite, and a slowdown of weight loss... once again, the diabolical bloat.
The reason I'm annoyed at the bloat, was because mid-week finally saw the last of February's water retention episode go away, and I started to see the scale really move again. Now the brakes are back on because of those pesky female hormones. Rats!
And soon will come the migraines. Double rats! Well, them's the breaks. On the upside, at least now my appetite will normalize, in a few days the bloat will reduce, and I will look forward to at least a week of steady progress. Unless of course, my body decides something else for me.
Today I am doing a second "down" day in a row to shift around my eating cycle, because on this upcoming Saturday, I will be expected to have meals. I had previously posted that I was considering doing two "down" days in a row for the same reason, and I can now report it is a no-brainer. Easy as pie, do-able, etc. No ill effects, no huge energy crash, no shakes, no headaches, no jitteriness. Nothing to indicate anything but smooth sailing. That was back around Valentine's Day, and I was concerned about the blowback from doing the dreaded two "down" days in a row we had been advised against. Of course, if someone has health issues, this may not be as easy.
It's funny what the hormone dance will do to me. When that time of month comes around, my appetite is turbo-boosted, but not my hunger. I'm not hungry, per se, but simply want to eat everything in sight. Until I'm overfull. And then regretful. This is called a binge in some circles, but these binges are controlled, and counted. Being accountable makes me less likely to overeat. I track the calories immediately, and am less likely to grab the next handy item until I read the label and decide how far I'm willing to go.
The really nice thing about this diet is it's forgiveness. If you have a good cycle for the next few days, it all is forgiven, and gains go away. The mistakes are erased, and all you've lost is half a week, if that. Sometimes the scale even surprises you with a loss you didn't expect. Not often, I'll grant, but often enough that people remark on it with glee. It happens rarely with me, but I do love when it happens!
I need to go food shopping now. I'm out of cod.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Fifteen Weeks.
Seems like last week I was at 192.8. Wait, that's because I was. Another week of no progress, and I am blaming water again. I have two more days to meet February's goal of 192. I think it will happen, either on or around that date. I believe I can claim 8 pounds of weight loss since January 31, since I weighed in at 200 on that date.
The problem overall is finding the correct formula for consistent weight loss without throwing a monkeywrench into the mix. I seem to have a large collection of monkeywrenches, and really don't know enough about my own body chemistry to keep weight loss at any sort of reliable pace.
Another side effect to this diet that can mess with your head is the natural "bounce" of numbers on the scale. The caloric cycle of up/down/up/down reflects each day as fluctuations on the scale. Whereas a day after a "down" day may be a new low weight, the very next day will "bounce" the scale up, sometimes two pounds.
Even if this is followed again by a strict "down" day (where the scale still hasn't recovered from the upward "bounce") water retention may still be in play, due to several possible factors.
- Carbohydrate-regulated retention, caused by molecules of water binding to residual carbs in the body.
- Muscle-repair regulated retention, because exercise will stress muscles, which causes water to flood the injured areas
- Bowel-regulated retention, due to irregularities in elimination (a nice way to say water is flooding the intestines in order to get you to poop)
- Hormone bloat (for women, who retain water during certain times of the month)
- Medication gain, where some meds will cause a ridiculous bloatfest.
- And dehydration, which makes you retain water if you don't drink enough.
So, is there any way around the water retention effect? Nope. It will happen. It will happen a lot.
Dealing with scale "bounce" is not a fiery sign that something has gone wrong. It means the diet is just reflecting one of the scenarios listed above, if not more than one. I find there is no reason to freak out, it's just incredibly annoying that waiting for your body to get over itself can fritter away so much time better spent shopping for smaller clothing sizes.
I have stoically endured two weeks of normal "bounce" before the scale started to move downward again. I endured a whole month of it due to meds.
Now I need to go and drink some water, in order to make water weight go away. Counter-intuitive? You bet!
Monday, February 20, 2012
Fourteen Weeks.
Today my weight is 192.8. I am still continuing to lose weight, and have incorporated a modicum of exercise into my habits. It's time, I suppose, to stop treating this as a lark, and get serious about my shape.
As I get smaller, I find two things happening: One: I am getting more impatient for the numbers to reduce to suit my mood. This is not a good thing, and can lead to all sorts of mind games later on. I try not to succumb to the unrealistic desire for the pace to accelerate, after all, my skin won't keep up, and I'll end up with baggy and saggy extra skin. I have no idea if this will happen to me, but hey, I'm creeping up on 51, and there's only so much stretching a balloon can do before it gets that awful look to it.
The second thing I find happening is that I'm starting to care about my appearance again. I have opened the two ear holes in my lobes that I pretty much allowed to close up, in anticipation of wearing the earring collection I used to value. I have purchased some skin items to "tone" my skin, and help with age-related problems. Dunno if any of this will benefit me; I've never used anything more than soap and water, and maybe some zit pads. I have been refreshing my makeup, and using it occasionally. I'm going to the salon soon for a haircut. I haven't had a style in over 14 months. Probably more. I keep my roots covered, but that's about it. My rings are starting to fit again.
It's a long way yet to my goal weight, but I'm starting to adapt to the slightly smaller me. I still don't feel thin yet, maybe it's because I'm not. 193 is still significantly overweight. It's just much better than 229.
Today is a down day, and as an ongoing observation I see very little true hunger on my down days. If I feel a twinge, I usually drink some water, or decaf coffee, and wait it out. It really does go away and leave me alone. Sometime around 1pm I'll start looking at the clock, waiting for the window I allow myself to eat. I like to wait until 2:30, because once I do start to eat on a down day, it seems it wakes my appetite up. So I make sure I eat protein. Turkey and some almonds usually do the trick.
Eventually I'm going to get very tired of these meager portions every other day, but maintenance will be more lax regarding caloric intake.
But now I'm back to Number One: I want the weight off already...
As I get smaller, I find two things happening: One: I am getting more impatient for the numbers to reduce to suit my mood. This is not a good thing, and can lead to all sorts of mind games later on. I try not to succumb to the unrealistic desire for the pace to accelerate, after all, my skin won't keep up, and I'll end up with baggy and saggy extra skin. I have no idea if this will happen to me, but hey, I'm creeping up on 51, and there's only so much stretching a balloon can do before it gets that awful look to it.
The second thing I find happening is that I'm starting to care about my appearance again. I have opened the two ear holes in my lobes that I pretty much allowed to close up, in anticipation of wearing the earring collection I used to value. I have purchased some skin items to "tone" my skin, and help with age-related problems. Dunno if any of this will benefit me; I've never used anything more than soap and water, and maybe some zit pads. I have been refreshing my makeup, and using it occasionally. I'm going to the salon soon for a haircut. I haven't had a style in over 14 months. Probably more. I keep my roots covered, but that's about it. My rings are starting to fit again.
It's a long way yet to my goal weight, but I'm starting to adapt to the slightly smaller me. I still don't feel thin yet, maybe it's because I'm not. 193 is still significantly overweight. It's just much better than 229.
Today is a down day, and as an ongoing observation I see very little true hunger on my down days. If I feel a twinge, I usually drink some water, or decaf coffee, and wait it out. It really does go away and leave me alone. Sometime around 1pm I'll start looking at the clock, waiting for the window I allow myself to eat. I like to wait until 2:30, because once I do start to eat on a down day, it seems it wakes my appetite up. So I make sure I eat protein. Turkey and some almonds usually do the trick.
Eventually I'm going to get very tired of these meager portions every other day, but maintenance will be more lax regarding caloric intake.
But now I'm back to Number One: I want the weight off already...
Monday, February 13, 2012
Thirteen Weeks.
This has been a better week overall. My vertigo is gone. My drug-induced stall is gone. I am happy (once again) to announce weight loss, and the scale today read 193.4. I am fitting into my not-quite-as-big-as-a-house pants, I look forward to the week's tally on the scale, and am starting to take my couch potato body in hand with small increments of exercise.
I re-purchased a Wii (I had the Fit board, but my daughter took the Wii when she moved), and am going to take some time reacquainting myself with Wii Fit. I am also waiting for EA Sports 2 to come in the mail, so I can, in the words of Emeril, kick it up a notch.
One thing I've noticed overall is when women lose weight, their girls shrink. On this diet, so far, mine have not. This is relatively unheard of with a 35 pound loss. I literally am still the same bra size as I was when I weighed 229, as in, my bras are still fitting roughly the same even though the rest of me is smaller.
I suppose it's because I'm one of those women who gain over all her body, top to bottom, so I lose it the same way. Maybe the boobs are last. I have no clue, but will definitely keep the blog up to date. I'm looking forward to the day I can actually buy a cute bra. They don't make cute in 40D.
So today is the day before Valentine's Day. It has been a tradition with my husband that we don't go out, we don't gift, and we don't do flowers or candy. We do however, make a splurge meal for ourselves at home. We have cooked bacon-wrapped scallops, lobster, bacon-wrapped filet mignon, and occasionally got ourselves some cheap caviar.
Unfortunately, this meal splurge falls on one of my "down" days, where I only allocate myself roughly 500 calories. Since January showed absolutely no weight loss, I don't want to slow things down again by having two "up" days in a row, yet Dr. Johnson clearly states in his book not to have two "down" days in a row.
He doesn't explain why. Is he concerned about energy levels crashing? Is he concerned about low blood sugar affecting brain function and/or triggering headaches? Is he concerned about birthing an eating disorder more severe than overeating, such as anorexia? Is he concerned about kicking the body into starvation mode and thus interrupting the cycle of up/down/up/down, or is he just assuming that a fat person couldn't possibly restrict calories for two days in a row without going on an eating binge? Does he think a dieter's willpower is in such short supply that two days of relative "hardship" is going to cause a meltdown?
Because of this lack of information (and shame on you Dr. Johnson, for having such a skimpy web site with no forum), I can only conclude quack science and go ahead with two "down" days in a row in order to shift my body over to an "up" day for tomorrow.
On leangains.com, the author says bluntly that starvation mode is not achieved until fasting is done for at least 72 hours. (See #4). He is one of the bloggers who have gone to the trouble read many relevant studies and scientific papers, and put it out there on his blog so the rest of us can benefit from his knowledge.
To recap, not only is the Johnson method NOT true fasting, two days is 48 hours, well under the limit for starvation mode to be activated. So in conclusion, I'm going to ignore the weak admonition of Dr. Johnson, because frankly, he gives no reason at all not to do two "down" days in a row.
The only limitation I can logically see is whether my appetite level will get uncomfortable. I tend to think not, as I've read other comments, responses and forums where people plainly state two days is easily doable with little to no discomfort. Ramadan is mentioned repeatedly, but I'm certainly not doing this for religious or cleansing reasons.
It seems a little ironic that I've doubled my "down" day so I can eat more later. That's not entirely true, since I'm doing it for my husband, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious about it and had been considering it already.
So I'll comment next week on how effective (or ineffective) two days of "down" days were, and whether this can become a new tool, or if it's just another day of denial for no good reason.
I just wish I could stop thinking about raspberry pie.
I re-purchased a Wii (I had the Fit board, but my daughter took the Wii when she moved), and am going to take some time reacquainting myself with Wii Fit. I am also waiting for EA Sports 2 to come in the mail, so I can, in the words of Emeril, kick it up a notch.
One thing I've noticed overall is when women lose weight, their girls shrink. On this diet, so far, mine have not. This is relatively unheard of with a 35 pound loss. I literally am still the same bra size as I was when I weighed 229, as in, my bras are still fitting roughly the same even though the rest of me is smaller.
I suppose it's because I'm one of those women who gain over all her body, top to bottom, so I lose it the same way. Maybe the boobs are last. I have no clue, but will definitely keep the blog up to date. I'm looking forward to the day I can actually buy a cute bra. They don't make cute in 40D.
So today is the day before Valentine's Day. It has been a tradition with my husband that we don't go out, we don't gift, and we don't do flowers or candy. We do however, make a splurge meal for ourselves at home. We have cooked bacon-wrapped scallops, lobster, bacon-wrapped filet mignon, and occasionally got ourselves some cheap caviar.
Unfortunately, this meal splurge falls on one of my "down" days, where I only allocate myself roughly 500 calories. Since January showed absolutely no weight loss, I don't want to slow things down again by having two "up" days in a row, yet Dr. Johnson clearly states in his book not to have two "down" days in a row.
He doesn't explain why. Is he concerned about energy levels crashing? Is he concerned about low blood sugar affecting brain function and/or triggering headaches? Is he concerned about birthing an eating disorder more severe than overeating, such as anorexia? Is he concerned about kicking the body into starvation mode and thus interrupting the cycle of up/down/up/down, or is he just assuming that a fat person couldn't possibly restrict calories for two days in a row without going on an eating binge? Does he think a dieter's willpower is in such short supply that two days of relative "hardship" is going to cause a meltdown?
Because of this lack of information (and shame on you Dr. Johnson, for having such a skimpy web site with no forum), I can only conclude quack science and go ahead with two "down" days in a row in order to shift my body over to an "up" day for tomorrow.
On leangains.com, the author says bluntly that starvation mode is not achieved until fasting is done for at least 72 hours. (See #4). He is one of the bloggers who have gone to the trouble read many relevant studies and scientific papers, and put it out there on his blog so the rest of us can benefit from his knowledge.
To recap, not only is the Johnson method NOT true fasting, two days is 48 hours, well under the limit for starvation mode to be activated. So in conclusion, I'm going to ignore the weak admonition of Dr. Johnson, because frankly, he gives no reason at all not to do two "down" days in a row.
The only limitation I can logically see is whether my appetite level will get uncomfortable. I tend to think not, as I've read other comments, responses and forums where people plainly state two days is easily doable with little to no discomfort. Ramadan is mentioned repeatedly, but I'm certainly not doing this for religious or cleansing reasons.
It seems a little ironic that I've doubled my "down" day so I can eat more later. That's not entirely true, since I'm doing it for my husband, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious about it and had been considering it already.
So I'll comment next week on how effective (or ineffective) two days of "down" days were, and whether this can become a new tool, or if it's just another day of denial for no good reason.
I just wish I could stop thinking about raspberry pie.
Monday, February 6, 2012
Twelve Weeks.
Since figuring out that my vertigo was not going to go away by itself and making several doctor appointments, I finally got the treatment designed to put things right. Unfortunately, it gave me a migraine. I've long since learned everything has a cost.
During the last few weeks in order to control my vertigo symptoms I used an antihistamine, but it had an unintended consequence: I gained weight. It wasn't supposed to do that, but it did. Seems antihistamines are unoffficial weight gain culprits. It's not a well-known side effect, and I don't believe the makers of any antihistamine are going to admit your efforts at weight loss will slow down and reverse, but that's exactly what happened. I wasn't the only one affected. I scoured the internet (a research tool I may overuse at times), and looked at comments that people made. Many have confirmed the suspicion I had that antihistamines do in fact, have this unintended consequence. Unfortunately I still needed it, as it was suppressing my vertigo symptoms, so I didn't want to stop using it until I could have the Epley Maneuver done to get rid of the spins for good.
The first doc I saw regarding the vertigo gave me a nasal spray. Fine. I'll use the nasal spray to combat the spins. But I saw within days my weight really started creeping upwards. I did more research: the spray is a corticosteroid. And what do steroids do? They make you gain weight!!
I had to make a decision once I undid an entire month's worth of potential weight loss. I stopped both drugs. Enough was enough. On Tuesday, Jan 31, I was 200, the same as New Year's Eve. I understand it was water weight, but it was not only masking the weight I had already shed, it literally stopped my diet from working. Not acceptable. I have since dropped four pounds in less than a week, and weighed in today at 196.
Now I have to undo the gluttony from Superbowl day. Hmmm... maybe I'll go to the gym...
Monday, January 30, 2012
Eleven Weeks.
Well, the water weight game is continuing. It has brought me back up today to 197.8, and it's annoying as hell, because once again, the wondering starts, whether the diet needs tweaking or not.
I tend to believe not (yet), only because I have been taking an antihistamine for the the entire time the bloat has been hanging around, almost three weeks now. It's called Bonine, and I've been using it for the vertigo attack I got on January 12. Today is the 30th, and by Jan 22 the weight loss had not only stopped fluctuating, it started reversing. On the 26th I added Flonase, a corticosteroid, and that has also been associated with water retention.
I am not a happy girl. The obvious solution would be to stop taking Bonine (it's also messing with my thinking processes, big time), but then the room starts to jitter and jog. Wedesday I see an audiologist who will be performing the Epley Maneuver, designed to put things back where they belong so the vertigo can subside. The Flonase stops after today.
I literally can't wait to see this doctor. I will stop using the Bonine tonight so the effects wear off and I can tell better if the maneuver is working. If it does work, I can then gauge what the diet is doing under five pounds of water weight.
This is ridiculous.
I tend to believe not (yet), only because I have been taking an antihistamine for the the entire time the bloat has been hanging around, almost three weeks now. It's called Bonine, and I've been using it for the vertigo attack I got on January 12. Today is the 30th, and by Jan 22 the weight loss had not only stopped fluctuating, it started reversing. On the 26th I added Flonase, a corticosteroid, and that has also been associated with water retention.
I am not a happy girl. The obvious solution would be to stop taking Bonine (it's also messing with my thinking processes, big time), but then the room starts to jitter and jog. Wedesday I see an audiologist who will be performing the Epley Maneuver, designed to put things back where they belong so the vertigo can subside. The Flonase stops after today.
I literally can't wait to see this doctor. I will stop using the Bonine tonight so the effects wear off and I can tell better if the maneuver is working. If it does work, I can then gauge what the diet is doing under five pounds of water weight.
This is ridiculous.
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