Weeks Thirty-Nine and Forty

Well, the same stupid rollercoaster routine.......

Week Thirty-Nine saw a 2.4 pound gain, and this week (Week Forty) showed a 3 pound loss.  Seriously, I am so tired of this up and down and up and down.  The eating habits have not changed, but the stress level has.  I wish I could say otherwise, but I guess it is what it is.  I just wish I wasn't going into the early part of the holiday season with this current stress level. 

I banged up my baby toe on my right foot today, and that thing hurts way more than a baby toe should.  It's about 3 times normal size and it's all red and bruised.  It hurts to walk on, no big surprise there, so going for daily walks should be interesting since I don't want to put any more weight on it than I need to.  I was on my feet a bit today, and the outside part of my foot hurts a bit.  I HATE it when my feet hurt!

The Trifecta -- Weeks Thirty-Six, Thirty-Seven and Thirty-Eight

Ugh....where to begin......hmmmm....perhaps at the beginning?

These past few weeks have been immensely difficult for me for a number of reasons.  One:  There's been some serious juju at work.  Two:  My dear husband has been traveling a LOT out of town.  While I'm certainly of sturdy enough stock to handle that little bit of change, it has been an adjustment.  Three:  I've just been plain frustrated.  Frustrated as hell and irritated.  All of these combined, do not make for happy weight loss.  Especially, when you add in that I wasn't sleeping well at all (maybe 4 hours of good sleep a night), it's just one hot mess.  Week 36 saw an oh-so-fun 2.2 pound gain; if that wasn't good enough, Week 37 saw a 0.8 pound gain.  Thankfully, Week 38 brought a nice, cool 2.0 pound loss.  Still, I wasn't doing any sort of happy dance at the scale.  I'm just pissed and angry at myself for the stupid 3 pound gain over this past few weeks.....wait, no......3.6 pound gain over the past month.  Total b.s. in my book.  And for what?  Nothing.

All I have to say is that stress can bite my lily-white butt.  I don't like it, and the scale REALLY doesn't like it.  If stress had a corporeal form, I'd drop kick it.  I've been trying hard to make sure I get plenty of sleep each night, and for those nights where I have trouble, I've been taking these melatonin supplements that I got at Trader Joes.  They have seemed to help a bit....just reset my sleep rhythm a tiny bit.  I've also been making sure I get plenty of hydration throughout the day.  I know that when I'm dehydrated I get the munchies....and obviously that's not good for weight loss.

So here's hoping that Week 39 has much better results.  I need some happy news.

Week Thirty-Five

I know this is super late as far as posting, but I did go up slightly this week; I went up 0.6 pounds.  Lesson learned:  Do NOT eat burritos on Friday before you weigh in.  Enough said.

But darned if that burrito wasn't tasty as heck.  :o)

Week Thirty-Four

Down 1.6 pounds!

After maintaining the weight for the past two weeks, there has finally been a change....and for the better!  The hot weather we recently had was not incredibly helpful to me since all I wanted to do was eat cold/cool things like ice cream.  Yeah, not so hot (pardon the pun) for someone trying to drop some nasty weight.  So, when I went grocery shopping I thought I'd try to find some snacks that would help satisfy me.  One day when I had just been hungry, I had gone up front to the mailroom and I thought I'd stop off and see if there was "something" I could get at the little snack shack.  I happened upon some string cheese and thought "what the hell....why not?"  It's cold, it's something of the dairy persuasion so it's got protein, and it's got a hint of saltiness which would hit that salty snack craving I was having.  Wouldn't you know it?  That bit of string cheese really worked.  Guess I should have listened to my inner 5 year old sooner.

I was also starting to get roped in by the siren song of the vending machine with all of it's glorious Hostess snack cakes.  Uh oh.  A friend of mine had introduced me to Cinnamon Cheerios (really, I SHOULD have listened to my inner 5 year old) and darned if they weren't just super tasty and satisfying as well when you NEED something sweet.  So, in the same shopping trip, I bought a box of those Cheerios.  I've cleaned out the entire box, but those silly Cheerios really helped me stave off some not-so-nice sweet attacks.

I will cop to this though, I do have a special container for those Cheerios.  I have a Goldfish plastic container that you are supposed to put fishy crackers in.  Yeah.  I rock the Cheerios in that thing.  If nothing else, I'm losing weight and making my coworkers smile at my inner 5 year old.

Weeks Thirty-Two & Thirty-Three

Well, nothing new to report.  I've maintained for the past two weeks.

There's been a lot going on at the house, and I'm actually surprised that I didn't gain anything.  Granted, I'd rather be losing weight, but at the same time, at least it's not that super-annoying up and down, up and down stuff that just makes you lose hope.  I know plateaus are sort of "built in" the whole weight loss journey, so I'm just kind of rolling with it.  I did have a really awesome loss prior to this 2 week "Hold fast and don't budge" dealie-o.  Usually when I have an awesome loss, I have a not so awesome gain the next week. 

Week Thirty-One

WOOHOO!!!!!  Down 2.8 pounds!!!!!

If I had stayed for the meeting on Saturday, you better believe I would have been celebrating!  This brings the total weight loss, to date, to the grand total of 36.4 pounds.  I finally cracked the "35 pound loss" floor that I had been dancing around for weeks (it seemed).

I really wish I knew what exactly it was that brought on that loss.  I've been trying to figure it out.  I've been making sure that I stay hydrated and I take my vitamins.  Other than that, I'm not sure if the recent warmer weather played a part or if it's just that my body decided that it was okay to shed a few extra pounds.  I'm kinda leaning toward that explanation.  Nothing's really moved much the past few weeks, to my frustration, and then all of a sudden......BAM!  I've just been staying the course:  drinking water, eating my daily points "ration", keeping indulgences down to a dull roar, and making sure I exercise regularly.

I guess that's the thing to take away from this:  "stay the course".  It's really easy to get all frustrated with a lack of results (or the wishy washy ups and downs on the scale) and abandon what you know will eventually work for you.  I think it's really easy for us to get annoyed and lose faith with things that may take some time to take effect, and I think we tend to get irritated with ourselves when our bodies don't want to do something when WE think they should. 

Week Thirty

I did it again......forgot to post on the weekend after weigh-in.  I've been busy working on projects for Christmas presents on the weekends, and I've not really been getting on the computer much.

I went up this week a whole 0.6 pounds.  I'm not overly thrilled with the gain, but Chris and I did have mexican food for dinner on Friday and I'm sure the extra sodium didn't help me any.  For my part, I did try to make sure I drank a little extra water to help flush it out of my system, but it is what it is.  All I have to say is that at least my dinner was darn tasty and I enjoyed every bite!  That's the way a restaurant meal should be....something to savor and truly enjoy.  Believe me, I did!!!!

Since it seems like the weather is warming up again, I bought one of those reusable hard plastic cups with the straw so that I can be sure I'm drinking enough water at home.  I have gotten so much use out of that thing this past weekend, it isn't even funny.  I think the cup is 24 ozs. and I usually fill that thing up twice a day, and sometimes 3 times a day when it's a little warmer.  It seems like I tend to drink more water when I'm drinking it through a straw.  I also like the fact that the cup is reusable and sturdy as hell.  I had been reusing a Starbucks cup that I got iced coffee in about a month ago, and that promptly went in the recycle bin on Sunday.