Plateaus suck!

All week long I had the feeling that I wasn't losing weight, and in fact, I felt that I had gained.  This morning I got on the scale and had that feeling confirmed.  I have gained weight this week.  It sucks.

I didn't gain a lot, but any little amount is frustrating.  When I first stepped on the scale, it showed up as a full two pounds up.  I screamed.  I made the bed and paced the bedroom in frustration for a minute.  Then I got on again, and it showed I was up only .6.  I stepped on it again, and it showed I was up only .3.  I decided to stop stepping on an off and write that down.  So I have gone from 243.7 last week to an even 244 this week, up three tenths of a pound.

I knew this week would be a challenge.  Last Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were Yom Tov and Shabbat dinners, including wine and challah.  Friday night we had red meat.  Sunday there was a party at the neighbors' house.  All of these are challenges which I felt I had met very, very well.  Maybe I was wrong about that.

Here is a recap of my calories and my exercise for the week:

Wednesday:  1304 eaten, 176 burned in water aerobics for 30 minutes
Thursday:  1392 eaten, 155 burned in weight lifting for 15 minutes and walking 25 mins.
Friday: 1317 eaten, 418 burned swimming laps for 45 minutes
Saturday: 1269 eaten, 59 burned in weight lifting for 15 minutes
Sunday:  1145 eaten, no exercise
Monday: 1048 eaten, 291 burned in 40 mins water aerobics and 15 mins weight lifting
Tuesday: 1276 eaten, 563 burned in an hour of line dancing


This is an average of 1250 calories per day.  My program allowed me 1369 per day.  My program also allowed me to eat back any calories burned as exercise, but I did NOT do that any day this week.  My program shows that as a net calorie intake far less than I am reporting.  For instance, yesterday, my program says I only ate 713 calories.

I could say that I am cheating and not writing down everything I ate, but that would be a lie.  I was very diligent about trying to record every morsel to the best of my ability. It's possible that I underestimated how much cheese I ate at the party Sunday night, but even if I claimed several hundred more calories, my average for the week would still be well within the daily range.

I could say it's fluid retention from too much sodium.  My program also tracks the sodium, so here is a recap of the sodium intake for each day:
Wed. 1238 mg
Thur. 2911
Fri. 2682
Sat. 1714
Sun. 1655
Mon. 1114
Tues. 2900

Now that I'm looking at this, I can see that I did exceed the recommended allowances of sodium on several days.  It just depends on whose website you check.  The dietary recommendations according to the Mayo Clinic site are 2300 mg per day for an adult, unless you are black, have high BP, or are diabetic.  I am not any of those things, BUT the fourth thing it said was unless you are over 51.  Well, I'm definitely over 51.  In that case, the Mayo Clinic recommends only 1500 mg.  If I follow that guideline, I exceeded the limit five of the seven days.  Wow!  I did not realize that.  Even if I was young, I exceeded the limit three of the seven days.   Three of the lunches this week included soup in a cardboard container, which has more sodium than my usual low sodium tuna.  Those days were Thursday, Saturday, and yesterday.  Interesting.  Also yesterday I had a lot of dill pickle chips with dinner, which have almost no calories but TONS of sodium.  Also interesting.

I guess it's either the dreaded plateau OR the extra sodium.  Anybody who has ever tried to lose a significant amount of weight over a long period of time will experience a plateau.  Weight Watchers used to talk about them a lot.  It's expected, so I need to keep focused and not panic.  (Easier said than done.)  If it's sodium, I can monitor that more carefully this week, skipping the soups and the pickles.

This week has the same challenges as last week.  Tonight and tomorrow night are Yom Tov dinners, and Friday, as always, is Shabbat.  There will be wine and challah all three nights.  Sunday we will have lunch out at Downtown Disney, and Monday night we are having dinner out with our friends Barb and Al.  If I stay the same for another week because of these challenges, then so be it.  I cannot change what is going to happen this week. I can only try to work it into the program.  Next week we have company and the week after that is a cruise.  There is always going to be SOMETHING to deal with!

I am glad I wrote this blog entry.  It did exactly what I hoped it would do back in October of 2009 when I started it.  It focuses my thoughts and helps me zero in on successes and mistakes.  It helps me get over my first emotional outburst of frustration and not seeing a loss for the week.  It gives me a sense of accomplishment for what I did right all week, which was stick to my program 100%.  I am not a failure. I can do this. I can continue to move along toward my long range goal.

My long range goal is to spend the rest of my life at a healthier weight, close to 200. If I ranged between 200 and 210 the rest of my life, both my doctor and I would be very happy.  My second long range goal is to get to that weight for Lowell and Emily's wedding on July 12.  I am only 44 pounds from that goal, and I have nearly 10 months to attain it.  No matter how many guests stay with us, dinners out we eat, cruises or vacations we take, I CAN DO THIS!