A couple of weeks ago I posted about my goal to (re) lose 15 pounds of the weight I regained since hitting my low of 148. At the time I weighed 172 and thought that setting in around 157 would be a nice, maintainable weight to have.
In the time since posting about that goal, I have fluctuated quite a bit, both in my eating habits and (of course) a weight that corresponds to eating behaviors. I realized that much of the gain would be in water weight and would quickly come off. I was right. Within three days, five pounds was gone and I weighed 167. But, five days after that I was all the way up to 174. (Obviously some bad eating choices the night before that weigh-in!) Slowly, the weight has been coming off again, as I’ve resettled back into some good routines. I was at 166 on Sunday but by yesterday back up to 169.
I try not to let little fluctuations of 1-3 pounds bother me that much — as long as they are not consecutive. In fact, the three pounds that reappeared this week were based on sodium, not calorie intake. In fact, on Sunday I only consumed approximately 1224 calories. However, sodium was just under 3000mg. I tried a new crock pot recipe for pizza soup (which was fabulous, by the way) and I guess I didn’t realize how high on sodium it would be until I entered it (after consumption) into my Livestrong database ingredient by ingredient. I guess to make it next time I’ll have to modify it slightly to make it lower in sodium. Note to self: italian sausage is high in sodium! Duh.
When it comes to those fluctuations, however, it is important to look at them as trends. If I say I won’t fret over a two pound gain, then I have to follow that up with “but I can’t be ok when there are five consecutive two-pound gains” without the corresponding entries in the CREDITS (losses) column. I’m no accountant, but to have a good balance sheet, the debits and credits (or gains and losses) have to negate one another!
So, as a trend, I am doing well. If I weighed 169 this morning, that means I’m down three pounds and my goal is 20% complete. When I was losing all my weight, I kept reminding myself how important it was to think of it not as losing 100 pounds but losing 10 pounds ten times. That was much more doable for me, and allowed me to see the light at the end of the tunnel. So, if my math is correct, I just need to lose three pounds four more times. No problem!
Tags: crock pot pizza soup, fluctuations in weight, goals, high in salt, italian sausage, livestrong, progress, sodium intake, weight loss, yo-yo
