Weekly Weigh-In: Damage Control
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If you’ve ever done the majority of your Christmas shopping on credit, you’ve experienced that feeling when you stand, envelope in hand, preparing to survey the damage when the bill comes in January. That’s a little how I felt stepping on the scale yesterday morning. I felt like I’d done okay, but, being unable to count my calories for all those meals at relatives’ homes, I also knew I’d been flying blind for about three days…and I had three days of no exercise.
My goal for last week had been to maintain, though I’d hoped to lose a pound or so. I was disappointed to see that I’d gained six-tenths of a pound. Honestly, though, I was more disappointed about the eight-tenths of a pound that I didn’t lose a couple of weeks ago than the six-tenths that I gained last week. I’m not sure why. I guess because I was really wanting to be able to say that I’ve lost ten pounds…and I can still say that.
I’m not stressing about the gain. I’m sure that’s an inevitable part of this journey and it’s only one week out of my life. I consider this week to be “damage control” where I get back on track and make up for lost ground. That will still put me in a much better position going into 2010 than if I’d waited until after the holidays to begin this journey and that means a lot to me. If I had waited, I’m sure I’d have gained more than sixth-tenths of a pound during the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas, rather than losing eleven pounds. I hit it hard today, getting back into my workout routine and logging my healthy calories for today, so I feel good about that.
How did you do Christmas week? You can leave your weigh-in results in the comments or post about it on your blog and link up. Remember to link directly to your weigh-in post so that we can find it easily when we stop by to offer support and encouragement.
Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.
Kris, I think you are being WAY too hard on yourself! Think about it, your weight fluccuates all throughout the day. It's great that you have maintained and you are continuing on your journey. Three days with no exercise? No biggie! Your body needs rest periods as well, you'll find that you have even more energy when you do resume your routine. Heck, taking 3 days off is PART of my routine lol. You are doing great, keep it up.
Really? I thought I had a good attitude about it myself. 😉 Maybe that didn't come across, but I said although I was a bit disappointed about gaining, I wasn't getting discouraged about it.
I don't think, for me, reflecting on why I gained is being hard on myself. It's part of the learning process…figuring out why I gained so that I can try to avoid gaining in the future.
I only weigh once a week and at the same time each day to avoid those natural fluctuations.
I do agree that you need time off your workout routine occasionally. I read on the bodybugg site that taking at least seven days off once every twelve weeks may help avoid those plateaus. I'm not sure I'm brave enough to test that one, but we'll see once I'm twelve weeks in.
I did find that exercising gave me tons and tons of energy yesterday. My house is getting the benefit of that. I hope I have that same huge burst of energy today so that I can finish cleaning. lol
I felt the disappointment this morning, the scale moved up, we have been eating Stocking Candy, and last minute choco gifts from friends at work. It does show me how little I need for my body to grab on to the water weight, like it doesn't know what to do with non nutrition foods. I'm quite sure that a week of healthy food and exercise will push it all out. 🙂 Thanks for giving us a place to sound off. 🙂
Kris its so exciting that you "survived" the Christmas holiday without a big gain! LoL Thats always how I look at it "surviving" hehehe. Great job!!
Congrats for keeping the good attitude and keeping at your goals. Some weeks are better than others, but keep pressing on and you'll reach your goal!
My goal was to simply maintain over the holidays & I would begin after Christmas to really loose. "Maintaining" worked. I lost 2 pounds. 😉