Katie Needs a Pep Talk

Today is my weigh in day. I am up two pounds on my scale and I anticipate a similar result for my official weigh in this afternoon. This is the second week in a row (I gained 0.2 last week) where I'm seeing a gain. I have wracked my brain for reasons to explain this.

Have I gorged on ice cream and cake? No. In fact, I turned down a slice of birthday cake yesterday.

Have I stopped exercising? No. I ran on Friday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I also did Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred on Saturday and did two Southern Bell workouts on Tuesday.

Have I stopped tracking points? Stopped weighing and measuring food? Nope, still using my measuring cups, still using my food scale.

Have I eaten within my points? Yes, I still had eleven remaining WPs and did not touch my APs.

Have I eaten a lot of fruit? Absolutely. I am in love with fruit right now. Yesterday, I had a banana with my oatmeal, strawberries with my lunch, a peach for a pre-dinner snack, and a mango with my RF ice cream. Yes, a lot of fruit. But hardly worth a 2 pound gain on the scale.

Have I eaten a lot of sodium? Not an unusual amount.

Is it that Time of the Month? Yes, it is. Can that explain a 2 pound gain? Yes, I suppose so.

There's a law called Occam's Razor that says, to paraphrase, the simplest explanation is most likely the correct one. Therefore, because my diet hasn't changed all that much in the past month or so, it makes more sense that TOM is the culprit for my unexpected gain.

Even though I feel mostly confident that my gain is a result of hormones not calories, it's hard to keep going when you follow the plan and see a gain two weeks in a row. I could get all dramatic, swear off Points+, storm around my apartment, and swear that for the next four months I'm going to live on nothing but black beans and oatmeal...but why? Having a temper tantrum will only irritate my neighbors (since I have a tendency to stomp my feet) and ensure that I'll annoy anyone who's willing to listen to me rant about the evil scale.

Instead, I think I'll go the opposite route and focus on what I have been doing right, non-scale victories so to speak.

Last weekend was a challenge, food wise, for me. I ended up going out on Friday night (for drinks), I went to a baseball game on Saturday, and I went to the epic Watermelon Festival on Sunday. Overall, I made really good food and exercise decisions. I limited my drinks on Friday, only had one light beer at the baseball game on Saturday (no soft pretzel), and only had fresh watermelon at the festival. I skipped many treats, including junk food at the baseball game and funnel cake at the Watermelon festival. I also did JM 30 Day Shred on Saturday and walked (roughly 1 mile) to the baseball game.

Throughout the weekend, I made the best choices I could, while still enjoying the activities I love.

This week has also been a challenge as I am actively apartment hunting, which has been fairly stressful since my lease is up September 1. I am proud to report that I exercised two days and I stayed within my Daily Points target every day. I didn't allow the stress of the move to sabotage my eating and I managed to squeeze in workouts (plus a yearly physical exam) into my unusually busy week.

All of this shows that I am learning how to juggle being healthy with the normal stresses of life.

So, my goal for today is to not lose sight of these positive victories when I go to weigh in this afternoon. I will not give my Weight Watchers receptionist evil eyes. I will not sulk and cry during the meeting. I will instead remain cool and focus on making this day a healthy one.

I know that if I continue to have healthy days, I will eventually hit goal.