Things have been pretty busy lately. It all started the weekend before last when my friend and I decided to visit another friend of mine that lives in the Philly area. The weekend was full of girl-time and shopping… I had a blast! During this trip, I thought a lot about how if my friend had suggested the visit 18 months ago, I wouldn’t have gone. Why? Well, there are a lot of things I would’ve been concerned about because of my weight that would’ve prevented me from going, here are a few:
- Riding for 3 1/2 hours in my friends tiny car – would I even fit? I KNOW the seatbelt wouldn’t have.
- Sleeping on a full-size air mattress with my friend – we wouldn’t have fit and I probably would’ve popped it… literally!
- Walking around ALL DAY at the outlet malls and being in physical pain
- Are people in the “fancy normal size people” stores be looking at me and wondering “What is she doing here?!?!”
- Going shopping at the outlet malls all day, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to buy anything.
- Breaking my friend’s toilet, dining room chairs, hell – even her living room furniture
The list could probably go on and on… but the good news is that I’m living a life now where I don’t need to worry about these kinds of things and let me tell you, it’s incredibly freeing!
The bad news is that this girl-time (with lots of eating/drinking wine) set off another 5 days of eating/drinking whatever I wanted while I traveled for work. I ended my week long road trip in south-central PA with my cousin’s wedding last Saturday and finally I drove myself home.
When I left for the girl’s trip in Philly on a Friday evening, I had weighed in at my all-time low weight of 193.8lbs. When I weighed-in on Sunday (something I really didn’t want to do, but I forced myself to do because I REFUSE to put my head in the sand and ignore my weight), the scale said 206.4lbs. That’s right… an increase of 13 lbs!
Seriously, how in the hell does a person gain 13 lbs in a single week? This is the story of my life! I realize this isn’t 13 lbs of fat, but I do know some of the weight gain was real. I made an observation on a forum thread reply earlier this week that I think is worth repeating.
What I’ve learned about my body is that it is incredibly sensitive to poor eating and I believe this is a major factor in why I’ve given up so easily in the past on previous attempts to lose weight. I would lose maybe 20 lbs… have a few bad days and get back on the scale to find 6 or 7 lbs gained back. At the time, I got upset, irrational, discouraged, and didn’t consider the fact that these lbs could come right back off if I could just get right back on track. Instead… I gave up!
I’m grateful to know this about myself now. When I saw the 206.4 lbs on the scale, I didn’t panic… but I was worried enough to say “Ok… get yourself together!” and I got right back on plan on Sunday. I feel as though I became just the right amount of “worried” – I didn’t panic and feel guilty, but I didn’t just shrug my shoulders and say “Oh, I’m just retaining water!”
I’m happy to say that when I weighed in this morning, I was 197.6 lbs. So, just like the weight shot up, it has shot back down about 9 lbs in the last 4 days. The goal now is to try and get back to that 193 lbs and then go back to my plan of maintaining my weight during my stressful summer. I’m going to focus on being more consistent in maintaining – rather than either being strictly on plan or completely “off the rails” with my eating and drinking of calories!
Here is a pic of myself and my little cousin at the wedding and also a selfie in the mirror the other day!
Flirty by Thirty 
That is totally nuts how much it can go up and down. Your bathroom selfie though…WOW. Dare I say…looking skinny?
hahaha thank you! I don’t think I’ve been called skinny in my life!
You are an inspiration! Your honesty about not putting your head in the sand, not beating yourself up over it, and just getting back on plan, really rang a bell with me! Oh, I can so relate to it all! Great pictures too!
Thanks so much! My approach in not putting my head in the sand, but not beating myself up for bad behaviors has been effective so far… I guess only time will tell whether or not I can keep it up for the long haul!!
I love your honesty! And my head has been in the sand for about a year, but you’ve inspired me to ( hopefully) get on the scale and make some changes!