P.M.S. - My Body's Other Cruel Cycle

Yes, that's right - I'm going to talk about that time of the month, because - for women - it can really tend to throw a monkey wrench into weight loss efforts if you don't understand the weight implications. It has been a bit challenging for me to deal with this over the course of my weight loss, though I have heard of women who have had much more difficulty than I have. Quite frankly, it sucks to be trying to lose weight during your time of the month because of the weight gain associated with it. Not only do I gain weight as a matter of course during P.M.S., but I crave salt, which makes me retain more water, and I take Ibuprofen for my cramps, which can also make me retain water.

After my first frustrating step onto the scale during my period and after reading up on this issue, I decided to take the advice of those who have been doing this far longer than me, it is best not to even step onto the scale during that particular span of the month. I usually don't gain a lot of weight - maybe a pound or two -  but I certainly do not lose it either. I have heard of women gaining up to seven pounds - so it is just way too frustrating and discouraging to step onto the scale at all. Add to that the general crappy feeling and the fussiness I experience (okay, so "fussy" may be understating it a bit)...and stepping onto the scale could be a disaster in the making.

That said, I still stick to my lifestyle changes. I exercise every day - if I don't feel up to going to the gym or doing Zumba, I'll go for a nice walk. Walking, particularly during this time, helps my mood immensely, and it gets me moving. I avoid caffeine and sodium (though I crave olives like crazy) and I eat fruit, which seems to help a little bit with my cravings for sweets (though it doesn't quite quell them). That said, I will allow myself some Kalamata Olives (I generally eat these with hummus and veggies on a pita) to help with my salt cravings and I allow myself a bit of chocolate to deal with my sweet cravings (weight watchers makes really good ice cream treats - but they are not THAT low in calories, so I have to watch it, just one ice cream bar AND chocolate contains caffeine, so there is that). Also, since I have been eating more healthily, my PMS symptoms are not as severe as they used to be. They have not, by any stretch of the imagination, gone away, but there is some improvement.

This is what I do, but I think that everyone is a little different. For some more information on this particular issue, here are some websites. I will warn you that when you do research on this, you will come up with differing information - like I said, everyone is different, and ultimately you have to find what works for you:
The PMS-free Diet
Eat to Beat PMS
Food, Mood, and PMS
Prevent PMS from Destroying Your Diet
Is PMS Sabotaging Your Diet?

My Body's Cruel Weight Loss Cycle

According to the scale this morning, I gained a pound. Blah! Terrible way to start the day. Honestly, it's a bummer and I'm not going to act like it doesn't bother me at all. But I will say that it is just a blip, and I'm not going to freak out about it. I used to though, it was very discouraging to do everything "right" and then not only hit a plateau, but to break that plateau by GAINING weight. I mentioned this in a post a week or so ago; I gain weight from time to time and this is part of a pattern I have noticed. It is part of my body's weight loss cycle. I will lose a bunch of weight really quickly (like 3-5 pounds in a matter of a couple of days), then I will plateau for a few days, gain a pound or two and then lose a bunch of weight again. So, the uptick in weight this morning was due.

Here is an example of how it generally works: Last week, Monday, I gained a pound after having hit a plateau and not losing any weight for just under a week. On Thursday I was down four pounds, I have been holding steady at that weight for several days, and today I was up a pound. I'll probably be down around 3 pounds or so by Saturday or Sunday. That is how it goes. I know that I have been doing everything right, I haven't changed anything, and there aren't any other factors I can think of that would account for my weight gain. Therefore, I am not going to worry about this unless this pound sticks for a while. If it does, I'll look more closely at my records and try to figure out where I need to make some changes.  Everyone is different, and you may not have the same pattern of weight loss that I do, but you should pay attention to how your body acts, because it will help you to understand how you lose weight - and, at least for me, that helps to avoid feeling discouraged.

Stress!

I have had an incredibly stressful week. Yesterday it all came to a head. I wanted to go home and stuff myself full of comfort food - be it chocolate or cheese or sweets or salty deliciousness. Apparently, I used to eat when I was stressed (which may partly explain my weight gain in law school).  Last night I had to find something else to do to deal with my stress other than to eat, and I did. My husband and I went and watched his brothers play soccer. It was a good game, beautiful weather, and it totally took my mind off my awful week. When I got home, I felt refreshed, I no longer wanted to eat, and I felt like I could handle the stress that had piled up over the course of the last few days. I got a good night's rest and I feel great today. And as an added bonus, I'm happy that I stuck to it and I learned a different approach to dealing with stress - one that does not involve food.

Keeping Good Records

One habit that was very difficult for me to develop is to keep detailed records of what I eat and how much exercise I am doing.  Before I lost weight, this was something I was always hearing - that I needed to write down everything that I ate. I never did. I mean, come on, I can remember what I ate today. I thought I just needed to watch it. I was wrong.

Now, I write down everything that I eat, when I eat it and I track the calories (and I am honest about it, if I under-count calories to make myself feel better, my body will know and eventually, it will let me know). I also track my exercise - what I do, for how long, and how many calories I am burning (again, I am careful to do this honestly), and how much water I am drinking. There are any number of online calorie counters and calorie counting apps to help with this. I use www.myfitnesspal.com

Keeping records helps to lose / maintain weight in several different ways:

1. It keeps me accountable for what I eat. I may think I am having a low-calorie day, but if I'm not, my records will tell me I'm not and I can adjust accordingly. 
2. It helps me to figure out what is going wrong if I stop losing weight, or if I gain weight.  In cases where I stop losing weight or where I gain a pound or two - which happens from time to time - I can look at my records to see what happened. For example, I stepped on the scale this morning and was up a pound (which happens, used to freak me out, doesn't anymore) - when I look at my records I can see that I had a lot of salty food this weekend and, though I got some pretty good exercise, I did not get as much as I usually do on the weekend. So, there it is. The pound will come off, and some - it's part of a pattern - but I'll discuss that in a later post. 
3. It provides me with information about the best way to lose and keep losing. I can also look at my records if I have a good week to see what I did right. 
4. It helps me to make sure I am eating enough. This may sound odd, but I also need to make sure that I am eating enough every day. If I don't eat enough, my body will think it is starving and I won't lose weight (among other potentially serious complications).  I need to eat at least 1200 calories a day and / or I need to make sure that I am eating at least 200 calories more than I exercise (I need to net at least 200 calories).  Honestly, when I started my diet and I was medically supervised and eating less than 1200 calories a day... just doing shakes I really had to watch the 200 calorie thing - now, I don't have to worry about it too much - but it is something to keep in mind. (note that  for the 12 weeks that I was taking in fewer than 1200 calories a day I was medically supervised, I don't know off the top of my head what the research says, but personally, I don't think it is healthy to eat less than 1200 calories / day).  
5. It helps me to make sure that I am eating enough fruits and vegetables. I need at least 5 servings of these a day. This can be a challenge on busy days, so record keeping helps to keep me on track here. 
6. It helps me to remind myself to drink water. Not everyone tracks how much water they drink, but I have to. The most difficult thing I've had to learn is to drink enough water. I am not a water drinker. I hate it. But, water really helps in weight loss and with health in general - so I have to get my water every day. I still have trouble with this more than anything else - but keeping records and tracking my water helps.

Pizza and The Problem with "Deprivation"

I had pizza last night. I love pizza, used to eat it on a fairly regular basis - at least once every couple of weeks. Before this latest weight loss attempt, I viewed dieting through the lens of depravation and sacrifice. I thought that to diet successfully, I would have to deprive myself of some of my favorite foods and sacrifice some of my leisure time to exercise.  I have found that is not the case at all, and it is a very unhelpful way in which to look at health and weight loss / maintenance.  My experience after eating pizza for the first time in quite a while provides an example.  A short time after I finished my second piece of fabulous, cheesy, yummy pizza last night, I started to feel tired, and lazy, I really just did not feel like doing anything at all...I felt lousy - and this was after just two pieces of pieces of pizza.  So, here is my point - I actually deprived myself of the energy that I usually have, and I sacrificed an active, fun evening so that I could enjoy a couple pieces of pizza (and I really did enjoy them) for a few minutes out of my day.  The cost of those few minutes was an evening of feeling sluggish and crappy.

Pizza will never again be a regular part of my diet, particularly given how I felt after I ate it last night, but honestly, I will have it on occasion. This is the case with quite a few of my favorite foods.  However my choosing not to eat these foods whenever I feel like it, or even as a regular "treat" is not really an exercise in temporary deprivation to lose weight.  I am actually making a simple choice - I am choosing not to eat them so that I can enjoy other aspects of my life and, quite frankly, so that I can enjoy a longer life. It is really difficult to express just how much better it feels to eat and live a healthy lifestyle - I have tried to highlight some of these benefits in my "Nothing Tastes Better: Benefits of Weight Loss" posts.

Sure, I could have taken a pill to lower my cholesterol, another to deal with my migraines, eventually, I could have taken medication to deal with the diabetes that was probably inevitable and I could have taken medications to deal with all of the other aches, pains, and complications that were to come with my unhealthy lifestyle and excessive weight. I could have done all of this so that I wouldn't have to "deprive" myself of the fabulous food I so enjoy, and so that I could spend my free time watching movies on the couch.  I would have to deal with the side effects of the medication but hey, I could enjoy my food, right? Of course, I would have been depriving myself of the wonderful energy I have now, I would have been depriving myself of the great, fun, active weekends I have with my husband now, the comfort of traveling, and the renewed confidence I have. Most importantly, I likely would have been depriving myself of not only quality of life but years of life. So, not eating my favorite, unhealthy food is not really depriving myself of that food so much as it is a decision not to deprive myself of the far better things that come with a healthy diet. And making time to exercise is not so much sacrificing my time as it is investing my time in the benefits that come with a healthy lifestyle. Oh, and I have come to the point where I quite enjoy a lot of the activities I do to get exercise, so there is that benefit too.

I was a couch potato in San Diego! That is crazy. Anyone who has been to the beautiful city in which I live can see the insanity in that decision. So, I'm done depriving myself of all of the fun and beautiful activities that this city has to offer, feels great!

Nothing Tastes As Good: Benefit #4: The Beautiful Numbers

One of the biggest reasons I decided that I really needed to get serious about losing weight was that my cholesterol was really high, so high that my doctor suggested putting me on cholesterol medication on more than one occasion. I wanted none of that in my mid-thirties (yes, I'm sticking with mid-thirties, I have not yet come to terms with the fact that 38 is probably more like late-thirties...). When I started my weight loss about seven months ago, not only was my cholesterol high, my triglycerides were high and my blood sugar was nearing pre-diabetic levels.

I just had my labs done today - my total cholesterol is down 93 points (or whatever the proper measurement is...I don't know so I'm calling it "points") and it is now within the normal range, my "bad"  cholesterol (LDL) is way down and also within the normal range, my triglycerides are down and well within the normal range, and my blood sugar is now well within normal levels.  So - happily - the bottom line is no medication any time soon. And that means no medication side effects any time soon. Whew!

The Little Things Add Up: Walking

I've found that little things can add up and make a big difference not only for weight loss, but also for overall physical and emotional health - I've blogged about it a bit already. Here is another example: I work at a university, and it is nearly impossible to find parking near my office after about 7:45am during the spring and fall semesters. This means that if I have a meeting in the morning and do not get to work until after 9 or 10am, I have to park in the west parking structure, which is across the campus from my office. I hate parking all the way across campus because it takes me forever to get into work and I usually have three tons of work to get done. That said, now when I have to park across campus, I make the best of it. Instead of taking the campus shuttle, I walk across campus to my office. It takes probably five minutes longer at most because the shuttle takes several minutes to arrive and then makes several stops along the way to mine. Skipping the shuttle provides me with an opportunity to fit an extra 30 minutes of walking into my day (15 minutes each way - the first half of which is mostly uphill) and it gives me a few minutes of peace before I enter into the potential chaos of my work day.  In the end my having to do this walk is a great way to start my day. I'm less stressed and a little more clear-headed when I get into the office and I've gotten a little exercise in.