About That 6 Pounds

Oh yes. There was a six pound problem. I should have journaled about it last week. A number of people who did know about it were rather surprised that I hadn't; what with me being a role model and all. (bleck) "It helps people know that there are always bumps in the road." "It's good to know about how you overcome these things." and so on.

Thus chastised, I bring you my report now.

Two weekends ago (September 8th), I went on my annual camping trip. Leading up to this trip I had a disastrously stressful week at work – we had a major presentation to put together very quickly and one of my favorite people left the company right before Labor Day. This is nothing unusual and normally not much of a problem, but working late left me little time to prepare adequately for the event, which, due to various machinations of organizational politics, I was partially responsible for organizing. And I was due to start (ahem) the following week. Hormones, with their mysterious ways, were definitely part of the equation.

With all this going on, I had failed in chic for a good 10 days already (ie. relaxed, considered, and taking time for the pleasures of life) when I got to camp. And I was on the closest thing I'd had to a vacation in ages, so I decided "screw it!" Within two hours of setting up camp, I had already plunged into a snack size bag of Fritos, and they tasted good to me. Something was wrong, but I was in no place to question my reality.

The weekend continued like that. Overeating, eating all the wrong things, and then overeating again. I did jog and do some yoga while out in the woods, but I justified the whole thing with "how much damage could I possibly do in a mere two days?"

Six pounds of damage, it turns out. Now surely, some of this was bloat from the sudden changes, hormones, and dehydration. But when I got on the scale at WW expecting a gain of about 4 and hearing a gain of 5.6 (okay, it wasn't really six, but I do have a flair for the dramatic, n'est ce pas?) I was shocked! The next morning, my home scale confirmed the terrible news...with a honest to goodness six pound difference.

Oh woe was me! Here I had guest coming at the weekend and would undoubtedly be going out to dinner. How to deal!? How to cope!? How to not dive into a box of cookies and make myself a cozy little nest at the bottom of it?

Step one was to get those cookies out of the house. Out of sight, out of mind. Step two was to plan carefully how I would accomplish eating on program at the expected restaurant. I knew that this whole thing would be put behind me if only I let it go. One day at a time, move on, no guilt. But still, I can learn from it.

After discussing at length (via email) where my head had been at with regards to food and activity over the last few weeks, I became aware of the pattern I had been following. They say knowing is half the battle, and I believe my own ability to see where I had been simply indicated that I was on my way out of "that place".

So, I got back on track, worked program, and was firm with myself for a few days. The following week I was down 6.4. I lost the gain and nearly a pound more to boot. HA! It can be done, I simply can't let those kinds of things get me off track!

Posted by foxydot at September 23, 2006 4:02 PM