Lesson Learned

Happy Easter Everyone!

On Friday morning I attended my usual Weight Watchers meeting.  I was anxious to see how friendly the scale was going to be because I had one too many days of freedom last week.

I told you recently of my new strategy to lose weight with the balance of tracking and not tracking.  Last week I took my 2 days of no tracking to 3 days and it was a mistake.  I knew it would affect me on the scale and I didn't want that to happen so I came up with a plan to make up for my fatal mistake.  I shorted myself points each of the following 4 days to make up for the fact that I had overindulged for that extra day.  I found myself to be satisfied on Monday with a few less points to eat so I figured I would be able to eat even a little bit less on Tuesday and keep that pattern through Thursday so that when Friday morning came I would have lost all of the extra calories that I had eaten on Sunday.  On Tuesday I ate fewer points than Monday and fewer points than I am supposed to eat in a day.  I found myself to be pretty hungry so I bulked up on fruits and vegetables.  On Wednesday I ate fewer points again and found myself to be even hungrier but kept reminding myself that it would be worth it to stay even on the scale or even see a loss.  On Thursday, I couldn't wait for the day to be over.  I was again eating less and was hungrier than ever.  I scolded myself by telling myself that if I hadn't eaten so much on Sunday, I wouldn't have to be so hungry.

I weigh myself most days at home in the morning shortly after I wake up. I find it good for me.  It helps keep me in check. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday the scale went down a little each of those mornings. It was telling me that my strategy was working and I would be able to pull off a normal weigh-in despite my lack in judgement on Sunday.

On Friday morning I woke up and weighed myself at home again. I had gained 2 pounds from the day before!!  Can you say backfire?  I had let myself be hungry day after day for 4 days in order to stay the same and I was going to gain weight.  I hoped that my scale was just acting up and the WW scale would tell the truth.  I went to my meeting.  The WW scale told the truth all right........the truth about my mistake of a week.  I gained 2.2 pounds.  It was a lesson learned.

What did I learn?  Many things.  First of all, I learned that I need to track 5 days per week.  On my 2 "no tracking days" I need to eat responsibly.  I also learned something that I have preached to other people many times, it doesn't work to eat less than you are supposed to eat. It is a recipe for disaster.  It confuses our body.  Our body doesn't know why it is not allowed to eat the proper calories.  Our body doesn't have the fuel in it to burn the calories properly unless we feed the fire.  It is not possible to eat all of the proper nutrients in a day if we short ourselves calories.  Our bodies need the proper nutrients to stay in proper working order.

After shorting myself calories for 4 days straight, I was so hungry that all I wanted to do was eat on Friday.  I resisted the temptation but it was hard.  I tracked on Friday because I had learned my lesson from my weigh-in.  I wanted some freedom from tracking on Saturday and Sunday because of Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday so this meant that Friday after my meeting I still needed to track and eat healthy. I gave myself back all of my normal points and ate them.  I was able to end the day without being overly hungry and it felt right.

On Saturday morning I weighed myself at home and I had lost 3 pounds overnight.  I had to laugh.  Was Friday just a fluke day?  Was I retained water?  Was God just teaching me a lesson?  Next week, will I lose the 2.2 pounds that I gained last week plus the pound that I should have lost?  I'm anxious to find out the answers to these questions.  I will eat my proper nutrition this week and do things the right way.  I hope the scale is kind to me on Friday but I'm up the challenge no matter what it says.

Have a great day,
Corinna