For all of my life, I’ve been “on a diet” far more than “off a diet”. I used to (only half-jokingly) tell doctors that if I was lucky, I had only a one week opportunity to lose weight every month. I gained 10-15 lbs every month during my period, which took two weeks of fierce dieting to lose, and if I was lucky I’d have a week to actually lose some weight.
Most of the weight (in theory) was water-weight. I still put on 8 to 10 lbs every month just from water-retention. I know it’s water weight, because if I manage to stay religiously on-plan, all of the extra weight will disappear in a few days.
Unfortunately most of my life that’s not what happened. I’ve always found it very difficult to stay on plan during the days before and into my period. I’d have intense and obsessive pms/tom cravings for beef and chocolate specifically, and fat and sugar generically - and seeing the huge “unfair” weight gain, combined with the constant cravings, I’d get so discouraged that I’d give in to the cravings (making some of the “temporary” weight gain, actual permanent weight gain).
I’ve learned to stay mostly on-plan during “meat week” (as hubby calls my pms/tom), so I don’t gain any more than 8-10 lbs “that week” and all of that is gone by the next week. I don’t often lose during that week, but at least I’ve changed my “odds” for potential weekly weight loss from 1 in 4, to 3 of 4. I don’t always lose 3 weeks out of 4, but at least I don’t have to spend most of the month fighting to lose what I gained during “meat week.”
I still find it hard not to get angry and frustrated at the inevitable monthly weight gain. I’ve tried all manner of things to prevent that monthly weight gain, and have never been able to do it. Eating very low-carb and drinking lots of water does help get the water-weight to disappear faster, and birth control helps reduce the intensity of monthly cravings, but I still find my first reaction to seeing the “unfair” weight gain is to console myself by giving in to the comfort-food cravings.
In the scheme of things - it’s only a week. I should be able to resist the cravings for a week, and usually I remember this, and usually it works. Yet sometimes I feel just as helpless and hopeless as I did when I was gaining or maintaining my weight. Being on a downward journey hasn’t made the monthly detour any easier. In fact, sometimes it almost makes it worse, as the irrational voice inside myself says I should have learned a way to beat this by now. I should have found a way to prevent the inevitable.
Maybe there is a way, but maybe my body just needs that 8 lbs of water every month. It’s just for a few days, I should be able to accept it by now (after 35 years of the monthly experience). And the truth is most months I do, but it’s a grudging acceptance. It still feels “unfair,” and it still feels like I should be able to indulge the cravings (as a consolation prize for the weight gain?)
As “unfair” as the weight gain seems, I have to remember that giving in to the cravings is even more unfair to myself - because it results in making some of the temporary water-weight - permanent fat weight.
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