Anyone else ever get this? It really bugs me. I weighed today and posted a 3lb loss BUT I feel weird, like a little down or possibly overwhelmed b/c of the long way I still have to go. I don't plan to go off plan. I am just interested in why I am feeling this way, like "Great. 20 down, 47 to go..."
I want to repeat, I am not going off plan. I just want to figure this out so I can reconcile it when I feel this way. Is it just the initial excitement wearing off? The fact I've lost some weight and almost out of plus sizes so I am getting antsy wanting major progress NOW?
I guess it doesn't help I am at my hard-to-break number either.
This is where weighing daily has been a life saver for me, quite literally really. It is one of two things that has taken this weight off, which has saved my life! (The other is making a commitment to being on plan every single day for one full year without any excuses. Goal met. )
When I weighed in weekly, I might see a three pound loss, and a three pound loss is awesome! But during that week, maybe I ate perfectly on plan, and maybe I ran more than I'd ever run before and maybe I hit the gym for more hours than anyone else I knew. And during that week, I had dreamt up that I deserved to lose 9 pounds. When some small part of you thinks you did enough to lose 9 pounds, three is small change. And heaven forbid the scale should show a one pound gain! That was cause for quitting and putting all the weight back on. At the very least it was cause for eating poorly that day.
By weighing in every day I was able to track fluctuations, both up and down. I learned that my body has a pattern and that is to lose big one week out of every month and stall the other three. I get joy every day out of losing a few ounces and mildly disgruntled when fluctuations send me up a pound or two. It amuses me more than anything. I can always pinpoint exactly why the scale is going up.
Kuddos on the three pounds! You'll lose all you want to lose one pound at a time. And when you're close to goal, you'll look back and you will actually think the time flew by.
Sure...it seems like a long way to go when your only knocking down 1-2 lbs/week on average....but this is how I got to 50 lbs lost in 6 months!
I know exactly what your talking about and have felt that way...sure I have. But I found it much more productive to focus on how far I've come and not allow myself to look at how far I had to go. I guess that's why I'm having a hard time (right now) realizing that I lost 50 lbs (from size 16/18 to a size 6/8)!
Daily weighing saved me, too. Seems like I will lose the day after my "official weigh-in" day. I don't think your body works on a weekly basis, anyways. I like to see the effects certain things have on my weight. I generally accept that I'll be in a 1-3lb range of a certain number on any given day.
As a person who most of her life avoided the scale, this has been a big part of my change. Not to obsess over the number, just to always keep myself accountable. That is important for me.
I do weigh-in daily and for the most part feel excited, energized, and just overall really positive about my loss. I just really struggle with weigh-in days and feeling...overwhelmed, I guess. It's really interesting to me as I feel the changes daily, see the scale go down a little almost daily, feel great with my lifestyle change overall, but on weigh-in day I look up at the mountain of pounds I still have left to lose and it just seems too daunting. I am not sure how to make this feeling pass but lately some of my best workout sessions have come on the tails of this feeling. In the past, this might have been a demotivator even though it's a loss and I would have fallen off track so at least I am releasing this weird energy in a way that benefits me now. Maybe I should just plan a workout day on weigh days so loss or gain, I keep moving on?
Make yourself mini goals. Cut that "huge" number into smaller ones. Then it won't seem so overwhelming. Focus only on your mini goal, instead of the 47lbs. Treat yourself everytime you meet a mini goal. Have your nails done, pedicure, new outfit. Something you enjoy. It will keep you focused and not seem so far away.
I totally understand, especially with so much media nowadays saying that you should be losing 9 pounds in one week or whatever!
For me, so I wouldn't be depressed this time around at my weight loss (and it's very slow) I started focusing not just on weight loss, but on how healthy I was becoming.
It wasn't going to be a diet, it was going to be about changing my relationship to food and exercise and my body and I was aiming to be healthy rather than just thin.
As for the actual pounds? I just focused on staying on track and getting one ounce off at a time.
32ish lbs later, it's looks like a good chunk of weight has come off. But it didn't seem like it from the start.
I tend to have this feeling too. All week long I picture a number in my head, and if I don't hit that number, I am disappointed and frustrated. Part of this, I think, does come from shows like the Biggest Loser (though I love it!) where a 2 pound loss is a bad thing. But I think the idea to break your loss up into mini goals is the best idea. If you are only thinking about ten pounds at a time, three pounds is going to seem a lot more significant. Reward yourself when you do lose those ten pounds, and then focus on the next ten. Good luck!
Last time I hit the 190s I got comfortable and stayed there a while- now I'm pushing hard. I still have like 45 lbs left which to me feels like an eternity. BUT I decided to break it up into small goals and right now my current goal (I just beat get out of the 190s) is to be at 184, then 179, etc.
184 gets me a new tube of mascara btw! Mini goals and mini rewards help with the motivation btw
Realistically, losing 9lbs in a week is crazy! I would suggest dividing that big 47 in to a bunch of little 5lbs mini goals, and just focus on getting to each of those. Daily weighing will keep you accountable, as long as you don't let the little fluctuations get to you. It'll help you keep track of trends in your weight loss (I, too, stagnate for 3 weeks or so and then have a "whoosh" week).
Also, I'm 20 down and have 70 to go... I won't let that huge number discourage me :P