Lillybelle,
From reading what you wrote, I can totally understand where you're coming from. It's really hard to try as hard as you can and feel like you're getting nowhere. You're wrong! You are getting healthier each day!
It might be that you gained a lb. because of the working out you're doing. You mentioned that you were sore. Won't sore muscles hold water? You already know that you didn't each 3500 calories more than usual, so know that it's probably water retention. Did you maybe eat something that was higher in salt than usual? Sometimes I can predict that I'm going to gain based upon what I ate the night before. Stick with it! You should see the scale moving downward again!

Alinnell,
I have a heart rate monitor my sons bought me for a birthday gift. Frustratingly, I can't get it to take my heart rate correctly! I know that it's working, but it's not showing what I'm doing in comparison to the machine. I will continue to try to get the darn thing working right, though, because I think it would be more accurate than the machine heart rate and calories.

Lillybelle,

You might try drinking some hot lemon water. I use it as a natural diuretic. It helps get rid of water most of the time though its not all that tasty :)