Shannon~gosh I feel the same as you! I put on 6 pounds after Thanksgiving and before Christmas and feel like crap! I've upped my exercise and it feels like I'm doing everything right and nothing is working. I did drop half a pound in 3 weeks. 3 WEEKS! Ugh. Sometimes I think my body just likes to hang onto the weight when it's cold. I'll diet and diet and exercise and then it'll warm up and poof! I drop 1-2 pounds in a week. Who knows why, but that's the way it seems for me. Hang in there!

Allison! Great poem!!!

Jay

Shannon, how is your pants-o-meter doing? Could you have gained weight because you added muscle from all the running?

This is me. I dyed my hair for years because it went gray in patches. For the last 4-5 years I've been back to my natural color which turned out to be pretty much gray in the front and still the original dark brown at the back, though that's now getting grayer too. In photos, it usually looks like I'm blonde! Never been blonde in my life.

Allison - dig the poem! And, I tend to feel more bloated in the winter than in the summer. I know I'm hanging on to that, probably hanging on to weight, too.

Most days my pants-o-meter feels fine. Today I'm exceptionally bloated, some weird TOM-like symptoms as I'm dead in the middle of a 12 week pack of Seasonale, so the ones I put on first this morning felt a little tighter than last week. I measured myself after the pants were snug and the measurements are the same as what they have been the last couple of months. Put on a different pair that felt pretty normal. The pants fitting fine were keeping me from being worried, for some reason today that doesn't seem to matter to me as much...

Some could be muscle gain - I'm pretty sure that the 2 pound swing from 121.5 to 123.5 during the summer was from strength training. I didn't think about the possibility of muscle gain from running. I have noticed my calves look pretty different today than they did even a month ago.

I might also be one of those people who holds on to more water weight with carbs. My protein intake decreased over the last two months as well.

So, my plan is to try to get back on the protein track and put some more interval training back in on my off running days. Give it a month and see what happens.

My scale has been driving me nuts lately. When I eat POP, it goes up. I have not gone over 1800 calories any day this month, my average is right at 1400, and yet today I weighed 141.2, which is more than I weighed on January 1. I don't get it. Maybe my body is trying to store fat to hibernate through the winter??

I don't think you should totally discount this, sometimes what we want our bodies to do it is very different from what they're biologically driven to do! Are you getting your exercise in? Are your portions measured (ie not eating a cup of rice when you think you're eyeballing 1/2 cup)? Drinking your water? Could you be eating "cleaner" or has that 1800 calories contained a lot of junk? Are you getting enough sleep? Are you under a lot of stress? Sometimes just changing up your food/exercise routine is enough to shake your body up. Hang in there and give it a little more time!

Allison, . Love the poem!

Shannon, sounds like you've got a solid plan to add more protein. I don't have experience w/ HRMs, but I wonder if like "calories burned" calculators available online, they aren't very accurate for everyone. I've also noticed that when you say you've overeaten it's something like ice cream, or stopped for fast food. You don't often post "well I overate and it was a double serving of my salt-free rolled oatmeal with raisins". I personally bloat like a pufferfish if I even glance at a McDonald's. Maybe it's not the calories of the treats but the nutritional content that's keeping your weight (ever water weight) elevated... sorry if I'm out of line. Hang in there! I've been noticing how great you are at getting lots of varied cardio, strength, and stretching exercise in!

I'm still giving into the woe is me, my BF's been gone for two weeks and I'm lonely pity party. I've been having a glass of wine here and there, a cookie at work, etc. I've stayed the same weight since I got back from Christmas, 156.5. Not gaining is good, but I need to tighten up to get back to losing mode (especially to make my 3 lb Valentine's goal)! On top of that I'm still not getting to the gym too often with the weird work/rehearsal schedule I have. Someone please give me a kick in the pants.

Megan - Yeah, my 'bad' food has definitely increased over the last few months.... Not out of line to remind me of it at all. I cut down the eating out in December pretty substantially, but still did it. And, I do have a weakness for ice cream. Have to get cleaner with the eating... And, kick in the pants to you! Your boyfriend will be back soon, and you want to make that Valentine's Day goal, right? You can do it!

girls, bday party in 3 weeks. I am rocking it out with that goal in mind. daily gym classes at 5:45a, that's right go me.
have beyond fabulous dress. need girlfriend to hook me up with fabulous shoes and I have the spanx ready to go
need slim sleek body to complete outfit. working on that

Shannon, talk to me about yoga podcasts...
Megan, rock with me
Jessica, keep the faith
Pat, *military* away from the candies!
allison, you post some great poems. THX!

and on and on we go...

Megan, I'm thinking maybe it's because I had some extra sodium the past few days. The last two recipes I cooked had canned enchilada sauce (in one) and soy, hoisin, and oyster sauce (in the other). All high-sodium ingredients. I have been totally OP in my food, weighing out my portions on the scale, no junk. Exercise has been a little funky since it's too treacherous to run outside, and this week I switched to swim class instead. Maybe that's the difference?

jessica - extra sodium in the food plus a change in the exercise routine could definitely impact the scale. Tweaking my workout does it every time.

kitty - my favorites are the '20 minute yoga download' podcasts, they have both audio and video versions of some of them. I like the hip opener ones. I also have some of the Yoga Journal ones, they give more explanation of the poses. I've done two different ones, just got a few new ones last night I'm going to try. I really enjoy them. There are some other ones out there that I haven't tried - one with a woman named Faith that gets good reviews?

How's everyone doing today?

It's like 2 steps forward, one step back for me. But, hey, that will get me where I want to go eventually, too, right?

Yesterday was POP. Except for a chocolate muffin and a small handful of goldfish crackers.

It's the food. It's the food. It's the food. Always the food....

I had, as is my usual, a POP day and yet I'm up half a pound. That same half a pound that I lost last week. I thought it was gone for good. This is just getting so depressing. Ugh.

I think I may need to go back to recording everything I eat. I haven't done that for months because I typically eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch every day. Dinners haven't changed that much, except I can say that they're probably more pasta-ish lately. That could be the culprit right there.

I am finally getting down to pre-holiday weight, which was still above my red line weight. Midwife, I am with you on the food. Why does it have to taste so good?