Oh I am beyond all hope of a sane week. It's only Monday and I've been snapping at the kids all morning for just stupid-being-kids stuff. I think I must be out of practice with these hormone fluctuations. I feel like such a bad person!

Plus, I've been staying right at 1500 calories since Friday AND getting my exercise in and I'm still up at 128! I haven't changed my ticker in hopes that it's just this nasty beginning of the cycle business, but I'm getting really frustrated. I know, I know, I'll probably get on the scale tomorrow and it'll be washed away, but I'm crabby to begin with and I've had to try REALLY hard to stay on plan and within my calorie limit and I was hoping for great results. Grimace.

I never owned a scale until two months ago so I've never tracked my weight through a menstrual cycle before. For those of you who weigh daily or who know your weight fluctuations, what usually happens to your numbers during different times of your cycle (if you don't mind sharing)? I don't want to be nosy, just looking for a glimmer of hope.

My plan as of now is to finish off a week at 1500 calories a day, which will be through Thursday, and then bump it up to 1800 calories a day for a week. I don't want my body to get "used to" only 1500 calories a day and then be forced to go lower to lose weight because I'm afraid I wouldn't get all my nutrients in at a lower calorie count. I figure, even if I maintain at 1800, which I shouldn't because by all the calculators I've found I should need over 2000 a day to maintain, I won't be gaining, and I'll be able to go back to the 1500 the next week. What do you think about that?

Sorry for being so grumpy today. I'm going to go run this afternoon and hopefully the endorphins will kick in and knock this monster out of my head!

Kara

You know what? Don't get too worried about the scale just yet. Every day, your weight can fluctuate by 3-5 pounds from morning to night just for basic body functions, so paying too much attention to it can drive you nuts! Pick a day, weight yourself once a week in the morning, and so long as the trend is downward over time, you are doing well. I find that tracking food and exercise like at fitday.com helps keep perspective. Good luck!

Thanks, TJ. Maybe I'm just not seeing the forest for the trees, as it were. Good advice!

Kara

kara
do u mind if i ask you how much you lost during phase I?

i'm looking for someone who's almost near the same goal as me. the reason is that there's more weight loss for someone who's taller or heavier compared to someone smaller or lighter due to BMR. I don't want to have my expectations to be high. I figured my weight loss will not be as much as someone taller or heavier to me. Just wanted to be realistic to myself.

thanx so much

I think I lost five pounds over the two weeks of Phase 1. I was expecting it to be a smaller number because I had already been eating healthy and drinking a lot of water every day. But since I started Phase 2, I've lost and regained the same three pounds a couple times now and it's getting irritating. If I was a little bit lower and couldn't budge the scale, I'd understand, but the problem is that I'll get to 125 and be all, "Woohoo!" and then get a little lax with myself for a couple days and those stupid three pounds come back and I'm back where I was at the end of Phase 1 again! I think I might have some kind of psychological aversion to reaching my goal wherein I sabotage myself so I can't get there! When I'm rich and famous I'll have to hire a personal psychologist to figure it all out for me. Do stay-at-home moms become rich and famous? I could always go back to teaching. That's a lucrative profession...

Kara

Hi Kara, I wouldn't read too much into your scale right now, weigh in at the end of the week and you should be pleasantly surprised. I can gain 4 lbs right before starting so I try not to weigh in at tom and when I am working nights and only get a few hours of sleep I retain water like crazy so I have learned not to go by those numbers. I weigh in once a week and write that number down and my trend as been mostly down with a few maintains in there.

But I know what you mean about getting on the scale and not like the number and it can make you crappy for the rest of the day towards everyone...used to be that way until I incorporated what I wrote down up there. Hope that helps. Have a great Week

Thanks, Pearl! When I first started Phase 2 I was weighing every day because I was afraid of going too far off track and then having it bite me in the butt later. But now my plan is to weigh once a week. I just get so excited when I have a good exercise session and think, "It *must* have done *something*!" and then get on the scale and I'm three pounds heavier. I probably should weigh once a month so all these little ups and downs don't freak me out so much.

I've been able to resist the ice cream cravings so far. What is it about hormones that makes me want to stuff my face with anything bad? There's a chicken place right across from where our Korean class is and on the way home I just wanted to go in and get something that is fried, just because I knew it would be bad for me. I NEVER eat fast food. Not even Subway. And I don't even eat meat. I just wanted to purposefully eat something bad for me. I'm such a weirdo!

Kara

Nah the hormones are just kicking in LOL

Thanks. That helps. You made me laugh for the first time today!

Kara

kara, KNOCK IT OFF.

i hovered around 241 last year for 14 WEEKS.... this is for life the scale does not matter it's a bonus... look at how great you feel....and go from there.

some days i just gotta go with I"M doing it cause I said I would. I promised them I'd eat clean, drink my water and exercise....and i don't break a promise.

other days I do it for me.

do you know I did not see a loss between May 1st and July 15th and then WOOSH 2 pounds gone overnight...

bodies are freaky my friend.

Look at how great I feel? I feel like crud! Stupid hormones.

Seriously, though, I needed that kick in the pants. I always tell my kids, "No one here wants to listen to you whine," and I really do need to take that advice.

I am a Type A planner-analyzer-organizer and it kills me that I haven't figured out my own body yet!

Kara

Hormones suck

my gyn told e that extra vitiman b and e and avoid ALL sugar including fruit juice (which we do anyway) really helps.

Kara, I think we started this "calorie counting" within SBD about the same time, right?
Since I started that I have kept very accurate records about what I'm eating. For me it is 1280 per day. I have actually kept under that number (not on purpose...and I am eating plenty of food!) I have been weighing myself every day since then and hadn't lost anything...in fact, one day I had gained almost 2 lbs! I weigh myself at the same time every day before I eat or drink anything and I was kind of discouraged even though I KNEW I had been extra good and that the scale can be just plain stupid! (I knew I shouldn't have bought the stupid thing!)...

So, this morning, I hopped on and nearly dropped my drawers...When I started this "calorie thing" It was 157, then 158.9...
this morning it said 154.8!!!! My starting weight was somewhere in the mid to high 170's.

So...I've decided to put the thing away and only weigh myself every week or so. I feel "up" right now and don't want to feel mad tomorrow if it goes up! The scale is a mean and evil thing and should only be let out of the closet occasionally!

You are doing great and the scale is just a dumb machine so don't get discouraged!!! Let your clothes say more than the scale does!!

Cat, you're the best. I was looking for someone to tell me exactly that. The reason I hadn't bought a scale until now is that I've hovered on the brink of eating disorders in the past and have often been compulsive about certain things and I was afraid that weighing would turn out to be the same. I don't want the scale to be the focus and end-all-be-all, you know?

I'm so glad your numbers went down! Pretty soon, you *will* be dropping your drawers because you'll be so slim!!!

How's your daughter doing, by the way?

Thanks again for the encouragement!

Kara

She's doing fine. They are pretty much settled in. Their apt is a loft and they are still trying to find shelves etc to get organized, since there is very little storage space. She begins the job hunt today..her BF thought he had a gym lined up before he left here, met with the gym owner this weekend and starts working next Monday. (He's a personal trainer. He has a degree in criminal justice, but decided after college he loved what he was doing so stuck with it) My daughter is trying to find a job that will bring in "good" money where she can work at night and go to school during the day (she bartended in college at a nice place here and is trying to find something along the same lines at an upscale place). Then she will apply to Second City or maybe The Groundlings to get her "comedy ball" rolling. We'll see...