Nope - not talking about drinking more water (believe me, I drink PLENTY of water, I practically SLOSH when I walk, LOL) ....

No, this is about our enemy WATER WEIGHT.

While I've been trying to bust thru this plat-toe for nearly a year now (yup! almost a year! you read that right!) .... I've found that it takes at least a month to discover whether or not something is working. I've tried many different things, including decreasing calories AND increasing calories, etc.

But the water weight... UGH! - always "TOM" and usually lasts 5-12 days...which leaves about 2.5 weeks for losing/maintaining actual weight loss. It's not only discouraging, but I get VERY moody during this time, not to mention the crazy cravings! -and that just makes it double-harder to say no to chocolatey fattening foods.

I try to keep occupied with other things, such as doing my nails, going for a walk on the beach or swim or whatever, but inevitably my cravings get the best of me. Any other time of month, I can control it - happy to have fresh strawberries instead of chocolate something-or-other. But during TOM, I just can't seem to control it. The harder I try, the more I seem to fail. The more I say "no choice" ... the crankier I get until I give in.

Sigh.

So maybe TOM is the reason I can't seem to break my plateau.

Have you read Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom by Christiane Northrup? I haven't read that book, but I read her book on menopause and it was really helpful with tons of suggestions, more than any one person would want to try. Lots of them were nutritional and others were more mind over body kind of things, as well as medical solutions.

I got rid of hot flashes eating tempeh and these sprouts:
http://sproutpeople.com/seed/mothersmix.html
So, maybe there are things you can experiment with that would help with the water weight and other symptoms that you are getting.

Cutting back on carbs during that time will lessen water retention. Tuna, Pineapple and broccoli help with it, too. Change your exercise and eat different foods than normal may also break it.

Remember that even though you have water weight in this time you can still continue to lose fat during this time. If you can separate the number on the scale and remind yourself that it is water and stay on plan you can have a BIG whoosh when it comes off. In fact I think I read somewhere that metabolism is slightly elevated during TOM. Maybe it is from carrying that 5 lbs pack of water around all day - in which case water weight isnt the enemy- its our workout buddy!.

I think the mental thought that you cant lose when TOM is happening makes it harder to stay on plan. ("Oh, why bother") Just a thought.