February Results: Mystifyingly Mixed

At the beginning of February, I decided to do a couple of things:

My plan: do a stomach hunger and lower calorie diet. All foods are still allowed, I’m just going to pay attention to eating less and getting fewer calories overall. Exercise is for fitness, not weight loss. I’ll weigh in once a month and see how it goes.

The intuitive eating diet. Here are my results:

• Ate all foods - nonissue
• Did a great job of eating less, most of the month
• I reduced my calorie intake by paying more attention to the hidden calories and vastly increased my vegetable and vegetarian content
• Got back into the swimming pool, and acknowledged my walks and stairclimbing as exercise too

As to my weight, it was the mystifying part. I took the emotional heat off by not weighing in very often. That said, I got a brilliant idea of weighing in each day during the last week of the month, so I would have a statistically consistent measure.

Statistically consistent? HAH! My first measurement showed a 2 kilo weight loss for the month. Then every day that followed showed an increase of at anywhere between 0.5 and 1.5 kilo, with a 5 day weight gain of 3.3 KILO, or over 7 pounds. 

Seven pounds in less than a week? That corresponds to more than 4000 excess calories per day every day. Not possible, based on what I was eating, so I presume it is mostly bulk processing itself through my system. But I’ll be honest and say that it’s quite demoralizing. Fer goodness’ friggin’ sake, I’ve been eating salads and cabbage for meals, healthier food than ever.

Moving forward, I’m thrilled with my thinking changes I’ve made this month, and the food changes I’ve made. I’m even further along than ever before in my thinking changes that reduce my portion sizes and help me get on with living rather than stay immersed in an eating disorder.

So, trusting that the scale will take care of myself, I’m moving forward, rewarding myself for my successes, and continuing to make improvements. Ok, I’m a little nervous, and will step on the scale maybe weekly to see if the number goes back down, but I’m choosing to move past that and on with life.