What I find fascinating is how quickly the body gets used to something. When I took a break from calorie counting and tracking during September I was definitely eating more food than normal and not paying attention to portion sizes. While I wasn’t bingeing, I certainly wasn’t moderating anything. The scale reflected that when we got back from our honeymoon.
When we got back I weighed in and immediately got back to tracking my calories and getting back to my normal workout routine (fitness 5 days a week with 2 rest days). I wasn’t beating myself up over gaining some weight because I needed the break. While my healthy lifestyle is definitely my “norm” and it’s comfortable and usually fairly easy to maintain, people need a break once in awhile.
So back to the beginning of this post…my body got used to eating more. When I got back into calorie counting my body was yelling at me. “I’M HUNGRY!!!! FEED ME!!!!” It a feeling I hadn’t really experienced in awhile because I’d been so used to what I was doing for 8 years!
That hunger when you first make that adjustment is difficult. I’d forgotten just how difficult. The grumbling of the stomach, the ache, the sadness and frustration in knowing that I couldn’t eat EVERYTHING I wanted…it’s a brutal reality until you get used to it. The hunger goes away after a little bit. I remember now what that feeling was like when I FIRST started to lose my weight. It was a few weeks of insatiable, uncomfortable, almost painful hunger. I was starving. But I got through it. I drank a lot of water (and diet soda) to fill myself up. I tried eating healthy snacks to curb the hunger in between meals.
A few weeks later, my body adjusted. Making an adjustment from eating 5,000+ calories a day to 2,000 is a huge change. Give it time for your body to get used to it. I keep reminding myself of that this time around. Give it time. A few more days and this horrible hunger will subside.
I had one “slip up” when we got back. I was doing pretty well with my calories. I had a few days where I was a little bit over but not by much. The day I had a slip up was a conscious choice, so I don’t know that I can really call it that. I made the choice to splurge. It was our three week anniversary (haha!) and we went out to the movies for a date (we saw Gone Girl, which was great and I had worried they’d ruin the movie because the book was so great) and Michael got popcorn. I wasn’t going to have any but it smelled so good I ended up eating a bunch of it. Sigh.
Then we got dinner at Popeye’s (besides In-n-Out it’s the only fast food I like) because one opened near our place! We had to try it! I didn’t go crazy and wasn’t really over my calories too badly but it certainly wasn’t HEALTHY food!
We also shared a bottle of champagne left over from the wedding. 😀
(Dancing in the kitchen!) Movie theater popcorn, fast food and champagne…dinner of champions? Maybe not. It was good though!
Progress?
I was back at the fitness routine and I was also back at the Warrior Room…ouch! After almost a month off from it and three weeks of no weight lifting, I hurt pretty badly after that. Ouch ouch. But I’m back…and going consistently twice a week to the WR.
I tracked my calories–every bite, nibble, snack, everything–and got back to the gym. I didn’t weigh myself again for about three weeks. I wanted to give it a little time to kick in and I also knew that I was nearing the time of the month where I’d “gain” several pounds due to PMS bloat. I didn’t need to see that on the scale. Sadly, I did weigh in and see that the original number on the scale hadn’t accurately reflected the honeymoon weight. I should have taken in to account that weight gain often shows up on the scale the FOLLOWING week.
It was discouraging. I had more weight to lose than I originally thought. It was frustrating and deflating and definitely humbling. I’d been maintaining my weight for so long, I forgot just how hard it is to lose weight. It was time to get even more serious. So this is what I’m doing now:
Measuring my portions (just eye-balling it doesn’t work when you need to LOSE)
Trying to create a calorie deficit every day
Eating more whole foods (lots of fruits and veggies)
And I’m going back to weighing myself once a week. I was discouraged to see a GAIN after getting back on track. Clearly I’d gained more than I thought I had. I’m humbled and ready to take this seriously.
Stay tuned.
Carbzilla
Way to get back on track. I’ve always heard it takes 8 days for weight loss to reflect effort, but who knows if there’s really any formula. I know that hunger. I’ve found that beef keeps me full longer than anything else, and fizzy water gives me that full feeling I need. I know you’ve got this. 🙂
PS Cutest photo of Michael and Bella.
Lisa Eirene
Thanks. It’s been a struggle so far, for sure. I’m trying to get a handle on it before the holidays. 🙁
bethh
Oh dear, that DOES feel rather unfair! I hope you are rewarded by a happier weigh-in the next time.
I’m glad to see you mention that it seems to take up to a week for the scale to reflect intake – I’ve often found that to be the case but hadn’t seen a lot of validation of my experience there. That’s how I used to derail myself when I tried Weight Watchers – I’d have a good week, nothing really would show on the scale, I’d have a bad week, but I’d be down because of the PREVIOUS week’s behavior…but I’d feel like the badness was rewarded and would continue to slip.
Lisa Eirene
Yes! It sucks, doesn’t it? I have a friend in WW who has mentioned it so many times. She said it takes her body a week or so to show anything–a gain or a loss. I get it. The weight gain isn’t going to show up immediately. It takes awhile.
Coco (@Got2Run4Me)
It seems like the mere thought of cutting back makes me hungry! I’m focusing on stopping my evening snacking right now and it’s a hard habit to break.
Lisa Eirene
Once it’s a habit it is SO hard to break.
Suzanne @WorkoutNirvana
Shared this with my group training clients! Love your determined attitude. Big ups Lisa!
Lisa Eirene
Trying! It’s hard to stay positive some days
Jess
I hear you. All of it. After the wedding I gained 6ish pounds over 5 months. Not a HUGE gain, but not a trend that I wanted to continue! I had to stop kidding myself, get back to the gym, and stop eating so much junk! It was hard but worth it. I’m losing, and feeling better. Best of luck with losing those extra pounds. At least this time around you aren’t ‘learning the how’. You can get straight to the doing bit!
Lisa Eirene
The sad thing is that I gained ALL of that in like 2 months or less. Wish it hadn’t been such a big shock!
Lori
It is hard. Especially when you are not far from goal. Those pounds are so hard to relose and yet they pop on like nobody’s business. Sometimes you just want to scream at how ‘unfair’ it is, but it is the reality of those of us who have lost a large amount of weight.
Depsite what the scale says, you are back to your norm and given enough time, it will straighten itself out 😀
Lisa Eirene
Thank you! Yes! It feels very unfair. Once I’m in the zone and maintaining it is easy but damn gaining that much so quickly was frustrating because it IS so hard to lose now.
Biz
Even though I kind of hate Oprah, when she had Bob Greene on back in the day, he would say “it’s okay to go to bed hungry!” Sometimes around 9 or 9:30, I’d feel hungry, but then realize if I eat anything, it’s just going to sit in my stomach all night long.
Cut yourself a break – you’ll get back to where you were – just think if you had to start all over from the beginning! This is nothing 😀
Lisa Eirene
True, it’s not starting over from the beginning. Some days it feels like it! But it’s not.