Plateaus and Periods

Gosh, diet plateaus sure stink. (Content was edited... I really feel much stronger about that opinion!) 

Periods are no picnic either.  (Again, I could write a novel on that topic too!)

Put them both together and this is a recipe for diet disaster which includes a trifecta of depression, brownies, and lethargy.   Makes me kinda want to pull my hair out.

I had reached my first goal by October and it is typically where your body does some quick math and realizes that you've just lost 10-15% of your body weight and simply puts the breaks on.  I didn't realize that and just got discouraged.  Watching the scale hover around the "you're still waaaaaay fat" zone for what seemed to be eons was really disenchanting.  I was eating normally (err... normal for a normal person, not someone wanting to lose 150 more pounds by 12-31-11).  I wasn't exercising that much --  my kids were all sick, followed by husband getting sick (no weekend daddy day care!), then... me.  Great.  So that's like 10 days of no workout.  It's the holidays (Halloween to Thanksgiving) and we fatties all do what we do best for holidays --- we eat, drink and be merry! 

Plus, the last three months of the year have played mind games with me for most of this decade!! 

• At the end of 2002, I was in the middle of a 3-month run of Weight Watchers.  My friend and I were faithful to the program -- she wanted to lose weight before becoming pregnant, and I wanted to lose weight for my 2003 wedding.  Unfortunately, even though I deprived myself throughout the holidays and kept to the program, I ended up gaining 4 pounds by February while my friend lost 25!  OK, so that diet system didn't work!
• Turkey Day/xmas 2003, I had miserably long weekends with a newly acquired relative.  Joy.  I probably packed on 10-20 pounds that season!
• Turkey Day 2004, I found out I was pregnant just the day before but in the same sentence was told I was probably not going to be pregnant by the end of the week.  So I had the joy of suffering a silent miscarriage while trying to have a happy face for the new in-laws.  I was super hormonal, a mental basketcase, and probably borderline psychotic, which all came out after they finally left.  While I most likely didn't gain that month, I probably stuffed face in December, so consider that year a "wash" by the end!
• Turkey Day 2005, I was "probably" pregnant (and after that weekend, was confirmed that yes, I was).  I was on pins and needles waiting for test results to be positive.  But, by Christmas I was vomiting each time anyone mentioned food, so that was a great weight loss year!
• Turkey Day 2006, I had 2 beautiful infants and we probably ate happily!  I know that between Setpember 2006 and May 2007, I had gained back 20 pounds after the baby weight loss, so some of that can be attributed to the holidays and the other can be factored in because I was no longer diabetic and wanted to make up for that lost 8 months of hell.
• Turkey Day 2007, pregnant and vomiting again...  decent weight loss season.
• Turkey Day 2008, now 4 children by my side, happy family, and lots of food!  Packed on the lbs for sure.
• Turkey Day 2009, repeat!
• And Turkey Day 2010...

Well, the great news, is that I wasn't gaining any weight.  That's awesome.  I know that without the lapband, that I would have certainly added a few lbs each week!  And, my optimistic outlook on life told me that, hey... you'd still weigh what you did this summer and more if it weren't for the help oBand Surgery Centers gave you, so shut the heck up and be happy with the weight you did lose.  It's not like I wouldn't lose more weight in the future (because I will!), but it was that I wasn't going to lose it quite as fast as I had in the beginning.  That's all.  But tell that to a hormonal stress ball and it doesn't sink in very well at all.

My last weigh in was the day before Turkey Day and it was again stagnent (OK, well it had gone down a few more ounces to where my weight loss ticker finally registered a full pound since Halloween, yay).  So today, now that my cold is wrapping up, my period stopped, Turkey Day and all the associated goodies are long gone, Christmas cheer has yet to begin (parties start next week!), and I had 15 spare minutes during daylight/nanny hours, I ran to the gym to weigh in, 8 days after my last weigh in.  And I was not expecting greatness, that's for sure.

But, holy guacamole, Batman!!!  I was down 5 pounds.  Just like that.  We just outlined how I don't lose weight over Thanksgiving weekend unless I'm newly knocked up!  And I can promise you I'm so not pregnant right now.  So, how did I lose 5 pounds over THANKSGIVING WEEKEND? 

I can tell you.  Thankfully, I knew that pesky ol' lapband was there, so for the two complete turkey dinners I sat down in front of, I only had one plateful of food.  And it was not a typically overladdened Thanksgiving Dinner plate either.  I could see lots of white underneath.   I had about two strips of turkey meat, about a half cup potatoes (I love potatoes!), small helpings of the assorted veggies, a salad, and a 1 small bread roll (which was made from 1/4th of a Pillsbury refridgerated biscuit).  I nibbed on the apple & caramel dip appetizer and had a few of the shrimp cocktails before dinner, and for dessert I had a small piece of pumpkin pie with whipped cream and ice cream.  So I certainly wasn't deprived of food at all.  I just ate slowly, chewed extra well, and enjoyed the time with my family. 

And, I enjoyed the leftovers.  Lapband patients are strongly advised to avoid breads, in fact many people just can't eat bread when they are in weight loss mode because the bread fills them up and won't allow the real food (protein) to get through.  But, I thought that I would try a homemade leftover turkey sandwich anyway.  I ate three of them.... bread and all.... over the long weekend.  I just ate EXTRA slow and chewed EXTRA well, and it went down just fine!  I was very pleased.

I also stopped tracking my food intake.  I know, that sounds counter-productive.  But, with all the obsession about tracking my food consumption, it was like I was sabotaging my own efforts!  During the time I did track it, I found a few high calorie snacks that I knew I needed to eliminate and did, so that was helpful to spot the patterns and learn to substitute naughtiness or flatout avoid them altogether.  Another thing I did, which is also a big no-no, is have a handful of Starbucks peppermint hot chocolates.  I wonder if the milk intake did something to help me get over the plateau.  Maybe not, but damn, they were good.

But whatever it was I did, or didn't do, over this past week, I am happy that the plateau has been kicked in the face and my body is ready to shed more weight.  I might actually make that goal of losing 50 pounds before the end of the year.  Only 9 to go.  Not unreasonable by itself... but it is December.  Again, I will be positive...and if I only lose 46 pounds for example, it will still be 46 pounds less than what I weighed this summer.

Which, is freakin' awesome!

Photos courtesy of Google Images