ONE STEP FORWARD, TWO STEPS BACK?

Oh yeah...... now I got that Paula Abdul song in my head! lol. Anybody else singin' "We come together cuz opposites attract"? (I might have been seriously dating myself by saying that!) Back on track here, Sarah....

Last week friday (my weigh in day) I weighed 268.4 - a 1.4 loss for the week, but only .4 away from my 30 pound goal. I told myself that my only goal for this week was to lose that .4 and get to 35. Uh... not so much. My family was in town for the weekend and I felt the pressure to cook like my mom does - down-home comfort foods for pretty much every meal. I made shepherd's pie and pasta and pancakes and sausage gravy & biscuits and one trip to a burger joint where I only had 1/2 burger (but a double scoop of ice cream)... and with all that food that I don't generally cook anymore (or at least not all in the span of 3 days!) I also got back into portions that I would no longer eat. I ate too much of the good stuff. Now, I did serve sides of fruits and veggies with every meal and I still got all my water in and I still exercised on friday (I always have Saturday and Sunday off) AND on Sunday I did some hard work for about 2 hours creating a garden (digging up sod and soil that actually turned out to be clay) so I am sure I burned quite a few calories doing that. But still I managed to skyrocket my weight from 268.4 all the way up to 279 by MONDAY MORNING! Now, I had all my little Sparkies in my brain telling me that there was no earthly way that I ate so much that I gained 10 pounds in three days. One look at my rings on my fingers and I KNEW that most of that was water weight (yay Sarah - no freak out!). I remained calm and told myself that it would come off this week and that I would keep doing what I normally do and drink plenty of water. And so I did.... and I have been seeing the numbers go down fairly rapidly all week and my rings got looser too... but not enough. When I stepped on the scale this morning I was a slightly depressing 268.8 - up by almost half of a pound. Yes, I lost over 9 pounds in a week, but it's nothing to be proud of since it was just water weight anyway. So, instead of losing I am gaining.

And then there's the gym. Since the beginning of March my workouts have gone from 30 minutes exactly (that was the required minimum) 5 times a week to 60-90 minutes a day 5 times a week. My intensity is greater, my speed is faster, I have more energy (at least DURING the workout - the rest of the day I am exhausted). I have also been running (mixed with intervals of walking still... but I will get to ALL running some day!) and have been making great strides (no pun intended! lol) in that arena. I had a really hard time even getting to 2 miles about 3 weeks ago and today I finished 2.75 very strong! In fact, I think I need to tell about it since I am so excited! My goal time (based on 15 minutes a mile) for the 2.75 miles was 41:15. Here were my times for the week: Monday - 41:22, Wednesday - 41:02, Today - 39:30!!!! I set a goal for myself to get under 41 minutes today but I beat that by 1:30 and I was ecstatic! Not only that but I really pushed myself at the end - just for the fun of it since I got this strange burst of energy for the last 5 minutes or so - and instead of running at 5.0 or 5.1 like I usually do, I was running at 5.5 - and then for the last 30 seconds or so I just kept getting faster and faster - I was at 7.0 for the last 30 seconds or so! Overall I feel really good about my exercise. I wouldn't change a thing about my cardio - I am really proud of how far I've come. As far as strength training - I am kind of on again, off again. I was doing it M-W-F but those were also my 5K training days and I just didn't have the strength to do weight machines. So, I do need to figure something out in that area.

But the food... oh, the food. There we have a problem. I like it too much. Anyone else have that issue? lol. My GOAL for food is to eat four healthy meals (I eat two breakfasts - one very small one right before working out that is carbs like cantaloupe or a half an english muffin for energy and then a little bit bigger one after I get home that usually has more protein in it to aid repair of muscles) and two or three snacks. I am not opposed to having a little sweet treat each day. I buy organic dark chocolate candy bars and one bar will last me a whole week or longer. My problem with my weeks is that I don't know if I am eating too little because I HATE TRACKING! But then those naughty weekends.... ugh. I am not even a drinker! My problem lies in eating more decadent food at home (cuz hubby is home more on weekends and likes big "comfort-food" type meals) and from going out to restaurants.

So you see... one step forward with great exercise - two steps back with being clueless about how well I am REALLY doing on weekdays and KNOWING I am having struggles on weekends. I just wish it would all even out. I am getting a little frustrated with my body doing crazy things like losing 3 pounds two weeks in a row and then losing and gaining the same 1.5 pounds for the next three weeks. I am stuck in a rut and something needs to change ASAP.