DDOORN
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Slipped Far More Than I Feared...!

Thursday, December 03, 2009

To weigh in or NOT to weigh in...

Struggled with this first thing this morning thinking: hmmm...if I give myself a week off from the scale I can use the time to whack away at the weight I gained during my travels and the number won't be so fearsome...

But! Shouldn't I *KNOW* what I'm up against...?

Aight: scale it is!

...and I just couldn't BELIEVE how BADLY I had slipped!

My next reaction, habitual, was to get beyond the shock, be ashamed and consider just buckling down on getting the pounds off and never sharing with anyone what had happened.

Well that's too much like the bad old days, bad old ways...I remember reading somewhere a fellow saying that fighting against habits, doing the OPPOSITE of what one is inclined to do is how we can grow and develop.

So here I am putting it out there: FIFTEEN POUNDS! In less than a week I blew through almost ALL the weight I had lost during my efforts to get beyond my plateau of 226. Thankfully, I'm still ahead of that at 220, but have been hanging my head and kicking myself in the butt.

And then moving myself into the direction I always find useful: what can I learn from this costly mistake? What factors played into such POOR choices?

--- I got a bit TOO confident in my abilities to manage my weight, thinking that I could allow myself more latitude for a few days and get right back to my healthy lifestyle without paying TOO costly a price. WRONG!

--- Although I made a lot of healthy food choices, I played too much of an "ostrich" over the BAD food choices, sorta thinking magically that the grilled salmon, yogurt, strawberries, apples, etc. would cancel out the...BAD stuff. WRONG!

--- I tossed out my workout routine. It was hardly an inactive time for me...much walking, rock climbing, etc. but again, thinking that this equated to the type of efforts I put into my workouts...at least close enough, right? WRONG!

--- I stopped tracking...just a few days, no prob, right? WRONG!

--- I didn't follow my inspiration. I had a though early one morning how cool it might be to get out in shorts and t-shirt and walk-jog through the city...but never got beyond the thought, never put it into action. Next time I've got to PUSH myself into DOING IT!

--- I played with fire: allowed myself some of the very foods I KNOW are my trigger foods, those sugary sweet highly processed carbie things. Foods that turn off my "enough is enough" trigger and open the bottomless pit. Just like an alcoholic and alcohol: I just can't *TOUCH* this stuff!

I'm still sifting through this to gain whatever lessons I can. Still shaking my head at times over how FRIGHTFULLY EASY it can be to BLOW IT! Yet, reminding myself that one HUGE step forward for me is that in the bad old days I would still be spiraling downward for years to come...not so now:

I've STOPPED! I'm BACK! Tracking the food, strength training, back on my 'mill, jammin' to my tunes and reclaiming my SPARK!

I *WILL* get to ONEderland! Even if not by the year's end, not TOO far beyond!

Be careful out there folks...it can be so, SO easy to get lost along the way!

Don
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Member Comments About This Blog Post
  • MOJAVEMAMA
    Unfortunately, we have all been there. But, you have stopped the spiral and are back on track. I know you can do this.
    4069 days ago
  • LEELYNN2
    yep... been there... repeatedly. One of the lessons to still be learned (or probably you already have and just didn't list it) is Trust in yourself that you will get back on track and in the game. I gained 6 in the the time I was gone though I couldn't point to any time that I slipped, but I trust that because I've learned to pay close attention and know the habits that I need to get back to my maintenance weight that it will be fine.

    Don't give up that grilled salmon! But save that chunk of extra fatty tail section for me, cause that's the part I love the best and all those omegas keep me young and beautiful.
    4069 days ago
  • JCORYCMA
    Don your story was MY Thanksgiving story. Thinking how long it took to take off those lbs. and how quickly I put them back on literally brought me to tears. Thank goodness for my return to Spark World so I could make a quick recovery and not get that "what the heck attitude" and fall even further back. I weighed yesterday and am going to get up the nerve to go public with it - especially now I see that you have and it's not the end of the world. Thanks for sharing & thanks for inspiring me to get right back on track!
    Joanne emoticon
    4069 days ago
  • BKWERM
    Oh, Don, that IS depressing but I know if anyone can get rid of it quickly, it's you.

    Take care.
    4069 days ago
  • ROYALETBONE
    Woot, woot, you're back! Coming back at it, that's what really counts. You are being accountable, take pride in who you are!
    And- I bet a bunch of it falls off again- I'm crossing my fingers that at least 5 pounds of it is salt/water weight. Yup. Keep us posted.
    And hey- all the 'maintainers' that I know- when they get to 'maintaining'- get on the scale every day. A switch in mentality from losing, to just casually keeping an eye on what's up- or down!


    4069 days ago

    Comment edited on: 12/4/2009 2:02:25 AM
  • MEDDYPEDDY
    Impressive action, hopefully some of that "slip weight" will disappear as soon as you get back in healthy routines.
    4069 days ago
  • AZIMAT
    Fifteen pounds. Wow, that's prodigious. You'll figure it out.

    Great post from Healthy BMI. Hope half of it is water.

    Keep on keepin' on, Bingfriend.
    4069 days ago
  • 4A-HEALTHY-BMI
    I'm sorry you had a shock, but glad you decided to 1) err on the side of having more information, and 2) admit it to us [and thereby yourself].

    I've been reading a lot of the scientific literature on maintenance lately and frequent monitoring and taking steps to correct the trend are both really important, possibly the main key components to success in maintenance.

    Take heart in the fact that much of it probably is water weight - processed food tends to have a lot of salt in it.

    I somehow gained SIX pounds over the 4 days I spent traveling to, at, and from a weekend family reunion. (And that was WITH weighing and tracking almost everything I ate, making only the best food choices available, and hitting the gym on both opportunities I had.) It took about a week to get back to where I'd been before I left.

    If you had to have a shock, be glad it was after a relatively short-term lapse. As you've said, now you know you aren't ready to take off the training wheels, so you're less likely to make that mistake soon again. (According to the literature it takes 2-5 YEARS to retrain ourselves to the point we can relax a bit and drop some of the vigilance.)

    Also, consider that if you had not removed 15 lbs before your vacation, you would possibly be 15 UP from where you started, rather than where you are now. So it was fortunate you had that recent 15 lbs in the bank to draw upon.

    Finally, just one other point - something in your post raised a little red flag when I read it:

    I question whether grilled salmon can be considered a "good" food choice - in terms of calories, there is a LOT of fat in it, compared with other options such as shrimp, hake, cod, or tilapia. It really depends on how MUCH salmon... (Appropriate portion sizes are about half the amount you can eat of the other fish I listed, and you're getting less protein and more fat in that little half fillet.)

    You might want to re-examine your concept of "good" versus "bad" foods, because there might be some foods in there that aren't as helpful as you think - recall all those nuts you were eating while driving; in moderation nuts are fine. In quantity the calories add up fast.

    I've had to do this re-evaluation process several times over the past year as I've tweaked and refined what I put into my system. In the end I always decide based on the macronutrient ratios versus total calories.

    Anyway, welcome back on program, and you know as well as I that if you stick to it you'll see results. Which in the end is probably the most comforting fact out there.

    emoticon
    4069 days ago

    Comment edited on: 12/4/2009 12:33:55 AM
  • SANDYSKY1
    Your story is everyone's story. I'm glad you weighed yourself. Glad you stopped and happy you are back at it. It will be like coming home.

    You are right, it is too easy to slip. We all need to be careful. This is just too hard to throw away. Good luck.





    4069 days ago

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