I headed to my meeting tonight feeling fat and bloated. I could feel the extra pressure in my tummy. I could see the swelling in my ankles, and for the life of me, I didn't and still don't really know why. I was slightly under, only by one or two points, my daily allowance on every day but two. On those days, I used weekly bonus points but still had around ten more that were available for me to use. I've been diligent about my medication this week. For once I didn't miss a diuretic, blood pressure pill or anti-depressant a single time. The morning and evening schedule for my meds was slightly off, but that's never been a serious issue before.
I also more than doubled my exercise this week. I've always been extremely heat sensitive. Southern summers are rough on me. Heat aggravates a chronic illness I have, and this is the first year in I don't know how many, I've been able to spend more than an hour or so outside without experiencing a painful flare up. I give some of the credit for that to my weight loss, because one of the few things known about hidradenitis suppurativa is that excess weight aggravates it. This week, I've done serious yard work with a vengeance. I don't mean watering. I mean trimming hedges, pruning branches, lots of weed eating, the lifting, bending, exerting force, hauling kind of work. The piles of trimmings at my curb were too much for the regular garbage truck and had to be removed by claw truck. I did hours of work, consistently in an aerobic cardiac workout zone, gauging my heart rate as a measure of my activity level. I haven't been physically able to do this kind of work in a long time, and it feels good to reclaim serious activity again.
So, I kept up the food discipline, the medication discipline, and increased my exercise. You'd think I'd lose weight, but noooooooo. I gained 2.8 pounds. Argh. I asked my instructor to review my food journal for the week, and she didn't see anything that needed an obvious correction. I had a variety of fruits and veggies, mostly fresh and raw. There weren't a whole lot of salty foods. Her only thought was that increasing exercise can sometimes trigger the famine response in a body. Just like not eating at your usual levels can make your body try to hold onto its fats reserves in case there's a hunger spell pending when your body will need that stored energy, a lot of exercise can do the same thing. There's also the possibility that I've been building muscle (which weighs more than fat), and this is the week it showed up. Well, I know it's true in my arms. They're definitely trimming up. I've even gone sleeveless, which I haven't done ever in my life. Some people would say that I shouldn't now, but I'm getting past that people pleasing thing.
I have long been the queen of the three quarter sleeve. I have small wrists and long, thin fingers. Keeping the upper arms covered has brought the attention to where I've been acceptably small. I've never been able to say that I was just big boned. I'm not. I'm tall and generously built with broad shoulders and widely spaced hip bones. I'll never be delicate, but I have small, long bones. I'm enjoying seeing those bones again. My wrist is 6 1/4 inches now, down from eight inches. My ring finger size has dropped from a 10 (oh, how I hated having fat fingers) to a seven. The only rings I wear now used to be pinkie rings. My collar bones and cheek bones are prominent again. Necklaces that used to hit at the base of my neck are on my chest now. I can see and feel the indentation between my rib cage when I lie down. I can feel my hip bones again. These are all little things, but they are some of the things that keep me going. On a week that's this frustrating, they really help.
Weekly summary: Weekly change -- gained 2.8 pounds, Total weight loss -- 69.6 pounds, Average weekly weight loss -- 1.7 pounds.
health and wellness, weight loss, diets, Weight Watchers
I also more than doubled my exercise this week. I've always been extremely heat sensitive. Southern summers are rough on me. Heat aggravates a chronic illness I have, and this is the first year in I don't know how many, I've been able to spend more than an hour or so outside without experiencing a painful flare up. I give some of the credit for that to my weight loss, because one of the few things known about hidradenitis suppurativa is that excess weight aggravates it. This week, I've done serious yard work with a vengeance. I don't mean watering. I mean trimming hedges, pruning branches, lots of weed eating, the lifting, bending, exerting force, hauling kind of work. The piles of trimmings at my curb were too much for the regular garbage truck and had to be removed by claw truck. I did hours of work, consistently in an aerobic cardiac workout zone, gauging my heart rate as a measure of my activity level. I haven't been physically able to do this kind of work in a long time, and it feels good to reclaim serious activity again.
So, I kept up the food discipline, the medication discipline, and increased my exercise. You'd think I'd lose weight, but noooooooo. I gained 2.8 pounds. Argh. I asked my instructor to review my food journal for the week, and she didn't see anything that needed an obvious correction. I had a variety of fruits and veggies, mostly fresh and raw. There weren't a whole lot of salty foods. Her only thought was that increasing exercise can sometimes trigger the famine response in a body. Just like not eating at your usual levels can make your body try to hold onto its fats reserves in case there's a hunger spell pending when your body will need that stored energy, a lot of exercise can do the same thing. There's also the possibility that I've been building muscle (which weighs more than fat), and this is the week it showed up. Well, I know it's true in my arms. They're definitely trimming up. I've even gone sleeveless, which I haven't done ever in my life. Some people would say that I shouldn't now, but I'm getting past that people pleasing thing.
I have long been the queen of the three quarter sleeve. I have small wrists and long, thin fingers. Keeping the upper arms covered has brought the attention to where I've been acceptably small. I've never been able to say that I was just big boned. I'm not. I'm tall and generously built with broad shoulders and widely spaced hip bones. I'll never be delicate, but I have small, long bones. I'm enjoying seeing those bones again. My wrist is 6 1/4 inches now, down from eight inches. My ring finger size has dropped from a 10 (oh, how I hated having fat fingers) to a seven. The only rings I wear now used to be pinkie rings. My collar bones and cheek bones are prominent again. Necklaces that used to hit at the base of my neck are on my chest now. I can see and feel the indentation between my rib cage when I lie down. I can feel my hip bones again. These are all little things, but they are some of the things that keep me going. On a week that's this frustrating, they really help.
Weekly summary: Weekly change -- gained 2.8 pounds, Total weight loss -- 69.6 pounds, Average weekly weight loss -- 1.7 pounds.
health and wellness, weight loss, diets, Weight Watchers
2 comments:
Wow. I am very impressed. I need to diet myself, but I'm not ready yet...but I keep reading what you write here, and one of these days, I will be ready...
J
It could be as simple as that you have been drinking more water while you exercise. Water is amazingly heavy. So what? You gained a couple pounds. It's muscle and water. You're stronger and well-hydrated. These are good things :)
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