jsfantome 's dagbok, 19 jan 12

Glad you're feeling better. Looking back over my journals, I notice so many ups and downs along the way. Wishing you many more Ups, and fewer Downs as you move forward! 

Again - can offer sympathy but no advice. At least you can go take out your frustrations on that poor treadmill.  

I am sure you mean that on an emotional level! LOL! I will take the Downs...if it's on the scale, anyday of the week ;) Much Love. 

Buffy - kind of preoccupying my mind w/ exercise. Already over 7,000 steps this morning. Had a long talk w/ hubby last night... trying to think about my next steps 'food' wise. He gave me some good advice to finish out this week, and do what I think is best to lower the water retention, if that is what that is... and see where I stand on my normal weigh in day (next Tues.) By then, I will have had enough time w/ this fitbit to see any progress - if that is actually showing me anything. And I will be able to determine if it is 'water weight' or whatever. Otherwise, I can think about making some COMPLETELY different changes to mix things up and throw off my system a bit. I told him about Kingkeld's 'indulgence day'... and he suggested I consider it more seriously (6 days Induction Style Low Carb, 1 Day Indulgence). If I decide to do this, he will help me map out a very carefully designed plan, as I don't want to end up another 10 lbs heavier only to figure out that's not working either. I just really don't know what to do, but i am willing to try. So, I will wait til Tues to see if things settle back down or not... and then move on to the next steps in this journey. Guess, we'll see...  

Bren, no offense..but I don't think I am stressing about it. Yeah, I got pissed off yesterday.. more mad at myself than anything. I eat a very clean diet 'way of eating' lifestyle, so food really is not so much my issue anymore. I got this fitbit to motivate me to keep active, and to focus on my exercise, which one would think is a good thing (no matter what!). So after 10 days of recording and stepping and being all excited to get to the end of my FULL week of Fitbitting... I went up 2.5 lbs. That's what made me mad!! I am willing to put in the effort. Willing to do the hard work. And to gain when I had a 1.5 lb DEFICIT in calorie numbers between what I ate all week and what I burned. So what did I do... I overate sausage. What an idiot..as I am now another 1.5 lbs heavier thanks to the sodium in those bad boys! (at least that's what I think..but who the heck knows). So, here I sit...over a year in Maintenance... and I am 10 lbs heavier than I was last January, with no real idea why, and no real idea how to move this DOWNWARD as everything I am trying to do is supposed to be healthy, and doesn't seem to be working. Perhaps I haven't stressed out about it enough. Perhaps I should stop being so damn sweet to myself, and draw the line. I just don't know what else short of starving myself to actually do! And starving myself will literally shut down my body completely, and I will end up doing more harm than good. So there.. no options. I got nothing! 

No offense taken..just hope you find the root of the problem..:O) 

thank you... didn't mean to bite your head off there! I'm sorry. 

Just curious Paula. If you're still trying to lose weight, how come you're in the Lifetime Maintenance Phase? I'm not all that up on the Atkins plan, but isn't there a difference in what you eat between the Ongoing Weight Loss and the Maintenance Phase? 

DK - When I came on this site in the beginning of 2010 I was in Induction. By Oct 30, 2010 I hit my goal of 140, and changed my settings to Lifetime Maintenance. By early 2011 I had decided to try to get down to 135... thinking I would fluctuate between 135-140, and would be very happy w/ that. (reset my goal, but didn't reset the Lifetime Maintenance thing.) I have pretty much FLUCTUATED between 143-148 ever since. Never able to return to even the 140... since I made the decision to try to go down to the 135lb. (hope that makes sense). I have gone back and looked over my menus from March, April, May of 2011 - and July, Aug, Sept 2011 ... but found no specific trends. No major changes in calories or carbs. Some dedicated weeks to trying to reduce stuff.. no change. Some weeks where I splurged.. no change. I really can't overly explain the increase now... or the increases back then. It is what it is... and I will figure it out! One way or another, I will not let this force me to just want to give up. I might get mad, I might cry about it... but I won't quit. That's for darn sure. 

Well, have you just considered kicking the heck out of something? It's still physics: calories in - calories out. There's only a couple of things that I can think of that are causing you to be in this slump: The first is that you keep reaching a plateau, stay there for a while, and then get frustrated and maybe up your intake (binge) about the time you were going to break free, and start the cycle again (this is what happens to me, and I know it when I do it). If you're pretty sure that your RDI is reasonable for dropping a pound a week, and your body has convinced itself that this is all I'm going to get fed on a regular basis, then you will have to stimulate your metabolism to go into hyperdrive - whether you call it spiking or whatever. But I think this only works if you maintain a consistent intake for a week or two at or below your RDI, and then up your intake by two or three hundred calories for two or three days (preferably accompanied by some higer intensity walking or exercising) - or at least until your body recognizes that it can get back to churnin and burnin. The only other option I can see from there is to have some thyroid checks done, because one of the other options should have worked. It would seem that, with either option, you have to hang in there, with a consistent intake for a reasonable time during the plateau, and then stimulate the metabolism with a higher intake for two or three days, without binging, and then return to a consistent intake just below your original RDI. I have always relied on upping my exercise level to stimulate the weight loss, while keeping my intake consistent, and that has worked for me, but that can be hard on the body sometimes. Hitting something repeatedly in an aggressive manner can also burn more calories and stimulate the metabolism - but wear some cushiony gloves. Good luck! 

It sounds like you've thought it through carefully and you're doing all the right things so it definitely is a head scratcher. I hope the approach you've worked out gives you the breakthough you need. I feel like just when I think I have my body figured out, it delights in throwing me a curve ball just to prove that I don't know everything. We're all pulling for you and I know you'll come out victorious in the end!