July 31, 2006

Another month has flown by.  Where has 2006 gone?  The holidays will be here before we know it.  I’m still on a plateau.  My weight is still all over the place - yet still not really going anywhere.  I've been bouncing between 168 and the 178 since late-May.  I got down to 164 a couple of weeks ago, then got my period and it shot up 10 pounds within a week and I haven't seen 164 since.  Case in point, I weighed myself last week and I was 174, weighted myself the next day and I was 170, this morning I was 174.5.  I changed up the food... again.  Changed up the exercise routine...again.  Restarted my food journal and making sure I'm not eating more than 1500 calories daily. But still I have not seen any steady weight loss in almost two months. Dr. von Rueden told me to expect a plateau, but I didn't think it would happen to me.  Why do we always think that way? 

Anyway, I'm just going to keep at it because I know it will pick up again soon.  My surgeon and nutritionist do not believe in “plateau buster diets” or other fads to restart weight loss and neither do I.  Eating nothing but protein for 10 days is NOT healthy.  We need a balanced diet and that includes a healthy mix of protein, veggies, fruits and fiber.  My nutritionist says to keep eating right, keep the calories where they need to be, keep exercising diligently, keep getting 60 grams of protein (not 80 to 100), keep getting in at least 64 ounces of water, and the scale WILL move when your body is ready.  In other words, just follow the rules and everything will take care of itself.  We can’t control these things, so just go with the flow and continue good healthy habits.  Anyway, the way I look at it, my plateau should be ending fairly soon, so hopefully the scale will get moving. 

Everything else is going real well - I feel good, health-wise.  Still struggling with the urge to graze, but I think we all struggle with that and will continue to do so.  The key is to make good choices most of the time and try to exercise a little bit more than usual when I don’t make a good choice.  Hopefully, the scale will have moved below 168 when I write again at the end of August.  I feel great about my progress thus far and I know I’m not done losing.  Until next time, God bless!

303/168/135