The Stages of Weight Loss - #4 (Running in Place like a Cartoon)

It's time for another installment in the Stages of Weight Loss...

When we last left our heroine, it was the WAY FUN stage of being totally balanced and really psyched about moving in the right direction. Well, I hope you enjoyed that feeling of momentum. Because now we're going nowhere fast.

This is a particularly cruel stage because you're actually doing everything right -- working out more than once a week, developing more than a visual relationship with vegetables, spreading a thin layer of peanut butter onto whole wheat bread instead of eating it from the jar with a shovel.... But for whatever reason, for the first few weeks of improved habits, the scale doesn't move. Not a bit. And if it does move, it's more often up than down.

Here's how it generally plays out...

Diet Days #1 - 5 (Balanced): Whole grain cereal with fresh fruit and skim milk; apple slices with reduced-fat peanut butter; turkey sandwich with carrot sticks; whole grain pasta with tomato sauce and fresh spinach (or grilled chicken with steamed veggies, etc.). 8 glasses of water daily, one diet soda, one skinny latte. Walk/jog for 30-45 minutes each day.
Weight Change: None. Zero. Nada.

Diet Day #6 (Splurge):  Bagel with cream cheese, burrito with guacamole and sour cream, Snickers bar, 3 slices extra-cheese pizza with hamburger and onion. 2 big glasses of full-sugar Coke. Watch other people exercise on TV from safe haven of couch.
Weight Change: None.

Diet Days #7-8 (Remorse): Four rice cakes, 30 celery sticks, two gallons water with lemon juice.
Weight Change: +1 lb.

Diet Days #9-12: Back to balanced eating plan above (see days 1-5).
Weight Change: -1 lb.

So, all that for nothing. During this period, the number on the scale seems to have absolutely no relationship to what goes in my mouth during the day, much less how much exercise I get. While logically I know that this defies the laws of biology, physics and common sense, it's sort of surreal and discouraging nonetheless.

What I suspect is really going on during this time is that (a) my good habits - which I painted beautifully in Days 1-5 - aren't quite as good as I think they are; and (b) it takes a while for my body to adjust to the changes and start letting go of the pounds. What I often underestimate in Stage #3, when I'm totally psyched, is how really bad my eating and exercise habits have really become. So even very improved behaviors on my part may not be different enough at first to show up on the scale.

And come on, you can't have grilled chicken and steamed veggies without a little cheese on top. And so I added a little ice cream on at the end of the day and didn't track the points, so what? I was good otherwise!

It takes a little while for me to ferret out all these little rationalizations, and for my expanded gut to shrink down enough to feel full with smaller meals. I ought to know this, having been through the stages before, but it can be a little frustrating nonetheless. Still, it's usually not enough to knock me completely off track; and as the weeks wear on, I slowly whittle away the excess calories and get into a groove with the exercise. The good feelings from Stage 3 usually remain intact, though they become more muted and less.... insane.

On the whole, Stage 4 is generally positive, health-wise, despite the fact that my wheels seem to be spinning. And I like to think that the frustration of this stage is a way of earning the successes of the next one.

[Wait, did I give too much away?]