I'm a Big Loser

Seriously... Remember last week I grumbled about being up a little and all the reasons I suspected it was a fluke... an anomaly... well I was right. It apparently WAS a fluke, because this week it appears I lost an impossible amount, even with using all my banked points YESTERDAY (Chinese food and a couple cocktails--has Chinese EVER not caused water retention?  It's a first). In fact, in three weeks I've lost 15 pounds. You figure last week was a small gain and then do the math... two of these three weeks have been rather phenomenal. (I consider ANY week with over a 5 pound loss phenomenal, mind you, but I think this is only the second time I've ever lost this much in a 'non-first' week. The last time I was 24 (yes, I have a freaky memory for such things) and it was 9 pounds (that would be the REASON I remember).  So this is apparently something that only happens every other decade.



Now it's tempting to NOT believe the scale when you don't like it, and to believe it when you DO, but I am holding out some skepticism this week (did last night's Merlot(s), bought with banked points dehydrate me?). It just seems too big a change, so I am doubting the scale will move much (if at all) next week



How it Goes



I guess my wealth of knowledge, scored from MANY rounds of this, is that for ME, weight and body size changes seem to alternate weeks. This morning, out of disbelieving curiosity, I measured just a few points, and there is very little going on (you'll remember last week I said every week was too often to measure anyway), but dollars to doughnuts, next week, with baby weight loss (if any), the measuring tape will move. I have no clue if everybody is that way or not, but it seems to me there may be a tissue memory or something that keeps us a certain shape through daily fluctuations and takes a little while to say “Oh, that fat's not coming back, time to adjust”.



Any of you scientific types are welcome to refute me, but I'm not probably going to buy it unless you explain why this really happens, because it DOES happen.





Turning Back Time



So in terms of weight gain progression, this morning's weigh-in puts me at about what I weighed when I broke my hand at the end of 2008 (I mildly sprained my ankle at the same time and had to give up my walk to work for a week, and the POWER walking for about 3). At the very least, I've erased all of 2009's toll on my body, so that's something.





So I Don't Appear Ungrateful...



While I remain skeptical, I also am THRILLED. Part of it, is I am about to roll under another '10' marker which seems significant for probably arbitrary reasons. The loss of 3 pounds from 139 to 136 somehow seems less meaningful even than say the loss from 142 to 139... I know in my head three pounds is three pounds, but those markers that roll you to the next... erm... decade?  I know that's not the right term, but I don't know what 10 pounds of weight is, yet somehow it seems significant all the same--changing TWO numbers of weight, instead of one.



AND THIS JUST IN! I LOVE being able to say I've lost a stone (and I have) so there. A stone is 14 pounds and sounds like an extraordinarily heavy amount... Never mind that I want to lose 5 of them... one is gone, and it pleases me. I will probably always be an anglophile... The stone terminology is just a bonus...

So I am celebrating with a Diet Coke. It isn't the grand fiesta it will be when I get to my next size down on jeans (I've got a REALLY cute pair of jeans that needs me to lost ANOTHER 15 pounds--daughter approved even--"Mom, wear those, they look good"), it is STILL a fiesta.



I know I have a lot of friends on the journey too, so I want to REMIND YOU—last week was bad, scale-wise, in spite of ME being good (well... eating and exercise good... I won't give up being naughty) which might have discouraged me, but I persevered, and it TOTALLY paid off... just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming...