In life, the majority of us at some point embark on a fitness goal. For the majority of those that includes weight loss. We, as humans, expect that if we are doing all the right things, then all the right things will happen. If you're eating a paleo diet, then you should garner the results. If you are doing 21 day fix then you should see appropriate results. What no one tells you, though when they discuss their results is the actual process. Sure they may say eat this, not that. Exercise this way, for this amount of time, on this number of days, and you will get results. What they don't tell you is that it isn't linear. You don't lose weight at a steady rate. Well, I suppose you could if you went to the moon. It's a steady difference between here and there to my knowledge. Here's a chart demonstrating what I mean about expectations vs. reality.
If you are a Sparker who is reading my post there, just look to the bottom of the page, sometimes it does weirdo things with the pictures when I copy the post from here.
See we want the top image, but the bottom image is reality. There are many reasons for this reality. 1. Food amounts/ nutritional information are relative. If you look up eggs they have 0.6g carbs. Do all large eggs weigh the exact same amount? I don't think so. I am sure that commercial farms try very hard to place every carton within a range that is relatively small, but the reality is that no two natural things will ever be 100% equal. Look at twins. One generally has some distinguishing feature, even if they are identical twins. Nothing is truly identical. It may be imperceptible to most, but there is a difference in all things. That 0.6g of carbs is on average.
So you tracked your carbs, ate under your goal, and didn't lose, or worse: GAINED. Why? Maybe you retained more water today. Maybe you ate more than you thought (weighed food wrong, guestemated wrong or you just had a carbier egg). The moon was in the wrong phase so you gained. Hormones were slightly off? Or maybe you lost. Who knows?
Last week, I weighed 203.4.Boo, hiss. Since I am writing this today (9 days later) we will go with my weight from yesterday. I said a week, but was delayed in writing so we will split the delay. So Tuesday I was still 203.4. And Wednesday. But Thursday I was 201.5! Yay! A loss. But Friday I was 202.0. Ugh a 1/2 pound gain. Saturday 200.6 I was now 0.1 smaller than I was when I fell off my wagon around my birthday. Go me! I had reversed my issue. And Monday was the best feeling for me as I weighed 199.8! I had hit ONEderland. And finally Tuesday I woke up 198.2. Even further into ONEderland!!!! I realize that I lost more days than gained, and it was by small amounts. What I didn't realize though is the thoughts that it would create. The highs and lows and boos. What was I doing differently? Nothing really. Weight just isn't a stable thing. Environment matters. Yesterday I did a lot of walking. It was hot. I sweated more than usual. No big deal. Today it is cooler and my ankle hurts (more on that in a minute). I probably won't lose as much for a few days if that is a major factor. I also ate higher carbs yesterday. Away from planned eating will impact weight loss.
The moral of the story is weighing everyday is A. pointless B. stressful and C. not going to tell you if you gained muscle mass, water, or lost fat. It only tells you the relationship to gravity at that ONE moment. Is that to say you should never ever weigh. No, not at all. Weigh if you want. Especially if you have a target weight. How will you know how to get there if you don't know where you are going? But don't weigh all the time. Once a week or even a month is fine. I weigh more times when I know that I have a higher carb meal coming so that I can get myself back in line. I don't worry as much if the scale rises if I can determine why and how to fix it.
Now, the ankle. I did my first workout on the C25K app. I did this while waiting on Reid to finish baseball practice on Monday. My ankle hurt a little yesterday, but I didn't really worry about it. I went to Raleigh and participated in the Down Syndrome Advocacy Day there. I did a lot of walking. I got home last night and thought I would die. Today, said ankle is in a brace. Booo Hisssss. I hope it's better soon. If not I will have to restart the app. I need to get in 3 exercises this week.
Good luck to you! Peace be with you.
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