Thursday, July 10, 2008

It's Gotta Be The Humidity

It came to my attention the other day that part of my weight gain this week could be due to the terrible humidity that's engulfed the region as of late. Humidity usually triggers some type of reaction from your body besides sweating, it causes you to retain water and bloat. Aside from the minor popcorn infraction Monday night, there was no real reason for me to weigh a pound and a half more on Tuesday morning than I did on Monday considering I ate well that day and hit the gym. Plus, since going on vacation the last week of June, where I did indulge and know I probably put on a couple of pounds, the bloat that is associated with that had melted away fairly quickily upon resuming my normal life. Other than sitting on a patio in the market Sunday afternoon sucking back Stellas (which aren't calorie friendly BTW), I had been good and I figured my true weight was probably 205-206. It was about 202-203 before vacation, when I got on the scale my first day back at work, I was 211. Of course, there's no way I put on 8-9lbs of fat during a week off so I knew about half of it was bloat.

This morning I was back to 207. Maybe this is my true weight currently. Maybe I'm deluded. No, no maybe about it, I am deluded. 207 it is.

Funny thing about vacation time. I tend to let myself take a vacation from the gym and good eating habits too. I don't know why really, its not that hard to eat decently when off from work or even away on a trip. But its something I do every time. I had started really working hard again on losing the extra weight last September and I was doing pretty well. From a start of 226lbs, I was down to about 207lbs by the first of December. Awesome progress I think! But then December hit and Christmas goodies were all about. First at work which was very hard to avoid. Then my sister's Xmas party mid-month where there was a ton of great food including baked goodies which I love. I tried not to overindulge but Hell, it was a Xmas party and you don't see these goodies all year. But every little bit adds up and I knew I had done some damage. Then the actual Xmas holiday began. I was off for the last week of December, a nice gift to the employees my company offers, and we first went home to Kingston for a couple of days then up to Campbells Bay to visit Red's family. There was much food and holiday cheer and both destinations. Add to that I didn't hit the gym during that week and you start to get the picture. After we arrived back home, we still had a couple of days off and we basically threw caution to the wind, which in retrospect was an incredibly dumb thing to do. Poor food choices, no gym and little activity all spelled TROUBLE. No surprise when it was all over I was 217lbs. Super. 2 months of work down the drain.

What was interesting, and frustrating, about this time was that I had been so good before that and suddenly I was having trouble getting back into my routine. I had redeveloped my taste for cookies, chocolate, pizza, and anything else I shouldn't be enjoying regularly. It was very hard resuming my diet and workout routine. I found myself dipping into Red's cookie bag, or the stash of chocolate she keeps in the fridge. I was running out at lunch for a slice or two of pizza instead of just hunkering down with my fruits, salad and soup. It was awful. I felt awful. Still, a few of those pounds came off quick, they were just bloat. But I got stuck at 213lbs. I was getting really frustrated with myself. My mood was getting blacker as my frustration grew.

It wasn't until after Easter that I finally started seeing some progress. Easter was bad, Red had bought a bunch of crap for us and for about a week, I was in chocolate heaven! But after that, I was able to get it together again. I think I lost my taste for it finally. Now I could continue my journey. The weight started to come down again, slowly, until I managed to hit 202. One day I hit 200 but I think I was just dehydrated. So by the end of June I was about 202-203 depending on the day. Six months to fix my Xmas adventure and get to a weight I should have hit in January. Depressing. But at least on the right road again.

Which brings me back to June's vacation. You'd think after all the Hell I'd gone through to fix what I did at Xmas, that I would have been more careful. Well I started out that way. Really I did. We went to Niagara Falls and for the trip, we packed fruits, crackers and Red's cookies. For dinners, there was a Lil Caesars across the street offering a thin $4.99 pizza for takeout so we did that a couple of times, ate at a Ruby Tuesdays once and enjoyed a great pasta meal at some italian restaurant the last day. We did eat breakfast once, at the local Dennys which charged us way more than the usual Dennys would have because it was around the corner from the tourist area at the Falls. (I mean who pays $40 for breakfast for 2??) Besides the beer and wine we drank, we didn't do too badly I thought. Except for the cookies. God I love those things.

So after another somewhat decadent week with no gym activity, I stepped back on the scale to see 211lbs. A couple of days after resuming my diet and workout, I was back to 207lbs. I hate that number. So I gained about 4-5lbs over my vacation. The good news is that I found my resolve again. When I woke up on July 2 to go hit the gym and return to work, I felt motivated. I had no desire for anything unhealthy. My first workout was brisk, I was in the zone. I bounced around work and ate well again. Like I mentioned earlier, aside from my Sunday beerfest in the market and the popcorn incident, I've been good the last week. Weight gain my ass.

Its gotta be the humidity.

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