Week 10: When Setbacks Happen, You Live and Learn

Good morning, all! Happy Sunday.

Well, I'll just get down to it: I gained back 3.7 lbs this week.

Naturally, I'm not at all happy about this. I've worked my behind off (literally and figuratively) for the past 10 weeks, and when you put in as much work as I have, you never want to see the scale NOT go down, much less go back up. With that being said, this blog, and this process, are all about holding yourself accountable, and this week I messed up.

I did every workout and then some. I'm doing a fitness challenge at my good friend's gym with her that is three weeks long. I did that Monday and Tuesday on top of Workouts 9 and 10 of Jillian Michaels Body Revolution. Naturally, this put my body under a lot of stress. Wednesday I had a jam-packed day and I could barely walk, so I took a rest day. Thursday I resumed with the workouts and doubled up on my workouts yesterday to make up for the lost day. This means that I did Workout 10 AND Cardio 3 on the same day in order to compensate. Clearly, the issue this week was not the workouts because I actually did MORE than I've been doing when all is said and done. The problem was that I still have issues with my diet.

I cheated a lot this week, and I didn't do the greatest job of tracking what I ate in Weight Watchers to gauge what I was consuming. This isn't to say that I pigged out on McDonalds, Chipotle and ice cream all week, but I drank a lot more alcohol, had a bunch of sushi with a friend Wednesday night, ate salty foods and drank a lot of soda. I didn't have great self control at all, and it shows by my weight gain. I also understand that me working out more means that I built more muscle this week, so I'm sure that contributed to the weight gain as well, but I can take responsibility for my poor diet choices this week and realize that if I'm going to see success through the remainder of this program, I have to watch my sodium intake and keep the cheating to a minimum.

With that being said, the one thing about this that I've really been struggling with is the self loathing I feel over gaining a few pounds back. I feel like it negates my hard work when it hasn't! I need to learn to stop being so hard on myself. My physical fitness level has improved tremendously, as has my endurance and physical appearance. I worry about how much I obsess over the number on the scale. So this week, I'm actually going to do what I said I'd do last week: put the scale away until next Sunday. I'm not taking it out under any circumstances, nor will I weigh myself again until next Sunday. Instead, I'm going to focus my energy this week on making better diet choices, continuing with my workouts and letting go of this week.

Weight loss is a marathon, not a sprint. Yes, people can lose twenty pounds in two weeks through a fad diet, but once they go back to normal eating habits they gain it back just as quickly. When you do things the healthy way, you're going to experience setbacks like this from time to time, and I have to learn to accept that and not want to cry every time I weigh myself and I'm half a pound heavier. I've been making positive changes, so I need to focus on my positive results. It's the only way I'll get through this and not give up right at the finish line.

I have three weeks left of this program, and it's time to finish strong! I know a lot of you who read this blog are people who are doing the program too, and I hope my honesty and accountability for my results inspires you to keep going, even if you experience setbacks! Learn to let go. That's what I've had to do this week.

Have a great week everyone! xx