Saturday 13 September 2014

Weight loss worries

This morning I've woken up and I'm feeling a little disheartened if I'm honest. This is a theme that's been present most of this week so I've been trying to tell myself to 'stop moping and just get on with it'.

As I do each week I woke up this morning to weigh myself for my weekly weigh in. Most Saturdays, plans permitting, I also get ready to go to a spin class at my local gym.

Today I've woken up super achey from last nights cardio workout. Great, I thought, I must've worked hard if I'm feeling like this. Admittedly that also made me hopeful for something positive on the scales.

I already was a bit disappointed as I really am too achey to go spinning and I've been reminded by people before to let my body rest and recovery is important too.

Anyway off I hop onto the scales. What do I see? I've put on. Yes super minimal 0.4 of a pound, but as I typically round my weight up when logging on the likes of MyFitnessPal it effectively says I've put on 1lb. 

There are two schools of thought here, some people say 1lb is nothing and not to worry if you put it on. Others show images of just how much a pound of fat is to illustrate just how much fat you've lost when you lose 1lb. So who is right?

If I don't weigh myself weekly, something others have suggested, I lose the feeling of accountability and tend to find I get lax and don't feel a sense of achievement or progress.

I've felt the last few weeks my body feels heavy and bloated and normally when I've exercised I do feel lighter. I'm not feeling that lately (and in fact have been worrying now I'm in my 30s that maybe I'm experiencing that as-you-grow-older problem people talk about where your body just clings to fat). Who knows.

So I'd purposely started to mix it up this week. In fact, including last Thursday I've made seven gym visits. That's seven times over ten days. That to me is pretty good. 

Of those seven, three have been spinning, 45/50 minute classes. The other four have been cardio. 

Each of those cardio I've tried to mix up, different machines, sometimes using weights, trying different modules on machines, different orders of using machines and times/levels. I've been feeling it each time and aching the next day most times and sweating non stop during the sessions.

Typically my fitness 'week' starts on a Saturday so if you look at it that way I've exercised five days out of seven. Two rest days. 

The only 'cheat' day I've had was on Wednesday for my Mum's birthday when we ate and drank out. 

And so after actively watching what I eat (bar one day) and made a conscious effort to push myself in exercise, I just don't understand why my weight loss is not showing an impact. 

My fiancĂ© feels I'm stressed out and worked up about certain things (primarily our house buying/flat selling fiasco that feels like it's pretty much taken up our year and has been ongoing since March). He thinks maybe our bodies are just exhausted from it all and not working as optimally as they would typically. 

When I went through a really stressful time last year - and didn't resort to my typical comfort eating approach - I really dropped in weight (and in turn reached my lowest). I therefore don't understand why this tricky time my body is reacting differently? 

I thought why not post on social media and blog about it, in a bid to see if anyone out there has tips and can advise. 

I'm not at my ideal weight or at my lowest, I'm currently 10lbs heavier than the lowest I've preciously managed to achieve. 

As you can probably tell I truly am baffled and a tad fed up. So it's over to you. 

Please comment away and tell me what you think or what you've found works for you. I'm at a total loss and unfortunately it's not weight loss! 

My 'progress' over the last 6 months (the yellow line is the 'trend line', the average/underlying weight taking out fluctuations).