Momentum

Good news--and very unexpected.

You know how when you start trying to lose weight, it seems almost impossible and moves so incredibly slowly, but then it seems like it takes two seconds and one decent meal to gain it all back?

THAT TIDE TURNS.

After losing 15 pounds, some life issues arose that have had me eating badly for the past four weeks or so. Not horribly--I'm still trying to keep it at a reasonable level--but I haven't had fish or fresh vegetables or any of the things I've come to live by for weeks, and I've ordered pizza on more occasions than I'd like to count.

And I've gained (are you ready?)....three pounds. In four weeks. I'm almost at the point that I can get back on track, and the damage is virtually non-existent. I can knock those three pounds back off in 4-5 days of fish and fiber.

This is a huge revelation for me and an important one because I (like so many of us) have fallen off the wagon in the past BEFORE I got to the point that the tide turned and my body wanted to maintain my new weight instead of start working quickly back toward the old "normal" weight. I've always believed that the pattern of taking a lot of hard work to lose and one little slip to gain back would be perpetual, and that once I reached my goal weight I'd constantly be weighing whether or not going out to dinner was worth gaining four pounds or eating a slice of my daughter's birthday cake was worth having to starve myself for a week...but it turns out it doesn't work that way. Plateaus, apparently, work in both directions. I can't tell you what encouraging news this is.