Well, like I said, that gain last week was all sodium retention from my delicious, delicious fish and chips! Last week was only a small gain and look at how it balanced out- still an almost 2lb per week loss on net. There is absolutely nothing wrong with having an occasional indulgence as long as you get right back on track afterwards, which I did. And now I feel like I am satiated for fried food for a while, I enjoyed every bite I ate, and honestly I'm still enjoying what I'm eating in my calorie deficit too.
I think with the price of gold being what it is, I'd rather have 4 gold bars- as long as I could still lose the weight myself afterwards! If the tradeoff is 4 gold bars or staying at my starting weight? I don't know... that's three million dollars! That might take some thought! But if it just meant starting my journey over again? I think for three million dollars I could do it one more time! But honestly I never want to go through this again!
Five pounds in a single week- in any week even at the very beginning of a weight loss program- is something impressive. At this stage in my weight loss journey, it's pretty insane. It also feels more promising in terms of maintenance- that maybe my metabolism is starting to heal and be closer to what a person who has never been obese would have. I know that they have done lots of studies showing that people who were obese and lost the weight still burn fewer calories than a person of similar age, height, and weight. I am hoping that I am increasing my BMR with all this additional muscle tissue so that I won't regain as easily.
I've also noticed a change in how my hunger feels, but it's difficult to explain the difference. It's lost some of the urgency I used to feel, if that makes sense. Now it really does feel like, OK, we've been active, now we need some fuel, as opposed to either eating by rote or else eating until I was stuffed (not until I was satisfied). It feels healthy! More like how hunger cues should be.
Again I've been seeing people writing about how they wish they weren't hungry and miss the days where they had no hunger cues at all, and I remember feeling that way early in my Ozempic journey but one of my friends hit me with a ClueBy4 and reminded me that it was disordered to think that way. Hunger is normal, and it's something we deal with every single day, and it exists for a reason- to ensure we nourish our bodies. Wishing hunger away means we're more likely to eat too little in the desire to lose weight, and it also means on the days when hunger finally hits that we're going to go way overboard. That's not a great pattern and that definitely hurts your metabolism to starve starve starve binge. We have to find the balance that works for us.
In the meantime? I'm genuinely starting to find that the gym is becoming a stress release for me. Most days, I feel good when I'm leaving and I recover more quickly than I did before. Less of feeling like I'm dead when I walk home, and more feeling like I pushed myself but that I'm capable of pushing myself like that. It's a really good feeling! I'm really glad I didn't give up when it was hard and that I kept working at it, because this is important to me now. Exercise is becoming part of my self care.
Onwards and downwards!
