What Goes Up, Must Come Down

The stress of moving over the last month or so wreaked havoc on my weight loss efforts. I literally spiraled into eating cheese curls on the couch, the biggest culprit behavior of my massive weight gain to begin with.

One week during the last month, I was so worried about gaining weight after such successful weight loss so far (which has peaked at 38 pounds since the new year) that, although I continued to attend Weight Watchers meetings, I refused to weigh in.

And then when I went back and braved the weigh-in, convinced I'd bounced back and would have at least maintained my weight, it turned out I was overconfident and had gained 0.4 pounds.

The next week, I gained another 0.2 pounds.

Granted, we're still only talking about a half a pound here. But it's the trend that worried me: the scale was moving in the wrong direction, and that's not the progress I wanted, not the progress I'd been seeing for the last eight months. After all, I'm such a good student. To gain a half pound at weigh-in - something I can usually at least fudge by taking off my glasses, watch and ring and wearing the teeniest shorts and tank top - was like dropping from an A+ to an A.

Unacceptable.

But one of the things that they teach you in Weight Watchers is that you have to accept the rollercoaster of weight loss, like the rollercoaster of life. Sometimes the number won't go down. Sometimes it will actually go up. It may go up for weeks in a row. But as long as the overall trend is down, and you're able to stay on track and not become completely derailed by events like vacations, weddings and stressful times, then in the long run, in the end, you'll be OK.

"Don't be a strong, motionless oak tree!" my meeting leader Lauren told us. "You have to be like a willow, and bend."

It's a good lesson that goes way beyond the scale.

As I endure my own life rollercoaster, my weight went back down 0.2 pounds this week, once again moving in the right direction. Just another 0.4 and I can forget all about the stress of the last month.

"Like a willow / I can bend..." - Stevie Nicks

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