Keep calm and carry on...

I missed that deadline. By a measly 300 grams (0.66 pounds). So, I´m a year older and still morbidly obese.
Does that vex me? Of course. But it doesn´t mean I´m going to quit. Because even with plateauing twice during the last year, I am still down 10 kilos (that´s 22 pounds) from what I weighed last year. Being morbidly obese by twenty-plus pounds or by less than a pound makes for a big enough difference that I know that it has been worth it. Besides, the distance between me and the limit of obesity hasn´t grown bigger just because I had hoped to cross it sooner.
So, perseverance is the word. Sticking to my plan, and knowing that, even when nothing seems to move, my body is working on recondensing itself, as long as I eat under my caloric limit and keep clear of foods that don´t agree with me weightloss-wise (I´m talking about you, potato).
After two years of watching my intake like a hawk, I have a relatively reliable idea about what foods will cause those crazy several-pounds-in-a-day  swings. If I have been eating very few carbs for a while, reintroducing them will invariably mean two to three pounds up the next morning. That computes to one unit of carbs re-filling the body´s empty carbohydrate stores, plus twice the amount of water that the body will store along with the carbs. Same thing about eating something salty- I know that dishes with soy sauce, or similar salty ingredients, will make me retain about two pounds of water. Combine both, and voila- five pounds up in a single day.
The important part of this is the word "water".
What I gain after such meals, provided I don´t consume more total calories than my body expends, is water.
Not fat.
I may even be losing fat on such a day without being able to notice it on the scale, because the water retention covers it up.
If I get off carbs again, skip the sodium and drink plenty of fluids to help my body retain less water, that excess liquid will leave my body again, and what comes up on the scales then is seemingly  as rapid a loss as I gained those water pounds.
Knowing the reactions of my body is, therefore, the best antidote to weight loss frustration. And, of course, going back to low-carb low-sodium business after such meals.

And reminding myself that slow steps can take you where you want to go, too.



Julia