STUCK! And Stuck Again. And Again. And Again.

I swear. I have been stuck at the same weight for the past three or four weeks. And it pisses me off.

I work and work and work and the scale sort of hovers around the same number. Maybe up one pound today, then down one, then up one, then steady, then down two, then up one, then steady ...

You get the idea.

And it's frustrating.

Early on, the pounds came off faster. Obvioulsy, there was more of them to lose at that point. But it wasn't uncommon to lose three or four of the little darlings in a week, every week. And I got addicted to the game. I looked forward to weighing in each morning, if you can imagine such a thing. Couldn't wait to see what had happened each night. Even caught myself checking in after work, because I just had to KNOW!

The official weigh in, however, was in the morning, when the scale would show the lowest number possible for the day. I made sure to only weigh in the altogether because even PJs could add a fraction of a pound. I learned (or thought I did) that my scale seemed to register lower after the bathroom was filled with steam, so I weighed in after my shower, making sure to squeeze every drop of water out of my hair with a towel first. I even tried to pee twice ... just to make sure I'd expelled have every last ounce of potential additional weight. (Gross, but true.)

It was fun to watch the pounds come off.

These days, the pounds are dropping slower. There's less to lose, true, as I'm within about 17 pounds of my goal. But now I feel like I'm on a new cycle. Like I manage to lose two or three or four and then level off for a few weeks. Then I lose a few more over a couple of days, and level off again. In the middle of that, I bounce up and down "gaining" and "losing" the same three pounds for at least three weeks.

It drives me bananas. I mean, I'm working just as hard. I'm eating pretty OK. Nothing seems to be significantly different.

It's hard to not get discouraged. But I found something of a solution.

I go try on clothes. Because even though the number on the scale isn't significantly different from what it was a month ago or two months ago, I fit in smaller sizes. My assumption is that while I'm not losing pounds, perhaps I am still losing inches. And that helps me get through the blasted plateau.

I choose to think of it this way: My body needs time to rearrange itself. It needs to adjust to the new reality before it can fire up again. And, so far, I haven't been disappointed. It might take a while, but the scale does go down.

(And I have to mention the fact that us girls have the additional battle of monthly water weight, which I won't go into detail on, but want to acknowledge. That's two gross things in one post. Three if you count my mention of my altogether. You're welcome.)

Bottom line, I know that as long as I'm doing the right things, the right things happen. Eventually.

And I repeat it over and over and over and over and over and over again.