I went in to my Monday morning weigh-in knowing and expecting I’d be up a couple of pounds from the weekend’s indiscretions – what I didn’t expect was that the scale would blow up with 4.5 extra pounds! Thankfully, my saintly registered dietitian talked me through it, and I was able to understand that it’s mathematically impossible to gain 4.5 pounds in three days. To do that, I would have needed to consume and not burn off an extra 15,750 calories – the equivalent of three triple-layer buttercream birthday cakes.

While it wouldn’t be far-fetched to gain an extra pound from the overeating I did (but even that’s a stretch, as I don’t think I overate 3,500 calories – my fitness pal said it was only 1100!), 4.5 pounds is not likely. But it isn’t far fetched to gain as much as 7 pounds in bloating, sometimes overnight! My body hasn’t been used to salt and oil – and a meal like fried chicken was just enough to puff me up like a blowfish. The RD’s recommendation was lots of water to help beat the bloat, and to get movin’, as aerobic activity can also help diminish puffiness and swelling.

I’m not going to let this little setback screw up my downward trend – and now I know that even a little bit of “cheating” can really de-rail what the number on the scale is. The good news is that there are some non-scale victories showing up – like the fact that my jeans are loose, I feel more energized and I’m getting full faster. Now I feel motivated to do really well this week, and not let the temptation of junk get the best of me. Do you find when you splurge a little bit that you bloat up like a beach ball too?

Puffily yours,