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Have you ever gone down Alice’s rabbit hole during a Pinterest search about weight loss? There is so much stuff! It seems like it is endless. It is endless, but the more you read, the more you realize it’s the same old stuff all dressed up in different princess costumes. Each one is pretty the first time, but the more you run across the same dress over and over, the more the dress loses its sparkle. The same happens with weight loss info. You need new help, not the same ole stuff again and again. Well, here it is. 6 new things about weight loss no one has told you before, and how to deal with them. No point in leaving you hanging, right? Let’s go!
1. You Will Lose Hair
Losing weight changes so many things in your body. One that can leave you gripping the shower rod in terror is what seems like all your hair swirling down the drain. You committed to losing fat cells, not hair. What the heck!?!
Here is the good news. It’s only temporary. It’s cleaning up your diet by tossing cheeseburgers and carb loaded protein bars that is behind the loss of your hair thickness. When you cut some of those sugar-laden or grease ridden foods you used to eat, your protein intake decreases right along with them. To help keep your hair where you want it, increase the protein to your daily recommended level. Every person requires a different amount of protein, and finding that number can seem intimidating, but this calculator makes it easier than finding your car keys when you are already 10 minutes late for work. I just popped in my current weight and answered all the other questions like age, gender, pregnancy status, height, and activity level to find out that mine is 100 grams a day. I know that seems like a lot, but if you are like me and are in the 275 lb range, your body uses every one of those protein grams like building blocks to sculpt your new self.
The other thing you can do to hold on to your hair is to get
yourself some hair, nails, and skin supplements or a prenatal. Both have nutrients
that help your body build and keep the hair it has. These Nature’s Bounty Gummies
2. Your Self-Esteem Will Become a Roller Coaster
I bet one of your favorite parts of losing weight is zipping up those jeans you never thought would close around your belly again. I know it’s one of mine. It makes you almost happy enough to post it on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and blow up your best friend’s phone. That euphoria is the best high.
Now, imagine two days later when your cat threw up in your purse, your toddler son is dancing naked right past your grasp when he needs to get dressed right this second or you will all be late, and you just spilled coffee on those same jeans. You run to the bedroom and catch sight of yourself as you pass the mirror and dear lord, is that a whale? Sigh. The jeans had to go anyway (thanks, coffee) but now you never want to see them again. How could they betray you like that?
I’m betting your self-esteem had its ups and downs in your life before, but now that you are doing such hard work to change yourself for the better, the emotions feel so much sharper. Before I started my journey, I was resigned to the whale feeling. Now, since I have made progress towards my goals, it feels so much more like I’m doing something wrong if I’m not feeling great about myself.
The best way to deal with the highs is yo enjoy them. That boost of happiness and endorphins will take you through the next part of the journey. The lows are harder to navigate. I prefer a two-prong process here. 1. Tell yourself you are pretty, worthy, reliable, and 30 lbs closer to your goal, whale feeling be darned. You aren’t a whale. You are a woman encountering change. Your mind sometimes is frightened by change. It needs you to keep going to learn that there was nothing to fear to begin with. 2. Remind yourself of all the positive changes you’ve seen. There will be more than just jeans that zip. You will get less winded trying your shoes or just bending over. You will be able to paint your toenails. You will be able to see your cheekbones again. All these things are great things, and they blow the whale thoughts right out of the water.
3. You Will Plateau
Who invented weight loss plateaus? Seriously. They are the worst. You are going right along with your tracker and your fast food ban or carb cut back, and bam, right out of nowhere, a scary scale number slaps you in the face. Sometimes its a stuck name for weeks. Sometimes it’s a couple of pounds that seems to leave. Then they return. Then they leave. Then they return. Do you recall calling them back? I don’t. They are like that kid in college you let couch surf for one night, and four months later he has turned up four more times with his dirty feet and scary sleeping bag.
Whichever form a plateau takes, there are some things you can do to send it on its way.
One is to start tracking again. You stopped, right? Thinking you knew what you needed to do so accountability wasn’t a big deal anymore? Uh huh. I’ve been there too. Thanks to not tracking, I fluctuated between 277 and 280 for months. Months. I don’t want you to go through that yourself, so if the tracker has fallen down the crack between your car console and your seat, dig it out and get going again.
Water is number two. Increase it. If your water doesn’t have enough water to perform its functions, it holds on to what it does have like a toddler with a “prize” he knows he shouldn’t have (scissors anyone?). Take more water in, and more water will come out. That water that is hanging out with no exit plan is most likely the pounds you can’t shake.
Number three is the hardest yet most important. Be patient. OMG right? Patience? How does that help? It helps by letting your body readjust to its new form. You just lost part of it, and your biology doesn’t like that. Remember the hunter-gatherer days when food was scarce? Weight loss meant famine which meant no next meal. Patience is needed to let your body do its freak out thing. Once it gets through it, your weight loss should begin again like Michael Finnegan’s beard.
4. You Will Have a Saggy Middle
Saggy middle? What? Don’t I know talking about flabby skin is uncomfortable? Do I ever. I’m not talking about belly fat here though. I’m talking about the boring middle part of weight loss where you have lost your enthusiasm, and it feels like yet another chore to add to your over-full to do list. Unless you have two pounds to lose that a good trip to the bathroom can accomplish, you will lose that initial excitement that weight loss starts with. It’s like any long term relationship. It gets stale after a while if you don’t work to keep the stale away. Keeping life exciting during the weight loss journey isn’t quite like it is in marriage, but is just as vital to keeping the relationship viable. Here are some ways to keep the saggy middle from becoming an upward trend on your scale.
Saggy middle? What? Don’t I know talking about flabby skin is uncomfortable? Do I ever. I’m not talking about belly fat here though. I’m talking about the boring middle part of weight loss where you have lost your enthusiasm, and it feels like yet another chore to add to your over-full to do list. Unless you have two pounds to lose that a good trip to the bathroom can accomplish, you will lose that initial excitement that weight loss starts with. It’s like any long term relationship. It gets stale after a while if you don’t work to keep the stale away. Keeping life exciting during the weight loss journey isn’t quite like it is in marriage, but is just as vital to keeping the relationship viable. Here are some ways to keep the saggy middle from becoming an upward trend on your scale.
Nonscale victories are the roses your spouse brings home from work on a random Tuesday. That scale doesn’t know everything. Focus on the other positive benefits you see, like going down a dress size or catching the eye of the cute waiter that is probably ten years younger than our 30 something years. I know that the second one is a shallow example, but sometimes just that little thrill is enough to bump your motivation in the right direction.
Forget the roses from your spouse. Buy yourself your favorite tulips to celebrate reaching your next mini goal. Maybe its another five pounds gone. Maybe it’s not stopping at that ice cream parlor across from your daughter’s daycare for a week. Setting and celebrating mini goals will keep your positive associations with weight loss going.
Talk your friend into buying herself tulips too after she joins you at the gym (it’s her mini-goal). An accountability buddy can keep you motivated and also can guilt (erm, encourage) you into going to the gym of the motivation is hard to find. You can do the same for her.
5. Your Hormones and Water Weight and Period Will Increase Your Weight (Temporarily)
Aunt Flo. No matter how nonchalant we are about the hormone shifts and bleeding monthly, we pretend to be, its a darn nuisance in so many ways. The biggest ones for weight loss are the bloating and weight gain that start setting in about a week before the bleeding starts. Unsnapped jeans on an empty stomach anyone? Then, as if that’s not enough, you get the joy of watching the numbers on the scale either stall or climb. Its torture, isn’t it?
Water weight and hormones have linked arms to bring this lovely increase to your life. You are craving chips and chocolate and all the food. The last thing you want to do is stick to all the changes you’ve made. You want to go back to old habits for comfort. The issue is that all those comforting things make it worse. The chips are especially guilty. All that wonderful salt that makes you want to lick the inside of the bag will add to the bloating and water weight. If you can stick to healthier habits especially during this week, the scale won’t be as likely to climb.
The good news here is that the day the bleeding starts, your weight will drop back into comfort zones. Not fifty pounds or anything, but that pesky 3 or 4 or 5 you gained last week will disappear like the last hairbrush in the house when your toddler is around.
6. You Will Have Loose Skin
Newsflash: we aren’t 20 anymore. Did that happen way faster than you thought it would? I did for me. Some days I feel like I’ve been whiplashed by the years flying by. So many things are different from when I was 15 years younger. One of the biggest one for us 30s ladies isn’t wrinkles. It’s skin elasticity. Our skin is an amazing organ that can adjust to many situations, but as we get older, its ability to shrink slows more than our ability to banish fat cells does. Can you say bat wings? Mine are more pronounced after removing 30 pounds from my frame. Don’t be surprised if your skin takes longer to adjust than it did ten years ago. It’s not that it won’t shrink ever, but it is a slower process. This process is a time to grant yourself grace and focus on the positives. My bat wings have elongated, but the definition in my calves is unlike anything I’ve seen since my teen years. That definition appeared without any exercise other than walking. Focusing on that change makes me so happy most days that the bat wings receed from my mind even as they hang around on my body.
Conclusion
Losing weight is hard work that rivals getting grape juice out of your mother-in-law’s new white sofa. These 6 things are here to make that a little bit more like getting grape juice out of your well-loved flowered sofa that hides stains. Easier, right? Less scary too? Let me know. I’m here to help make things as unscary as possible.
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Ruth Copeland
January 21, 2019 at 8:19 amLosing weight is a lifetime struggle but well worth it for our health. Thank you for sharing your journey. Proud of you.