It's that time of year again: winter lbs

[Geonz]

have you considered a SAD light? http://www.apollolight.com/index.html is the one my friend swears by... reads the paper with it every morning starting around Labor Day.

[run it, ride it]

Yes, I will talk to my counselor about it. They rent them out for two-week stints with a prescription. Last year I got to it too late and they were all on loan. Hopefully if I strike early I'll get a chance this year!

I'm also considering visiting a tanning bed (they have packages that are SAD-specific, whatever that means!)

Oh, grey-skied city, with the wind and the damp and the light pollution--why must I live in you to complete my degree?

[Hammer]

My weight fluctuates by 5 pounds on any given day too. Right now, I think my low is 156 and my high is 160-163. Lately it's 160. Drives me nuts! I do spin class ideally 3x a week if I'm not out of town for work. And I run 2-3x a week.

I continue to try to monitor my food intake. I'm not very good about tracking calories. I think that I hover around 2000 calories, I don't drop weight, but I'm maintaining alright. Some days when portion control flys out the window or I submit to sweets then I overshoot too.

I would like to see if I can maintain a solid 150 instead of a solid 160. But my weight is in my hip/thigh/butt area. I'm just built to be curvy and carry my weight in the area that is MOST difficult to lose it from. But on the good side, my thighs are starting to feel pretty solid. And, I figure that muscle does a better job of retaining water than fat would, so on those days the scale really screws me over.

I try to focus on the notion that I'm a healthy young woman. I'm 5'9", 27 years old. A solid 160 is NOT bad. But, I can empathize with you. When you work so hard, it's tough to see numbers not reflecting your work.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Run it,
I think it's normal to gain 5 pounds or so over the winter months. Why torture yourself about it? And yes, it's totally normal to fluctuate 3 pounds or so depending on one's menstrual cycle too.
It's not good to have only empty skin flap bags as boobs if it's because you are starving yourself. It means you have NO fat on your body at all, and we need some fat to be healthy.
As to the thing you mentioned about the feminine shape becoming more distinct every time you gain and lose weight- when I was 20 -and my 2 daughters as well- we all had very thin willowy body shapes. It was only during our mid 20's that all 3 of us began to get more womanly shapes- with more defined hips, breasts, and thin waists in contrast. It's normal development, and it's meant to be this way. I have some friends that never got hips at all, and they're shaped like little boys still. That's fine, but my genes would never have had that happen, and there's no way I could have kept a willowy figure even if I starved. It wasn't fat, my hip bones just matured!
Hope this allays some of your fears. Don't freak out, try to be kinder to yourself.

[run it, ride it]

Thank you, ladies, for the personal accounts and the support. Reading through all those other posts about maintaining absolutely strict diets to 'lose those last ten pounds, because those are the hardest to lose' was stressing me out a little.

I have the ability and determination TO lose those last ten pounds. But I think it's more beneficial to my overall health right now to let my body try and sort itself out, even if that means it wants more food, more rest, more sleep than I think it should need.

I'm just terrified of getting into the same situation as my mother--she was overweight through to her 20s, then lost something like 75lbs through Weight Watchers and became very active. But because of her thyroid she will never be able to take off her remaining weight, despite all her activity.

I'm afraid to gain weight--what if it never comes off!? I'm afraid I've worked so hard in the past to stay thin that I'll burn out. That's why it's so scary to let a few pounds slide.

[Kimmyt]

I've learned to ignore the scale. I fluctuate regularly, like everyone else. 3 lbs here, 3 lbs there. I ignore the numbers, and pay attention to clothes fit (because that's more permanent). 3-5 lbs won't necessarily mean i'm getting bigger. It could mean i'm dehydrated, or bloated, or still digesting a big meal. As long as I don't go up several sizes, I'm happy that I am still healthy. And as long as I can do all my very physical hobbies too!

That being said, the other day I did a little 'experiment'. It was unplanned, The Boy and I had just gotten a new scale since the one we had was broken. We weighed ourselves on it to make sure it worked, then we went out to dinner with some friends where we stuffed ourselves (I reserve the right, no matter what food plan I'm on, to indulge once in awhile! What can I say, I'm a foodie!). Then when me and The Boy rolled in later that night (almost literally...) we decided to weigh ourselves again. We were both up 5 lbs. My Gosh! No wonder I felt so overstuffed and gross. I didn't want to look at food for a long while!

The next morning I weighed myself again and found that all 5 lbs had been burned off overnight. Whew! I guess it just took a while for my metabolism to catch up with my stomach and mouth!

Anyway, not making a habit of eating like THAT very often, but at least I know that if I do it once in a great while, my body will do it's job, especially if I take care of it!

K.

[run it, ride it]

Be thankful for the fact you can digest a large meal overnight! Just reading that made me hurt a little

I have a slow metabolism and irritable bowel syndrome--I experience sharp pain for 3-5 hours after just about everything I eat. The more I eat at once, the worse the pain. Sometimes it takes up to 15 hours for my body to process a meal enough that I can handle any more food.

And 5lbs for me IS a big visual difference--the difference between a defined jaw and another chin, or between feeling sleek and having my back bulge and wobble above my shorts when I run! As I said, I carry weight in all the wrong places! My ribcage is gigantic--do you think it takes advantage of that with remotely proportionate breasts? Nope.

Right, right. It's not my body that's all wrong, it's the unobtainable body-types depicted as the norm in the media.