As expected, this morning's weekly weigh-in provided the first week of the year where I've gained weight. Just 1lb on, in week 20 of the year, so obviously nothing too concerning, but it's provided the prompt to go back to looking over my records, and tonight I'll spend some time doing a bit of sorting out and re-focussing. I've not been eating badly over the last 2 weeks, but I've not been eating well either, and have had a few too many 'treats'. A little bit of complacency slips in, and with things being busy I've made poorer decisions than I ought. After generally maintaining around 2lbs a week weightloss for the year, last week I lost 0.8 lbs, this week I gained 1. I'm very keen to not make excuses for this, because I could very easily blame work for being pretty stressful and hectic of late, but really it's my own responsibility to take care of myself, and to focus on my goals, and I haven't been.
There are still positives from the last week, of course (10km PB, anyone?) and indeed this small weight gain isn't a "negative" in itself either - it's a 'blip', and chance for me to sit back, refocus on my goals and aims for the year, and get back on track. It's not all about food, either, though that's been important; I haven't been taking care of myself and that's something I need to address quickly. Work has been tough the last two weeks, and will continue to be for a while, and there are numerous studies out there about the effect cortisol has on weight gain; the more stressed I get, the more my body doesn't like what's going on, basically. So I have to try and keep stress and anxiety levels lower, and really focus on putting myself first.
It was in May 2013 that my weight gain started again, after a successful weightloss back then - so I won't lie that a tiny panicky voice in the back of my mind is asking if this is the start of my weight all going back on again, but I'll be honest: I really don't believe it is. Mentally I'm in a very different place to where I've been, and I'm also of a view that this is very much a temporary bump in the road I'm travelling. I believe I can get myself back on track, and that one difference alone is pretty much groundbreaking. x
Some of the weight gain is likely to be water in response to refilling some of your glycogen stores - so a modest excess in calories intake can lead to disproportionate gain in weight. There is also a chance that you've increased muscle mass a little after running such a quick 10k. So there can be positives associated with a little weight gain.
ReplyDeleteThe extra stress at work and associated with the pre race 10k anxiety will likely have upped Cortisol levels. This is normal part of life though, getting the Cortisol levels down quickly afterwards so it's not chronically high is trick to coping in healthy way. It's not easy to do, I certainly struggle at times to keep on top of stress. Acknowledging this is happening as you have done is a huge step to fixing it. You've got plenty of skills now to get back on track, not that you were ever far off it.