Water Weight

Well, I'm down to 192.8.  Woohoo!

Which makes me wonder about what "water weight" is.  I know that on my vacation I ate and drank a lot but it seems so strange that I'm dropping a pound a day since I got back and on schedule.  It's got to be what I've always said was "water weight."

So I looked it up.  According to Wikipedia, water weight (or water retention) is the abnormal accumulation of fluid in body tissues or capillaries.  And when we eat excessive salty foods, our body retains more water, this increasing our weight until the water is released.

The good news is that this means most of my weight gain must also have been water weight rather than fat weight gain.  Which is exciting!  Because I was so afraid that I had done substantial damage to my "diet" by eating and drinking with abandon while on vacation.  Instead, it seems that my increase in the yummy salty stuff I ate just caused my body to hold onto water, and when I stopped eating that way and got back to my normal diet (ha!  I would never have thought of my lower calorie food as "normal" in the past!  I've come a long way, baby!) it dropped right back off again.

However, I don't know if another day of water weight loss will occur, so I may actually have gained back 1 lb of fat weight.  But, wow, if I only gained a pound after my seminar and then vacation, I'm super proud of myself! 

And, I did notice that even eating all the "wrong" stuff, I couldn't eat nearly as much as I used to. I ordered an 8 oz prime rib (and yes, I ate it all), but in the past, I would have ordered at least 12 oz and eaten all of it, too!  And for my appetizer, I enjoyed the tuna much more than the fried mushrooms or the fried onion I used to want more of.  So even though I didn't intentionally eat "right,"  my body seems to have made better choices for me. 

I'm sure that a lot of my weight gain that was fat rather than water had to do with the amount of alcohol I drank.  I have discovered a new favorite drink - the Sriracha.  It is basically a dirty martini with sriracha chili sauce in it.  Boy, is it fantastic!  But lots of empty calories.  So I am going to try and cut back on my alcohol intake and only drink when I go out on date nights and such.  That should help cut back on calories a LOT.  I used to plan in the drink calories on days that I thought I might want a glass of wine (like on evenings after a long day in court), but if I cut it out completely, that's going to save me some calories as well.

I'm hoping I drop another pound today to get back to the weight I was before my last two weeks of really bad choices.  Then I'll feel like I'm at a starting point again and can really focus on LOSING weight.

I'm feeling pretty excited.  I think it helped to have the two weeks off from thinking about my food intake all the time.  I was getting a bit lackadaisical about the whole journey and that was a bad place for my mind (and body) to be.  Now I'm all fired up again.

I've even gone back and re-read a lot of stuff I was using in the beginning - the 52 weight loss missions (so well written and inspiring!) and my other iPad apps that I was using and kind of dwindled away from.  And it's working.  I feel rejuvenated! 

I sure hope this determination and fire stay with me for a while!  Reading back on my blog I see where I've had ups and downs before.  It's nice to be back on an "up" for a change!