Well yesterday's weigh-in was 214.6, after being both lower and higher during the week (this morning was 216 because I accidently ate breakfast before my daily weigh-in, whoops!) and just generally flitting all over the scale.

I ate fairly well and should have lost close to 1.5 pounds, but that was not the case. I seem to be holding onto water and just generally up and down in fairly unpredictable ways. So we'll call it sodium, hormones, sleep deprivation, and sick children while waiting out the pattern and seeing if I get a whoosh of weight off in the coming week.

I am bouncing my calories up and down a bit, because I have been hungrier than normal lately and am having a hard time keeping them to around 1500. That's okay, provided the bulk of my eating is healthy fruits and veggies, so I am going to spend this week making sure I am genuinely hungry rather than just eating empty calories before changing my calculations. I worry about 1450-1500 being so low at this point, for me, that I will be starving myself down the road to continue creating a deficit and losing weight, so I am really leaning toward bumping my intake up right now so I can more comfortably drop it in the future. I may just have to lose weight more gradually than 2 pounds per week, once I get under 200 pounds, in order to not feel deprived. My goal is sustainable eating and exercise habits, so I am trying to be sensitive to what my body and instincts are telling me regarding weight and calorie levels. I have to balance my desire to get all this weight off with my practical side that knows I can't drop below a certain daily level. Even now find that when I shoot for 1500 I tend to overeat those by 100-200 calories most days of the week, that could very well just be my body telling me it isn't ready to keep burning comfortably at a 1000 calorie deficit, and I can be okay with that.

Like I said, at this point I need to iron out what is genuine hunger with quality foods and what I could modify to feel more sated while not being deprived of tasty, slightly richer fare. So it is time to refocus on less sweets and more roughage each meal, and I know as long as I don't become anxious my weight will take care of itself. As I acknowledged in the post title, it has just been a weird and stressful week. So my weight being funky to reflect that shouldn't be any big shock.

On the agenda for this morning? I have done one of my bible studies and need to finish the second. Then I am going to get on the bike for 30 minutes, see how I am feeling, and either take a short nap before the kids wake up or do some reading from there. Time to get going!