Respectable or Just…

In my last blog I commented about my friend’s .8 loss as being a “respectable” loss. Now that I had a .8 gain this week, does that make it a substantial gain? Is there a double standard when it comes to the amount we lose, vs. the amount we gain?

Last week Amy lamented about her .8 loss. I told her to buck up and be proud. This week, BTW, she lost 3 pounds, to which I responded with, “You suck!” Naturally, she knows I’m kidding, but am also a tad envious. Truth be told, I talked her into joining, so I DEFINITELY want her to be successful.

But let’s not dismiss the double standard we have about weight loss vs. weight gain. I made a cardinal mistake this week. I engaged in a social type activity the night before weigh-in day. Crucial mistake. I should know better, I’m no weight watcher virgin! I’ve been down this road time and time again!! But, in an effort to get together with friends, I agreed to make dinner for them. I figured it was the lesser of evils. If I cooked, I could make a weight watcher meal and still stay on track. Good in theory, not so good in practice, however.

I had high aspirations, though. I made pork cacciatore, a dish I made previously which was a weight watchers recipe. I made a salad, tossed with a light vinaigrette, which I precisely measured before adding, I even made an apple and cranberry concoction to serve over light vanilla ice cream. It was quite good, actually. I added cinnamon and sweet ‘n low to the concoction, my guests were none the wiser.

Here’s where I missed the mark. In an effort to be the perfect hostess, and let’s face it, anyone who knows me even a little, knows I LIVE for that kinda thing! I am always lamenting about how Martha Stewart has my career!! So despite the fact that I wasn’t planning to eat any of the hors d’eourves I put together for them…I did anyway. And I don’t think it was the actually calories that did me in, but my old nemesis salt, aka water weight! Gets me every time, and typically, I avoid it like the plague before I weigh in, but it lured me in under the guise of olive tapenade. I may have only been 25 calories per serving, but what I failed to calculate was the nine million grams of sodium it so obviously included as well!

Thus, at last night’s weigh-in when I was up .08, the woman who weighed me in said, “it’s only .8” Yeah, ONLY! How do I justify that after my “respectable loss” lecture I gave Amy last week? Truth be told…I can’t. I gained, pure and simple. Was it a “real” gain, I guess we won’t officially know till next week, but unofficially, yeah, it was just water weight, cause this morning, not only was my scale down the one water weight pound, but also an additional pound, which was about where I was the day before weigh in. Now I know, NEVER engage in ANY social activities the night before a weigh in. NOW I know!