The Beast Cameth...

*big sigh*....

It's that time again. 

And I mean it's THAT time again.  Of the month.  You know. 

Grrrr. Five days of hormone overabundance and chemical imbalances.
Five days of bloating, cramps and irritability.
And five days of weight gain that is not entirely my fault!
Grrrrr.

I don't mean that I'm giving in to my impulses and stuffing my cheeks full of chocolately goodness.
Not yet anyway.
But I always, always, always gain 2-4 pounds during the Beast's visits.
I hate it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah....it's a natural function of the female body, child-bearing, joy, love and peace, blah, blah, blah.
I still hate it!

And you know that you do too.

So it was no surprise to me today that when I showed up to Weight Watchers I had a gain.  Luckily, it wasn't 4 pounds, nor 3, not even 2.  Just 1.8, which is an accomplishment in itself and a testimony to how hard I worked (not counting last Saturday, Sunday and Monday of course, because we've been all over that fiasco of a weekend). 

Even though I know that I worked hard this week and I eventually did end up eating within my points (I earned beaucoup activity points by doing some extra long workouts this week), I couldn't help feeling a little bummed this morning.  And when I feel bummed, I eat.

It was actually very apropos that this happened this particular weekend though, because the theme for the week at Weight Watchers was "Don't Stuff Your Face...Face Your Stuff."  I know that I am guilty of using food to hide from my feelings.  More than once I've woken up from a sugar or fat-induced coma and found my fingers covered in thin candy coating or cheesy residue.

I wanted nothing more than to take a trip down to Lamar's donuts and ease my frustrations this morning with a 6 pack of long johns and crullers.  But, I didn't.  I wanted to, but, I actually listened this morning at the meeting, and I decided to blog about my feelings instead of trying to deal with them through food, or not deal with them, as the case may be. 

This blog really has been theraputic for me.  I have stopped to think on more than one occasion about the choices I'm making, and what I would say about them on my blog.  If you're someone else who has the tendency to stuff your face instead of facing your stuff, and you like to write, you might try blogging.  If you're new to blogging, you can always make it a private blog so that no one else can read it.  But for me, writing about my feelings somehow helps to validate them, and then sharing this with my friends helps to keep me accountable. 

Enough mushy stuff...

I'm still bummed about a gain this week.  But, I'm not going to break out the ho-ho's just because I'm sad, angry and disappointed.  A new week is beginning.  I'm going to continue to make good choices.  I will eat filling, nutritious foods.  I will eat yummy fattening foods when I have points for them (as I did this morning at Chipotle.  Ole!)  And I will exercise every day that allows for it without making excuses for skipping it such as "But I'm bloated and gassy."  (As if that's different from any other day!)