Blue toenails and lopsided lovehandles.....

Ok people, here's the deal. Saturday I got up, got to moving around and got on the scale. Here's what it read:

Yes, my toenails are blue, white and silver. It's left over from the Super Bowl. I'm sure you can figure out by now, with the blue and white painted faces on Super Bowl Sunday, my blue and white toes and a puppy named Peyton Manning - were huge Colts fans. Go Blue!
*Anyway*

"HONEEYYY!!" I screamed across the house. I hear her slam her coffee cup down on the table and start running towards the bathroom, where I'm at.Here's how the conversation went when she got in there: "What's wrong?!" "Nothing, look!" "Holey, sh*it! Is that for real?" "Yup, Ive gotten on and off the scale like five times." *High fives and happy dance*

Problem. The next morning - which is actually my weigh in day, Sunday. I get on the scale. I'm expecting right around the same number, give or take a pound or so. Nope. Back up to 242. So, Ive been 242 for TEN days now - with the exception of Saturday. I'm really feeling my scale was confused on the date. "The thing" (which it will now be known as) really must have felt Saturday was April 1st and not February 13th. I could actually hear it laughing at me while it screamed "April fools!!!" Yea, not funny.

So, I'm sitting here, mad. Nope, I'm not just discouraged. I'm pissed.
I'm not in agonizing pain here. I'm not hungry and overall don't feel deprived (with the exception of last night - more on that later). The workouts are fun and I'm really enjoying how I can do more now than when I first started. BUT - all of this is heard work. There's a lot involved in thinking of healthy meals, measuring portion sizes, logging calories eaten, working out, logging calories burned and making sure to drink all the water I need. All of that PLUS caring for my family. I feel like I should have more to show for the work I'm putting in. Plus, I just don't get it. I don't understand what my body is doing. I fully expected at some point, my body would get to the point where it would find a homeostasis with the number of calories coming in and going out. A point where everything would just balance out and I would be at a maintenance level. I fully expected at that point I would need to change things up a bit - to continue my journey to my overall goal. HOWEVER, that point should not be NOW. There is no way my body can be telling me that its at a happy balance of between 1200-1300 calories in and roughly 500 calories burned a day - at 242 pounds! No way. No flippin way. Not with only a 1200 calorie input a day.

No, I'm not giving up. I'm not quitting. I didn't eat a box of Twinkies or even so much as a candy bar - Bubba is selling candy bars for a school fundraiser. Were down to two boxes left - out of ten. There were 400 candy bars in this house, people! Ive only eaten one - and took a full week to eat the whole thing. *Back on track, Lindsey*
However, I need to figure out what the problem is.

I've been reading the last two days - anything and everything I can find. According to Sparkpeople, I'm not bringing in enough calories. But according to Jillianmichaels' website I'm eating right where I should be. Iv'e read that maybe I need to increase my water (I drink right around 96 ounces a day) but gosh, if I do that - I'll float away. I really haven't gotten much help from my two days of reading. I've studied my BMR chart and have asked on message boards.

According to sparkpeople and a couple of other things I've read, a person's metabolism is like a campfire. If you leave the same two pieces of wood on the fire it will burn and eventually burn itself out. If you replace a piece of wood one at a time as the fire gets low - it will continue to burn but not at a large rate. However, if you add several pieces of wood and stir it up a bit, soon you'll get a raging inferno! The theory is that if your "mixing up" the fire by working out and exercising, you must add more calories (or wood) in order to get the raging inferno of a metabolism. By working out and not adding extra calories to maintain the calories burned - the fire will burn out. Or a person's metabolism will come to a stand still. Make sense??

Here's the game plan - I'm going to continue working out, because I like it not because I'm seeing great results from it. I'm going to continue eating healthy. However, I am going to increase my overall calorie intake by a couple of hundred calories. My plan is right around 1400 calories. Its not a lot, but may be what my body needs to be happy with burning this fat. I'm also going to increase my water intake to 128 ounces. For you non math happy people, that's a gallon a day. Its only 34 ounces more than Ive been drinking or basically one more cup **I drink my water out of a BIG cup** so its not that much more really.

I'm also going to invest in a 45 cent **Hey, has anyone else noticed there's not a "cent" sign on a keyboard? You know, a C with a line through it? Am I stupid, that I never knew that?** tape measure. In this journey, I have not taken my measurements. While talking to Mistee today about my "issues", she made a good point. I can't see the overall me like everyone else can. She can see that my body is changing. My core is getting flatter and my waist is slimming down - at least the left side is. **Why on earth does my body feel its necessary to loose one love handle at a time? The left side is almost non existent but the right side still hangs on. Seriously, not cool.** My cloths are fitting looser and I'm wearing some clothes I haven't worn in months. I actually have a couple of bras I wear now that Ive never been able to wear. She feels like I'm setting myself up for disappointment by not looking at the overall picture. Makes sense. Hopefully, by tracking inches lost as well as looking at the way my clothes fit and the scale, Ill be able to see more of the positive results I'm looking for.

Overall, I feel better now. I really am doing a good thing here. Even if "the thing" thinks its funny to tease me.

But, right now I have to pee **remember, the whole drink a GALLON of water thing?**.....