Analysis is Important.

This was a quiet, snow-filled weekend after Friday's frenzied rush and late hours. I did manage to get my Day Two workout done on Friday night, but then nothing for the next two days, other than a bit of cleaning and boxing up, and some laundry.  But my eating was on point, and I got all my water in, so I was pretty happy with that. Historically, I tend to fudge with my food on the weekends, either making excuses to eat a bite of something I shouldn't, or more often, skipping meals I know my body needs.

So....I stepped on the scale this morning, and had only (only!) dropped .4 lbs.  My brain immediately went into overdrive:

OMG!!  How did this happen??!!!  WTF did I do wrong!!!???

Dear lord, deliver me from panic.

There was obviously NOTHING wrong with what I did....I scored a loss, for pete's sake.  But my brain is in 3lb. mode right now, so anything less feels like failure.  Realistically, I can contribute this to three things:

1. I ate too much salt this week, thanks to pickled asparagus and banana pepper rings.
2. My workouts have started the muscle-building process, which will equalize the scale reading until my body adjusts to the 'more muscle, less fat' thing.
3. I did not work out at all this weekend....the two days prior to my weigh-in.

So...how do I compensate for all this?  Well, obviously, I need to fix what needs to be fixed...what CAN be fixed, and live with what can not.  The good news is that there IS room for improvement, it's not like I was doing everything perfectly and there was just no progress. 

• Was eating banana peppers a crime?  Not in the great scheme of things (there is zero calorie content in them), but if I partake in the future, it needs to be with an understanding that the high sodium content is likely to cancel out any progress I make on the scale that week, and I need to choose which is more important to me.
• I can't change this one....it is what it is, and I just need to accept it and allow my body to adjust in peace.
• This one, I CAN change...in two different ways.  First, I need to move EVERY day, so not doing something on the weekend is totally unacceptable.  Given that most weekends, I don't go into town, that probably means that I need to shift my workout days to the weekends, at least until the weather gets nicer and I can start hiking the driveway again.  Second, I probably need to move my weigh-in days to Fridays, ahead of the workouts instead of behind them, which will also help the scale progress.

Negatives:  Too much panic, not enough action....literally.

Positives:  Getting a plan together to fix the problem immediately calmed the panic.  And I finally got the tree down! :)