I have been pretty good about my exercise program and eating habits and was finally starting to see some progress when - whammo! - shark week. Now this week is all the water retention, all the time. Sigh.
I get frustrated with my progress and its irregularity. During - ahem - lady time, I put on anywhere from 2-5 pounds seemingly overnight. That this is merely water weight is understandable and predictable. That it takes at least a couple of weeks to get rid of is frustrating. Then I have a couple of clear weeks of generally good - or even very good - progress before the cycle happens all over again. I usually (if I'm in my groove) see some solid losses immediately before my cycle begins, which I suppose makes some perverted kind of sense (it is, after all, the least bloated I will be all month).
I think I will do a detailed look at my exercise calories burned, food calories consumed, and day of my cycle in order to try and better understand some of these swings. All I am hoping to do is to get a better handle on the variations in my progress and to figure out what role food, exercise, and hormones play in all of this.
