Progress fits and starts

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.