Banishing the Yo-Yo

Yo-yo dieting.  It happens to the best of us.  I don't know what the answer is to banishing this (and, as always, I am not interested in the millions of little "helpful" pieces of advice that ya'll might have on the tips of your fingers).  I'm guessing that I need to stop being so hard on myself.

Here's some of what didn't work last time: Overeaters Anonymous.  They got weird on me after a couple of meetings, calling me up to stress that I shouldn't be offering my services as a therapist when all I was doing was reaching out to offer help, like all 12-steppers are supposed to do.  I was kind of hurt and disillusioned by that experience, so I never went back.  Trust me, guys, I am absolutely, 100% not interested in flexing my therapist mucles outside of work.  I get enough hours of that throughout the week.  Promise.

Also, I think that I need to track down my actual thoughts and journal more.  The "fuck-its" seem to be what leads me toward the downward spiral of the yo-yo.  With my new job in addictions, I hear this come up a lot.  You're working so hard, you're energized and like the change and then... stuff.  And then... slow progress.  And then... frustration.  And then... FUCK IT!

And then there's my health.  I don't know what started it, though it was probably the birth control I was on (me + hormones = mortal enemies).  I've been breaking out in itchy hives seemingly without provocation since the summer.  Eliminating the birth control has not helped.  Creams don't really help.  Benadryl makes me more sleepy than anything.  My doctor thinks it's an autoimmune disease at this point, and though I'm no doctor, I'm sure my weight doesn't help matters.

So, here I go, trying again.  As cliché as this is going to sound, I started on January 1st.  I weighed myself and I started trying again.  It's been hit-and-miss with the weigh-ins because I didn't want to get discouraged, but here's the numbers, starting with the effort and ending with the month's weightloss.

24/31 days working out
242,025 steps (approximately, as measured by my Fitbit One)
105.35 miles (approximately, as measured by my Fitbit One)
11 days meeting 10,000 daily steps goal
6 days meeting 5.0 daily miles goal
1586 squats (following program at twohundredsquats.com)
1105 kneeling push-ups (following program at hundredpushups.com)

And... drum roll please!

Starting weight: 236 lbs.
Ending weight: 231.3 lbs.

So, not fabulous loss there, but the goal next month is simply DO BETTER.  NO YO-YO.  Let's see what happens.