So in my last attempt at The Transformer, I was lagging behind and tried upping my exercise to catch up. I was sticking to my eating plan, just exercising a little more, specifically adding some high-intensity intervals. Did the scale move down faster? No. In fact, the scale moved UP.
I've done a little reading and learned that in fact, this isn't unusual. Changes in exercise quality or intensity can lead to muscle soreness and, that bane of all people my size: water retention.
If you're a 180-pound woman, water retention probably means a pound or two. But guess what--if you're a 280+ pound woman like me, you've got a lot more tissue to hold extra water in, so you hold more. Suddenly "gaining" 5 pounds after working like a dog to lose 6 in two weeks.... Well, you can imagine how discouraged I was. I gave up, stopped weighing in, and was "disqualified."
Next week I'm starting both a 4-week diet bet and a Transformer. So, here's my exercise plan:
In the first month, my goal is to walk 30 minutes a day, 20 min of kickboxing 3X per week, and half an hour of yoga twice a week. That's it. No change during the whole month. That way, if I'm going to retain water because of the new exercise regime (which is LESS than I was doing before an injury last summer set me back), the water retention should still be gone by the end of the month.
Then, after weigh out for the 4-week game and the first month of the Transformer, I'll up the exercise a little--how much I'll decide during that first week, as I see what feels comfortable at that point. But whatever increase I make that first week of the new month will be IT for the month. And so on for the remaining months of the Transformer.
With a little luck and a lot of drinking (H2O of course), this should save me from losing rounds due to unreal "gains."