"Red, Fur-trimmed Coat Syndrome" Santa, STRESS & The Scale

Have you ever heard of "White Coat Syndrome"? That's when your blood pressure is unusually high because being in the doctor's office makes you nervous. My mom has this and always insists that the nurse take her BP at the end of her appointment, when she's slightly more relaxed.

Dude, you are totally tripping up my game!*

Listen folks, since Thanksgiving I have been "Miss Polly Perfect Super Weight Watchers Member of the World". I even lost weight after Thanksgiving! But every week since then, despite my being Practically Perfect in Every Way-the scale has crept up a little. The first time I shrugged it off, "I know I've been rockin' this program-the scale will catch up to me!" The second time I went back and scoured my food & activity journal-and wound up completely puzzled. Last Sunday when I weighed in at ANOTHER (0.8) gain? I was muy steamed, let me tell you.

So I did what any perfect Weight Watcher would do-I went whining to my leader. If you listen to the podcast, you've no doubt heard me talk about how I have the best damn Weight Watchers leader in these United States. She gave me a paper tracker and asked me to fill it out for her-but with NO NUMBERS. No Pointsplus-just what I ate and when. Hmmm....

Stop telling me what to do!*

So I've been diligently filling out said tracker, but I just can't get this weight gain off my mind! I've been eating plenty of veggies, getting in loads of exercise & water and I never skip my vitamins. GAH! (shakes fist at sky)  Yes, it's been a super hectic 3 weeks, which is all the reason more why I've stuck so closely to my plan. The only difference that I can identify between the last 3 weeks and the weeks that preceded them is....STRESS.

Oh, right. That.

I remember how, the first time I joined Weight Watchers, I was in grad school. Whenever it was finals or I had a big presentation, even if I stayed on program and took an exercise class every day? I gained a little. I think stress makes my body hold onto excess weight for dear life. Is that possible?






Oh, so now I'm supposed to help YOU? Like I don't have enough to do.*



Curse you, fat man! You've given me Red, Fur-trimmed Coat Syndrome. And if I don't get it under control, I'll be asking for your hand-me-downs. Santa, you are officially on my Naughty List.

Do any of YOU experience this? PLEASE let me know! In the meantime, I found this cute (and informative) video on managing stress. I'm definitely going to try to remember to take deep, relaxing breaths as often as possible. I'll let you know what the scale says come January. Enjoy!

Wishing you love with extra cheese,
Nacho Mama

*all images via Wikipedia