Myth of the TOM?

Ok girls, this one's for you. This post is not for guys. Reader beware and all that. So, every girl knows about TOM a.k.a. "Time of the Month". The dreaded week where all hell breaks loose in our bodies and those around us take cover and hide. It has been notorious for screwing up one's weight loss efforts due to bloating and water retention. We gain on a weekly weigh in, and all of a sudden it's "oh, it's TOM", or "oh, it's close to TOM, so I understand it". But is this in fact a valid reason for gaining? Is it impossible to have a loss during TOM?

It's not like I have scientific proof or anything, so hold back on the torches and pitchforks here, but I honestly think that the TOM phenomenon is a self-fulfilling prophecy. We give ourselves more liberties because of it. We "crave" bad food. We feel gross so we don't work out. Well, then is it really TOM's fault that we gain? No. I think that by leaning on that excuse we're giving ourselves a cushion if we gain. Rather than look at the true bottom line, we drag out the scapegoat TOM as proof of our lack of success that particular week. Not the poutine one ate, but rather TOM.

However, in my most current resurrection of WW fidelity, I have had losses on both TOMs I've had. Why? Well, likely because just like the week before that, and the week before that, I worked out, ate right, and drank a ton of water. Was it a huge loss? Not sure. Well, this week, I had just started and I lost 2.4 lbs. That's pretty good. I think the other time it was like 0.6 or 0.8 or something. Not huge, but still a loss.

Sure, our bodies do weird and wonderful things...so I'm not saying that TOM doesn't have an effect, and maybe during that time because of the hormones and crap, we are more likely to STS or gain, but blaming TOM after one spends a week lounging on the couch eating high carb, high sodium food (the typical "craving" foods) then one can't blame TOM. If you still eat right (for reals here), and keep to your activity, and drink A TON of water and you still gain? Well, then maybe TOM is the culprit. But don't give in to eating crap and not working out and then blame TOM. That's not fair to you or your body (or your mind for that matter, cause then you're not being truthful to yourself).

This has been posted lately by another WW'er (or similar anyway) about being On Plan and Off Plan...she argued that there's no such thing. You make decisions. Good and bad. If you make a bad decision then acknowledge it and move on. Don't pull the "woe is me" mentality. That's not helping anyone, least of all yourself. It's the same thing with TOM. Be realistic with yourself and don't rest on justifications of poor choices during a rough time of month.

/rant :) Some things to think about. Like my decisions today...cheese pizza for dinner. 2 slices for 10 pp...plus 2 pieces of garlic bread. Tracked and moving forward :)