suggestions please....

You need to make sure that you are weighing yourself at the same time everyday. Your body weight will be different all through out the day because of your meals and fluid intake. I always weigh myself in the morning before breakfast and after the morning trip to the bathroom. Also you could have gained if you are getting close to your monthly cycle or if you have eaten too much sodium. Too much sodium will cause you to have water weight. I hope that helps.

You didn't gain 3 lbs of muscle in a week. You also didn't gain 3 lbs of fat in a week. You started a new exercise program and your legs are sore. That soreness is your muscles "defense mechanism" telling you "hey, I'm hurting here take it easy on me." Don't listen to them and they will eventually (4-6 weeks) drop the defense and shed the water weight which is what that soreness is.

Stick with it. It's very very common to gain weight the first month of a new exercise program. Stick to your goals and keep up the program, and some day not too long from now you'll drop 5 - 6 lbs in a day or 2 and catch up to where you should be.

Oh and for sweets, Premier Nutrition makes a protein bar flavor called Double Chocolate Crunch. This thing tastes exactly like a brownie to me. Great "treat" :-)

First of all, don't do the shred daily. Weight training for the same muscle group should be no sooner then 48 hours later to allow for muscle recovery. Second, you are craving carbs because you are using them for your weight training. When you add weight training, the first adaptation is in the nervous system but the second is to store more glycogen in the muscles. Hence the carb cravings because you need them to store as glycogen for fuel later. When glycogen is stored in the muscle, it is stored in 3 times as much water. So one gram of glycogen to 3 grams of water. That is what you've gained weight wise. A lot of people will say that you don't want that water weight, but if you are doing resistance training, you do want it! Relax about the scale and keep up with weight training, but maybe alternate shred days with running days since you seem to be missing your running, and eventually you will see the fat burning happening faster then the glycogen storage and eventual muscle building.

I agree - I have a ridiculous sweet tooth! As silly as it sounds, those Extra Dessert gums are actually pretty effective for me. Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream is a weakness of mine, and it actually does taste like it, including the chocolate part! I'm very picky, so that's a big deal. I also find that spearmint gum helps. I'm not much for fruity gums, but my husband and kids like the other two dessert flavors of Extra. I also find that drinking a bit of skim milk and sometimes a banana will get me through - I did a soup diet several years ago to flush out fluid I was carrying around, and one of the days was specifically for skim milk and bananas because your body will start to crave them, and that will give you what you need. I hope that helps!