Frustrated and Depressed!!!

Every one gets frustrated. PS muscle mass adds weight, ppl usually gain muscle before losing fat. Dont be so hard on yourself, give yourself the credit to know that your soing something for you. Keep up the good fight and stay positive.

Remember that you usually gain weight when you start a new exercise routine! I gained 3lb when I started JM's 30 Day Shred, but then that came off and then some.

Also, keeping your sodium below 2,000 mg really helps, as does drinking tons of water.

Don't get too down on yourself! Change takes time, and you can do this!!!!

try to eat more fresh & unprocessed foods & up your water to flush it out ) sounds like you're doing great! ♥

You are doing all that you need to do. Sometimes I gain a pound after all the exercise that I do and the next week I drop 2 pounds. Your body knows that you are working hard. You will see results.

I have the same problem with sodium. Plus, I just love salt anyway!!!! I think the biggest thing to do is read labels before you buy and compare several different options. There can be HUGE differences just between two brands. Also, watch out for pre-made turkey products. I LOVE turkey bacon, but a regular slice of TB can surpass the amount of sodium even in regular pork bacon. I buy a brand with 80 mg per slice, but some of the other brands have up to 180 mg per slice! That's crazy!

I've also noticed that a lot of "diet" foods are loaded with sodium. I used to LOVE progresso lite soups, but they killed my entire days worth of sodium with one can. It's really frustrating, I know. I think the BEST thing you can try to do is stay with mostly whole foods. Instead of frozen veg. buy fresh. And just keep looking at those labels before you buy!

Buy fresh veggies instead of frozen and steam them yourself. Alternatively, Bird's Eye also makes steamfresh veggies (the one's with no sauce) with little to no sodium that are frozen and very tasty for a quick veggie fix.

Hi,

If you could open your food diary to public viewing it would give us something more concrete to comment on. However, to answer your question about sodium:

1st of all: are you tracking it on your diary? If so, make sure you don't AIM to hit 2,500 mg / day. The MFP sets that as a "goal" but really that should be considered the very outmost outter limit. Most experts now recommend keeping sodium to no more than 1,500 mg per day.

Secondly: reducing sodium and avoiding will require taking some drastic measures such as avoiding processed foods, reading labels carefully, researching what those items on the labels are, making as much of your own food as possible, eating more vegetables that you've prepared yourself and preparing your meals in advance so when you come home hungry you don't make bad choices.

Some people equate avoiding processed foods as "eating clean" and some people are turned off by that concept. "eating clean" can be of your own definition and you need to make it work for you. But buying all those boxes and jars and cartons of food already made at the supermarket is not going to help you in your efforts.

take care and good luck!

I have been doing better with my sodium in the last while. I have stopped eating lunch meat. Avoiding processed foods, making fresh vegetables and foods with fresh ingredients, cutting back on bread, canned soup, and not eating out. Cottage cheese is also a huge factor and i can't find a lower sodium option. So if i eat it, i make sure to lower the rest of my day. My husband has been keeping his to 1500 most days and its really really hard. I was shocked to see that the seasonings i use for my roast would have used a whole 2500mg just in ONE ROAST. French onion soup mix and beef boillion are crazy high in sodium. So i just used garlic and pepper and paprika and onions and it was just as good !!

My weakness is rice cakes and canned salmon. I haev cut back on the rice cakes and found a lower sodium salmon at trader joes. I also found low sodium tuna fish at our local grocery store as well as no salt added chicken broth, low sodium soy sauce (BBBAAAD for sodium) and no salt added diced canned tomoatoes. I am going to try to make our tomato sauce from scratch too. I did find a lower tomato saue at trader joes but unsure of how it will taste.

OMG, I have been working out hard doing Jillian Michaels "Last Chance Workouts" 6 days/week, staying within my calorie intake, eating most of my exercise calories, and gained 1 pound after week two. WTF???

I skipped the other replies, so this is likely a repeat. But i would suggest keeping your sodium in check, alternating videos (i love all the JM ones- if i just do the 30day shredlevel one i don't seem to burn too many cal's, if i do the other levels or other videos i do, i think our bodies get used to certain routines and don't crank thru the calories the same way). Also, i often stutter in weight loss after a week or so of a new plan. I think its my bodies way of telling me its waititng to see if i'm going to follow thru. Then all of a sudden the scale will budge again- and i'll lose a bit all at once and then steadily. Your monthly cycle is a factor too.

The most widely accepted amount of sodium per day is 2 grams. If you stay below this, you should (will!) see a downtrending weight result. All processed foods are full of sodium, so try and watch these. I fight the weight issue myself, and I am keeping my caloric intake to 1800 cals/d and my sodium to below 750mg if I can. I hope this helps.