I lost 10 pounds in 1 day last week. Bashers, line up...

Last week I had a scheduled check-in. I am not just doing MFP by the power of my own will, I have an accountability situation set up, with check-in's. Being sick for a week, then throwing out my back, I knew all month I would miss this one, and the stress was accumulating. By check in time, I was 9 pounds over. My plan was to put my hand on the bathroom sink and lift 9 pounds off the scale for my photo, i.e., cheat, but that put even more stress on me.

I searched for alternatives to cheating. Sure enough, Tim Ferriss lost over 30 pounds one day to qualify for a martial arts tournament. I studied his method and reasoned that I would do what he did, but with my own twist, and on a much lower level. I drank lemon juice, took dandelion root and planned a steam. I added magnesium citrate, my twist, for which I was sorry. Within 2 hours I was on the throne, but only once during the day. I kept up the lemon and dandelion with small amounts of water, and peed a lot. Later, I went to the steam bath. I took short trips in, then cooled off by the pool while taking small sips of water. Each time I came out I toweled all the sweat off. I did not get into the shower or any of the pools. After a few trips, water weight started coming off, and within 1.5 hours I was a pound below my goal. I weighed in, took my picture, and replenished. The laxative took effect late that night and turned out to be totally unnecessary.

Before you call this "dangerous" let me remind you that working outside on a hot day you will lose more water weight than I did. Dancing in a crowded club while drinking alcohol is more dangerous than this. Steam baths are good for cleansing your pores and detoxing. I know better, as should you, that this is not a long-term way to lose weight. At worse, I got a good cleansing and replaced my water immediately. The next morning, I was back up 6 pounds. That weight now gets lumped into my next check-in in January. If I regret anything it's that I didn't do the slow & steady work to make my easily-attainable goal. Otherwise, the steam was great, and the laxative unnecessary. You wouldn't believe how many youtube videos there are of people taking magnesium citrate for weight loss!

None of this matters if you don't have accountability, but I share it anyway. Most MFP'ers don't set goals with dates that must be kept. There are some contests I see but it's easy to fall out and "start again Monday." After 20 years of being fat this didn't work for me. I'm down 50 pounds this year so far and plan to lose another 20. I have quit many times, but my accountability situation forced me back in the game. Believe this, my January goal will be met the right way. Believe this too, water weight fluctuation is real, as is colon volume. If you wake up and you weight 1-2 pounds more, there's a 99% chance it's water or food in your system.