ReInventing Fatty: Water, Water Everywhere...

Everyone who pretends to be an expert on weight loss will tell you, don't look at the scale everyday. It will constantly send you mixed signals. Yes, you can shed 5 pounds one day, only to have it come back the next day. Mostly it has to do with the fact that we are basically sacks of water. Here is a great example from the past two days.

I had dipped a couple pounds out of the gate on my life-altering ReInventing Fatty Diet Plan (any corporate sponsors who want to jump on board early and cheap, send me a line, natch). Tuesday was a superb diet day because I was basically on the road the entire day so I skipped lunch and ate a fantastic ham soup of my own making for dinner. Any kind of soup without cream is a belly buster because you are loading up on one of the keys to a successful diet: water. However on New Years Eve morn I woke up to a horrific 247 pounds! Not only was I up 2 lbs from where I started but I was up four from the day before... YIKES. Not to worry though, good news was around the bend.

This morning, 24 hours after the dreaded encounter with 247 I weighed in at a happy 241 lbs. How the heck did I shed 6 pounds overnight? What was my miracle secret? Listen up and ye shall be wiser by far.

Yestermorning, perhaps an hour after the fateful weigh-in, I took my kids to an all you can eat breakfast buffet which I used and abused. I ate sporatically throughout the day but did skip dinner because the left in the late afternoon for a sleepover. The Reinvented Wife and I then spent 6 hours ringing in the New Year at a casino where I kept my face entertained with Pizza and Sambucca. We capped off our first New Years Eve date sans kids in 12 years with a slimming burger at a Waffle House. I should have woken up like Jabba the Hut ... but instead I lost 6 pounds ... how?

First, the 247 was an artificially high number due to the large amount of salty soup that I ate the day before. Water fills you up and flushes you out but if you also take in too much salt your body will suck that water up and hold onto it for safe keeping. Then I spent the evening binge drinking clear liquor with only a hint of soda water, a natural diuretic. This told my body it was time to squeeze the sponge so to speak. There's a reason you start "makin' water" after the second beer and then you're back in the head every 30 minutes for the rest of the night.

My guess is tomorrow I will be lucky to still be at 241, especially since New Years Day will feature lots of food, occasionally interupted with lots of TV watching from the couch. Perhaps I should wait until the 3rd to look at the scale again.