202. What to do When You Gain 9 Pounds in 3 Days – Don’t Be Afraid of the Weight Loss

Have you ever experienced a nine or 10 pound weight gain in a week? Maybe you went on a cruise or something happened, and next thing you know you’ve put on the weight. You are in the right place today. I’m going to help you understand what is happening in your body in the first place, and then what you can do so that you can reverse that and you can move forward in your life and not be worried about the weight gain.

 My name is Dara Tomasson, and I am the Quilters coach, and this is podcast episode 202. What to do when you gain nine pounds in three days? Not to be afraid of weight gain. 

Today’s episode, I’m gonna be sharing some strategies on what to do, but I’m also gonna be describing why this happens and why you don’t need to be afraid.

I’m also gonna be sharing some mindset tips that will help you so much in learning how to think and how to approach these kind of uncomfortable yet. Reality. But it’s, it is reality. You’re excited about learning this and not feeling so afraid, keep listening. 

Before I go into the bulk of the podcast, I always love to share wins inside my membership because these women are just like you. But they were, they had a moment of courage and they put themselves first. They sign up for the membership and they show up. And so I want to just share this win that happened today and on our coaching call. And it was just so wonderful to hear how this member is, she’s putting herself first and she’s letting herself truly live her life.

I shared a tool from that I actually got from Julie Beck and she talked about how she has a list of the essentials, the necessaries and the funds to do fun to do. We brainstormed just briefly on the call, near the end of what are your essentials?

What are your necessaries and what are your fun to-dos? So what is the difference between an essential and a necessary? And how I looked at it was, it’s essential for me. It is necessary for me as a mom to have food for my kids and to do their laundry. And so these are all the things that are necessary, like for me to keep them alive and thriving.

These are the things I need to do. I also have a list of the things for me, my necessary things. So making sure I drink enough water, my sleep like, so I made these categories and then I have the essentials. And essentials for me are the emotional things that I do, like the self-coaching the spiritual work, so praying and reading and studying scriptures, serving.

So I have it pretty clear in my head, and I’ve been doing this practice for probably 12 years, and it’s been really helpful. 

One of the members, she actually really liked this idea and she, because I talked about how if we have the essentials and the necessaries as our foundation.

It’s kinda like a triangle that’s our base and it’s strong and it’s steady and it will help us feel grounded and capable. And then the fun to-dos, those are then on top it’s like a bonus, whereas a lot of us do the fun to-dos. And first and then it, we fall on our face.

It’s kinda like that concept with the stones. Put the most important things in the jar first, and then we have the not as important, so the smaller rocks, and then we have the water afterwards. And so it, if we, but we put the smaller stones in the water in first, we’re not gonna be able to be as efficient or effective.

I really love this. So we went and we worked through these and she took this to heart and she actually sat down for 45 minutes after the coaching call and she worked through these things and she’s, 72, I think 72 or 73,

And the thing that was so awesome for her was she realized how much confidence she gains when she has tools and then she follows through. And it’s really fun to watch as all the members who like really take the coaching and apply it to themselves. 

And what I said to her was, you could have just sat in on this coaching call, you could have just listened to it and went yep, check. I checked the box. I said, but you were an active participant in your own journey. It’s really awesome to watch as she expands and grows. And it’s really neat. She’s doing a big trunk show for a group, a big group of quilters, and she’s a little bit intimidated, but as she looks at herself and as she does this self coaching and realizes just, how much control she actually does have of her life and how excited she is about it. 

So if that sounds like someone, like something that you would like to have more control over, that you would like to feel more empowered, you would like to feel more in charge of your own life and less worry about other things and other people and trying to control them, then I would invite you to take advantage of the free coaching call that I have. That you can come and get some extra help from me and then we can see if this is a good fit. 

This is the problem. And this is so crazy to me, but in the last week, I have gained 10 pounds. I actually had gained nine pounds in three days, but really like in a week. It’s been 10 pounds in seven days. And like she got back last Wednesday night, so I guess it’s been six days. And so I’m like, how is that even possible? How can I do that? Because when you think about the science of it, so one pound of fat is 3,500 calories. Now I have not eaten all of those calories. I have eaten more than I would normally eat. 

We had a party of 60 for 60 people on Sunday, and so I spent a lot of my Saturday cooking and I ended up icing cupcakes at 11:37 at night. I had to make the icing to make and I had to make sure it was good. So I tried some and yes, I had planned for some Joy Eats. She brought some fun food back and she made some food for me and I decided to eat it. And I just ate more than I would normally eat, and I don’t usually eat after six.

I had a few times where I was eating a little bit later. But the interesting thing was I actually walked six kilometers every day for six days last week. So it’s interesting that I would gain that much weight after, especially after doing usually I just walk once or twice a week. 

I don’t have it as a regular routine. So anyways, I thought, okay, and last year when my son came back, because he was gone for school, this was a very similar scenario. I gained this weight about 10, 12 pounds when he came home. And I thought, okay. This is a common pattern. What is going on? So as I did some actual science research, I’m gonna share the science research and then I’m gonna share the physical research or the emotional research.

So let’s just look, ’cause it when you look at the actual research it’s impossible to to gain. Oops. The daisy.

It is nearly impossible to gain nine pounds of fat in three days. To gain that much actual fat, you would have to consume around 31,500 extra calories. So that’s really unlikely. What really is happening, and this is, this part is very interesting. 

So we talk about water now. We are made out of a lot of water. That’s why it’s important for us to keep drinking water. And you can feel that in your body. So when, how many times have you, when you, your rings might feel really tight or when you’re, maybe even when you go on a walk and your fingers feel more sausage, and you’re just like, oh, my fingers feel so stiff. Or maybe your ankles get a little bit more swollen. 

So when we’re eating more heavy. Carb food or salty food. So even when I have gone for like Vietnamese or something that’s a little bit more salty. Even sushi will do this for me. I will retain water, so I will so every gram of stored glycogen, which is your carb energy, holds onto about three to four grams of water.

So over time. That is, that can add up pretty quickly now. So that’s one way that you can gain weight and hold it for longer. 

The other one is hormones. So I’m in menopause now, so I don’t have my whole like PMS cycle, but we still have our bodies going through different spikes of cortisol.

So menopause or PMS and stress related cordal cortisol spikes can lead to temporary water retention, so there is some stress. There’s like excitement, but also some stress of is she, are we gonna be able to do this? Is she gonna find a job and are we gonna find our new rhythm? And there’s, an interruption in our regular flow.

So definitely there’s some stress there of working on that. 

Now, alcohol and dehydration. So I don’t drink alcohol, but I actually haven’t, like when I was doing all that cooking and all the like, and we had our party, I wasn’t drinking as much water as I normally do, so then your body can hold onto extra water when dehydrated.

So it can also make the scale jump up ’cause it’s oh, we need to hold onto this extra water ’cause she’s. really busy and also a large meal, so then food volume and digestion. A large meal, especially one high in fiber, fat or protein, takes time to digest and move through the intestines.

The scale might reflect food still in the digestive tract, and you can tell this when you’re feeling like a little bit more bloated or uncomfortable. And the other part of this that goes with it is you’ve eaten late at night. Then you still have this undigested food sitting in your system and it’s not helping you.

We can also have inflammation and bloating, so we know that sugar, alcohol, processed foods, even some dairy or gluten can cause bloating and inflammation. And then this one’s really interesting exercise can cause muscle inflammation, soreness that leads to temporary water retention. 

So me, all of a sudden going from walking once or twice a week, sometimes three times to six in a row, there’s some inflammation there that’s having, so we’re holding onto that water.

Another one is so ways that we can, so those are reasons why we can add this extra weight. And so I’m not just gonna say, oh, here’s the problem. I’m actually going to talk about how do we solve it. The first thing we can do is hydrate. And one of the things. some people can get bored of water and so I have a whole array of ways that I increase my water intake.

So one of them, and I can actually so I do really like dandy blend and I can put that here. I like, I have my herbal teas that I like, and then I also like my cocoa and water. So when I was in France like when I was 21, 22, 23 how they make their hot cocoa that’s so delicious is they put in a little bit of cocoa powder. Like pure cocoa with some sugar and they make a paste and then they mix that up and then they add the water and then that’s their cocoa. 

So I thought to myself I could use like erythritol or stevia or something and I can make that, but I don’t really like erythitol and I don’t really like Stevia, so I just do cocoa and water like a paste, and I just add the water and I drink hot cocoa.

I drink this all the time and especially in the winter. So that’s a drink. And the dandy blend is similar. I often have cold hands and I like the feeling of warmth. I have a kettle that’s right beside me and I have my basket of my herbal teas. And so I make sure that I just have a routine of my drinking, of my water.

I also really like drinking from my glass jars when they don’t break. So the key to that is when you’re getting a cold glass jar. Put just like an inch of hot water, swish that around a couple of times. So you’re warming up the jar, the glass, and so then it won’t break because it really is awful.

So I have some healthy routines that help me. And then in the summertime I also have different water tricks and tips that help me make sure that I’m drinking more. Another thing that I do and I’m sharing some really practical things because it’s one thing to talk about it and think about it, but it’s nice to have. Actual tips and tricks.

So I really enjoy where we live. We have what’s called the Canadian Superstore, and we have President’s Choice, which is a brand with the superstore. And they have these bubbly water. So there’s root beer, there’s cream soda, there’s ginger ale. And I do like Bubbly. I do buy Bubbly for my husband. He really likes it, I like the root beer and the ginger ale and the cream soda and others. There’s variety of different ones, but I just have them in my office. So every once in a while it’s just fairly satisfying to have a nice, bubbly crack that baby open and it helps me stay hydrated. 

Look at me taking care of me. I took care of, I was a really good mom. I took care of my kids. I always make, I still do, I always make sure that I’m helping them and being that. Being like that kind of mom, I’m gonna do that for me. I’m really gonna take care of me. So that is number one, hydrate. And what that does is it flushes out excess sodium and glyco glycogen stores, and it also helps reduce bloating.

Okay, so super helpful. 

The second thing to do is to eat more potassium rich foods. So that’s like bananas, sweet potatoes and avocados. Leafy greens. Okay. So that is going to help absorb all the minerals. It’s gonna help with your getting the system going with all of our digestion.

The third thing to do is to… increase our protein and fiber. The protein helps us to build our muscle. And because we are losing muscle mass as we grow. The more that we can increase our protein, the more that helps with our muscle.

It also helps us feel more satiated, more full. So that protein helps us to feel satiated. And then the fiber, what that does is it helps with digestion and elimination.

Hopefully you are having a regular bowel movement at least once a day. If you are not, then you are not regulated. So there’s something going on with your nervous system. There’s a lot of talk, inner talk of we’re really busy. We don’t have time for this and that, actually, when I first started losing weight, I was also building my business and it was during COVID. I was not having my regular bowel movements. I realized that one of the struggles that I had was I kept telling myself, I’m really busy. And with that telling my body, it’s like we’re too busy to eliminate.

We’re too busy. Like we gotta keep going. This is like stressful. And so the more calm we can be and the more like fiber and that inner talk will help you so much with that elimination process. Okay. 

So if you’re struggling with that, please, come and talk to me. I can help you with some of that. Maybe obviously you’re not doing it on purpose, but maybe we could discover what are some of those thoughts that are keeping you from feeling like you can have regular bowel movements? 

Okay. I was just meeting with one of my clients today and she said, oh, Dara, oh, Dara, this is number four. My sleep has gotten so much better.

She is prioritizing her sleep. Sleep makes such a difference. Now there’s a, there’s lots of reasons. One of them is that when we have better sleep, it reduces our cortisol. Cortisol says, attention alert, there’s problems. We need to act. We need to do something quickly. We need to take action, and so then it will increase our insulin, right? Because insulin is our battery operator and it will increase that insulin and it will tell us what we need to do.

 That’s why when we have Type Two Diabetes, we’ve had these spikes of insulin and it can increase the, in our. When we have cortisol, it can increase our insulin. And then if we are insulin resistant, so that’s before type two diabetes, then it says, oh, the insulin train goes around to try to tell everyone do we need energy?

But the energy is so compact that it says, oh yeah, I guess we need some, because it is not as sensitive to sensing the insulin. 

We need to have better sleep so that we can reduce our cortisol. We need to have better sleep so that we have less water retention, and we need to have better sleep so we can make better decisions.

That’s right, because if we aren’t well rested, we’re not making better decisions, we’re also feeling exhausted. So what are we gonna reach for? We’re gonna reach for the flour and sugar. ’cause we’re like, we need a quick hit. And cravings and all of that increase when we don’t have as good a sleep.

Now the fifth thing to do to increase our chances of losing weight faster and not having that water retention. To have that nine pounds in three days or 10 pounds, like me in six days is to learn how to trust your body. So that is something that I have this year especially of learning how to trust my body.

So last year was tricky for me because when I increased my activity and it was earlier in the morning and the sun was coming out, and I love walking my Westwood, I love it, but I was so surprised with all the weight gain. But the reason why I was struggling is because I wasn’t trusting my body.

I didn’t know how to take care of a body that walked 36 kilometers every week. I wasn’t certain about how much protein and how much fiber and I was actually afraid. And this year I have a lot more information. I worked with a coach and that’s so helpful and I’m actually gonna meet with her tomorrow.

I’ve learned a lot about protein. I learned a lot about fiber. I’ve learned about my hunger scale. I’ve also learned that if my daughter makes dinner, that I don’t have to eat it, which I did yesterday. And when my son comes home and I make dinner, even though I’m not hungry, I don’t have to eat out of like obligation.

I’m learning a lot about myself. Which is so helpful because now I don’t have to be afraid, so I can learn to trust my body. I can learn to say, you know what, honey? I can make dinner for you guys, but I don’t have to eat it. And I don’t have to feel guilty or shame about that.

I can just say I’ve had enough. I’m older, I don’t need as many calories as I once did. Even if I’m walking more, I don’t need them as much. Okay. So learning how to get to a part of your life where you can have more self-trust, it’s a big deal. 

And now there’s two more things that I wanna share. The next one is to be in charge of you.

And one of the things that I coach on a lot is about emotional eating. We have a whole gamut of comfort foods, and I’ve shared this before and I’ll say it again, but Janine Roth, she talks about how every time we eat food, especially when we were little kids, we learned that, when these parents, these people who are supposed to be taking care of us, weren’t taking care of us, and they made us feel sad or feel discouraged. 

We figured out that if we just went to the pantry and we got a spoon of peanut butter, we gave ourselves some temporary relief. Like that’s actually really clever as a five-year-old, and I remember clearly coming home from school in grade three and four, and I just knew that if I just got a spoonful of peanut butter I could give myself a little bit of a break.

It was something I could look forward to because I didn’t always have my mom there, and it wasn’t that she wasn’t home, but she wasn’t like available. She had, all these other kids to take care of. And so it made me sad because I actually just wanted to come home and just talk to my mom and give her like a rundown of my day.

But she wasn’t always there and even though when she was there, she really wasn’t there to listen. She was occupied. And so I had my peanut butter. My little chat with my peanut butter. And I thought that’s interesting that I was, that was one of my strategies. And sometimes it was coconut and sometimes it was chocolate chips and sometimes it was toast and ham. Toast and jam. 

But as an adult, now I realize those things, that food doesn’t actually solve the problem for me. And so when we learn how to be in charge of our own emotions and understand that. That food actually can never solve those problems for us. We can become more of an authority for ourselves and we don’t have to be afraid anymore of any emotions. We can just feel all the emotions and it’s super, super empowering. Okay. 

Now the last thing that I wanted to share, if this is happening to you, where if you’re gaining weight. I’m such a loser. Or what, what’s going on? This is the last thing I want to say, and I really hope that as you listen to this podcast and as you resonate with what I’m saying, I really want to encourage you to understand that the only person, the only person who can really make a difference in your life is you. 

But the more that you think I need an expert to tell me what to do, you’re never gonna get there because nobody is gonna know you as well as you know you.

And the more willing you are to being available for yourself and saying Hey, listen. I have been a weight loss coach. I have lost over 50 pounds. I have kept it off since 2019 all through perimenopause and now officially in menopause. And so I have gained 10 pounds in six days. And do you know what? What’s gonna happen now? I’m gonna lose that in probably the, in five days, six days. I’m not gonna lose it from willpower. I’m not gonna lose it from restriction and anger and mad and being mad at myself. I’m not doing that. I’m gonna do it out of strategy. I’m gonna do it out of love and I’m gonna do it out of just being neutral okay, that happened.

So the more that you can just be neutral. And so even throughout, I gave a lot of reasons why we can do that. So it’s oh, water retention. That makes sense. Hormones. That makes sense. Food volume and digestion. That makes sense. Inflammation and bloating. Yep. That makes sense. 

So I am now it’s like neutral. It’s not like I am, I’m bad or I’m a loser, or I’m such a failure. It’s that’s so interesting. I ate these things. I stayed up later than I normally do. I have had lots of like movement change, a lot of emotional change. My body’s holding onto some stuff, and guess what?

I’m gonna just take care of it. And I’m not. I’m not a loser. There’s nothing wrong with me. This is part of being a human. 

So if you can, the more you can get to neutral and to normalize it and then say, that makes sense, I can see that. Then now you are in the driver’s seat and it’s not just it’s not like fearful you in the driver’s seat. It’s like in empowered you in the driver’s seat. 

When I first started, when I was first a school teacher. I hate to admit it, but I did yell in my classroom sometimes. I got a little overwhelmed and the more experience I got as a teacher and the more support and the more experience and the more I could see things, it was fascinating. I never had to yell anymore. I just was like, Hey guys, guess what’s happening right now? 

And I would just say things like, Hey when you act this way, this is what happens. And when you bullied that kid in the playground, now you have to write this report and you’re actually not allowed back in my classroom until that report is finished and your parents signed it, and then you’re allowed back in my classroom.

I didn’t have to have emotions. I didn’t yell, I didn’t scream. I just said, oh, this is just a natural consequence. So for me staying up later, eating more joy eats than I normally do increasing my exercise and not drinking as much water, it’s okay, that makes sense. But now I’m just gonna, I know what to do.

I know how to be. I know what to do and I’m gonna just do it. And did I, am I gonna beat myself up for some of those joy eats and the staying up late and all of that? No. What’s the point? I, it’s pretty cool that I can be a human and never not be afraid of my weight anymore. I’m actually in charge. 

I really hope that the words that I’m sharing with you will help you to start taking charge of your own life.

And when you think about all the diets that you’ve done in the past, what’s been missing? Weight Watchers, counting all the calories. Keto, okay. We’re just gonna focus on all this protein and no carbs. The willpower, the, if you do this, then I’m gonna reward you.

What is the one thing that’s missing from all of those diets? They work? What’s the main thing that’s missing? That’s right. It’s you. You being in charge of you. You using that amazing mind of yours. So when you think about you creating a quilt, you were able to make that quilt because you let yourself learn how to use a rotary cutter.

Did you cut yourself? Yeah. Do you always cut your squares properly? Do you make mistakes? Yeah, because you’re human. So the more that you can just be with yourself, you can learn. Weight loss science is simple. You learn how to create an eating plan and learn to troubleshoot it. You learn how to feel your feelings and not eat them.

You learn how to take responsibility for yourself, so no more shaming yourself and no more blaming. And then you learn to build self-confidence. Those are the five pillars of “Love Yourself Thin.” Then the more that you can do that, the more that you can step into your own authority and you can never, ever have to worry about weight again, because you can learn that this is who you want to be.

All right. Take care everyone. Bye.