Plateaus suck

So when I actually look back at my weight log, I did okay in 2010.  I even survived the holidays.  Between 11/19 and 12/31, I actually lost 9.8 lbs.  However, in the first 3 weeks of January, I have lost only 2 pounds.  Since I did a little bit of cheating around the holidays, and survived my big New Mexico trip without gaining any weight, I consider this a bit frustrating.

The only difference between December and January has been my level of exercise.  While in NM, I twisted my knee and haven't been in the gym like I usually have.  In fact, I think I've only been to the three times in January.  However, there were extended closures of the gym in December and days that I couldn't make it there during the 3 hours they were open.  So I can't believe that exercise is the big difference here.

I think I've hit my first plateau.  Time to re-examine the diet.  Have I gotten lazy?  Have my portion sizes increased?  Am I cheating here and there?  Yes, I had a piece of chocolate and a coffee-flavored hard candy yesterday that I failed to track.  Oops.  So time to hunker down.  Time to be obsessive about tracking my food intake.  Time to go back to measuring everything.  Ugh.  I can't believe that the margin of error is so slim.  I'd rather get back in the gym and dedicate myself to an hour of extreme exercise than have to measure EVERYTHING.

So, on this cold January morning, I'm off for an hour of elliptical.  Research isn't going anywhere. It will be waiting on me when I get there.