Every Saturday is weighing day. Sometimes I don’t want to get on the scale, but I do it anyway. My goal is to control my body’s weight and knowing how much I weigh is an important part of that. I plan to weigh myself every Saturday for as long as it matters – for the rest of my life, that is. That’s part of my commitment to weight control.
When I got on the scale today, I weighed 241 pounds. That’s good, steady progress for the week, especially considering I didn’t get much exercise.
Measuring progress
For the last few Saturdays my weight and (daily average calorie count) have been:
- 244 (1932)
- 242.6 (1980)
- 241 (1913)
That is about 1.5 pounds per week, with fluctuations per the calorie count. My plan is to keep plugging away, since in 10 weeks I will have lost 15 pounds assuming things stay the same. Once I get below 240 (again), I will start planning how to reward myself for the next milestone of 230. Since I have already taken a reward for getting below 240, I don’t feel very celebratory about going above 240 and then down again. Remember though, in my system every meal is meant to be a kind of reward: fulfilling and worth waiting for and worth eating a measured portion.
And that is the secret to progress under the weight control system. Planning and working ahead, portion control, self-knowledge and paying attention to how I am feeling, a focus on weight control as a central part of my life, and rewards. Plus getting weighed every Saturday. When you say it like that, it sounds complicated. Better to start at the top: focus on being in control of your body and what you eat. Have a vision for where you want to go: towards weight conrol – you can pick the weight you want and work for that. Make weight control your alarm clock: thinking about it is what gets you out of bed in the morning. It really has to be that important, especially if you are trying to lose a lot of weight – in my case, 120 pounds. Maybe it is different once you are just trying to maintain the weight you have achieved.
You can do it, and you are the only one who can. You are in control of what you eat and what you weigh, so put yourself in charge. It can’t be done part time or by forcing yourself, I think we have all tried and failed doing that.
With all the quarantine going on for coronavirus (also called SARS-CoV-2), it’s going to be hard to maintain your routine and easy to stay at home and eat. Eating can be comforting, but the danger is linking fullness with well-being and comfort. That is the gateway to eating for emotional fullness rather than physical. But if you work hard, you can uncouple those and find better ways to be emotionally fulfilled.
-The Doctor of Things