20190713 Saturday weigh-in
It’s…..Saturday! Saturday is the day I live out the second part of my weight control system. They are (1) regulate your food intake and (2) weigh yourself regularly. I intend to follow both of those rules for the rest of my life, since one I get thin, I will want to maintain control over my weight. I don’t want, after putting in all this effort, to wake up one day and get on the scale to find I have gained all of the weight back. If I maintain (1) and (2), and the moral hierarchy that got me here, I should be able to keep any weight I choose.
So how did I do this week? I’ve been ill recently, but the last 3 days have felt like getting back to normal. My weight was all over the place, just like it always does when I get sick.
Hooray! My body’s weight is moving in the right direction again, and I have felt better for the last several days. It’s 1.2 pounds less than I weighed at my lowest, two weeks ago.
Be skeptical
Last week, my weight went up to 264.8 pounds. That might have been due to illness (two weeks of being sick, ugh). I didn’t eat enough to gain that pound! Over the last four weeks:
- 263.8 lbs
- 263.4
- 264.8
- 262.2
I will know by next week if I am all better. Whenever I have been sick before, weight loss has stalled (or gone backwards) and then the first full week after recovery I usually lose about three pounds. We shall see if the pattern continues. Having everything written down in my food journal has been really helpful when this kind of thing comes up. That’s another reason to keep one.
Interestingly, people don’t notice you’ve lost weight (even 63 pounds) until you start wearing smaller clothes. If you think about it, it’s a polite opportunity to mention to someone that they have lost weight. “New outfit? Wow, you are looking thin!”
Even though I have lost 63 pounds (more than half of the weight I want to lose!), there is still a long way to go. It takes me a lot of care and attention to lose weight. Frankly, from what I am seeing it takes a lot of care and attention to maintain your weight, once you are thin. But wow, does this weight control system make it worthwhile. You are required to cater to your own needs for every meal. That’s three times per day, 21 per week, over 1000 per year.
A thousand times a year that you will do something nice for yourself. See how you will come to love and trust yourself more and more, and how that reinforces your ability to keep losing weight? You will quickly appreciate all the attention and love you shower on yourself. It makes eating less food completely and totally worthwhile; food is a source of pleasure and deeper satisfaction in my life than ever before. And I am eating only 60% of what I need to maintain my weight!
Once you realize it takes work to stay thin and doesn’t just happen, you can decide whether to put in the work. It all starts with that realization and that decision. Your body follows the mind.
-The Doctor