Way Down Now

218.6lbs. Okay now we are back on the lower, lower, lower part of the cycle. My goal by Saturday morning will be near 215. That would put me at 17lbs lost in a month. If I keep it going through February, I should be looking at the sub 200lb mark. The last time I looked I had shed 6% body fat and had increased muscle mass percentages overall. I am going to try if I can get an accurate BF% read this week so I can start benchmarking that, chart wise, as well.

A real quick glance on the chart shows the 3rd "saw tooth" almost fully formed:


Looking past the 4 week mark, I will start incorporating more and more things to keep it interesting. I want to see if any of the other things in the book "4-Hour Body" work. So far, the eating rules have worked. I always try to debate myself out of the numbers to tell me it hasn't worked; I am the worst skeptic. I say things to myself like, "Well I am just simply depleting my stored water during the week and when I binge that is when it shows back up, hence the weight gain and/or loss" or "Even though I drink a Splenda packed drink and my weight loss slows doesn't mean the Splenda is truly at fault." And that, ladies and gentleman is why you track any number or bit of information you can. Numbers do not lie unless you make them.

Speaking of numbers, it is my son's birthday and I have been trying to impress upon him the importance of grades as measurements and assessments, not only for him but for his teachers. For some reason between 5th and 8th grade he never developed the innate skill of tracking his grades, personally. The girls do it but the boy just does not have the skill set to make an honest critical self assessment; that's a problem when you are 15.

I am trying to show him how self assessment and self management is key. Though I was a great deal better at it, at his age, I still have so much to learn. I marvel at the simplicity of it and it all hinges on numbers for me. In fact, it does for most people. It's just what type of numbers and concepts you keep track of over time.

Now my skeptical self is easily rebuffed by statistics, no need to sabotage a good thing if the numbers show it is a good thing. My weight is way down now because I did the numbers and not because of anything else I did. Sure, I could have just went on a diet but without numbers I would have no accurate measurement whether it worked or not. With the way I am eating, it is even more important. Most people would have stopped after the first binge day because of the weight gain. Also, it can't be water loss or gain because the numbers would fail to eventually go down - the numbers would stay the same week over week unless the body has some weird water conservation skill medical science has yet to discover. Besides, our nifty scale can easily refute any assumption I have since it also measures water weight. So there is no excuse for me to stop anytime soon.

Apply number tracking to any aspect of your life, pop open a spreadsheet and lay it all out, you will be surprised at what you can accomplish.


"The clocks will all run backwards, all the sheep will have two heads and Thursday night and Friday will be on Tuesday night instead"