I can't get no .. mo-ti-vation....

Despite much piggery this week, I seem to have still managed to lose half a pound, putting the scales on 17st 2¾ this morning. I really have lost the plot, though. I was within inches of picking up a 400g bar of chocolate in the supermarket the other day (and I'd have eaten the lot on the five minute drive home if I had).

Large portion of no-point mushroom curry for dinner tonight, along with a more sensible portion of chicken curry.

... or I could just be wildly optimistic

No weight loss to report this week, though I managed to survive the weekend without a gain, either. Despite being at an event where the quantities of alcohol being consumed can only be described as "you drank HOW much?", I managed to stay the same over the weekend - put that one down to the level of activity involved.

I think there's an element of boredom going in here - or at least routine. I wouldn't describe myself as being bored at all, but I do seem to have fallen into something of a rut where there's not much of interest going on, so it's far too easy to site down in front of one screen or the other (TV or PC) with a beer or two four.

I've got a few interesting weekends coming up, and I've got some stuff going on for a few evenings this week as well. Let's see if that makes a difference to the waistline.

I think tracking is helping....

I managed to reverse the weekend damage, and lose another ¼lb, bringing this weeks result to 17st 3½lbs. The 17st 3lb barrier seems to be a real obstacle for me. This weekend has no distractions or other badness planned, so I wonder if I can actually break through that barrier next week.

Delayed Friday Weigh In

The whole weight loss thing is becoming a lot less fun when it's not actually working.

Friday's result was 17 3¾lbs, so half a pound down on the week, but hardly something to be confused with progress, and it rose steadily over the weekend, mostly as a result of a day's grazing at the Emsworth Food Festival on Saturday. At least we didn't buy piles of cheese, bacon, and olive oil to bring home.

I think my wife hit the nail on the head by pointing out the lack of tracking was probably working against me. And I think she might have been right: if you're not tracking at all, then it's hard to view the "should I have one more beer/extra dessert/whatever" decision against the total food intake for the day. "I've been pretty good today" means you'll probably go for it. "I've had 32 points today and should have had 31" gives you a bit more of an inclination to stick to the plot.

So, I'm back to tracking. Tedious though it is, it does seem to help, if only to make the last few decisions of the day a bit more sensible.

Let's see if it makes a difference.

Friday Weigh In - Surprise drop reversed

17st 2¼lbs this morning. The overall trend is slowly downwards, but as predicted the sudden drop from last week is mostly reversed.

Oh well... keep at it...

I knew that would happen!

The reason I advocate wieghing daily is that you get a more realistic picture of what's going on.

Friday was a good example: I actually dropped 6lbs in 2 days on the scales. Unlikely, probably just slighlty dehydrated that morning.

Now, if I'd been weighing weekly, I've have thought "oh, that was a good week", and thought no more of it until I couldn't figure out why I didn't lose weight next week.

Seeing the sudden dip means I know it was a temporary fluke, and that I should expect my weight to rise a little to compensate. And it has - 17st 2lbs as of this morning. I also know from experience that my weight often stays steady for a few days, then drops rapidly for a couple of days, then steadies out again - I can only assume this is down to the differences between weekday and weekend habits.

And this is why I do the trending... I can see that the overall movement is downwards over the whole week. That' good. That's very good.

I can also see I'm a little way behind my original target of 1lb a week. But that's OK, that'll take me three weeks longer to get there. Since getting to the target isn't the end of the diet and time to start eating for my country again, what difference does it make?

Maintenance Plan

Since I'm on the final straight - the last half a stone to lose - I thought it was time to write out my maintenance plan so that I can't change the rules later!

Original Target: 17 st 9lbs
Maintenance Target: 17st 7lbs. This is a bit lower, partly to make the numbers easy and give me a bit of lee-way under the original target, which is a BMI of under 29.999999999).

• Under 16st 7lbs: Gold Zone: Excellent stuff. Keep polishing the halo. This is where I want to be before a holiday or other blow-out occassion.
  
• Up to 3lbs over (16st 10lbs): Green Zone: Fine, don't let it go any higher. Keep weighing daily to monitor.
  
• Up to 7lbs over (17st): Yellow Zone: Need to cut back and get it back under control.
  
• More than 7lbs over: Red Zone: Step away from the refrigerator and put your hands up. This is the calorie police. You are under arrest for wilfully neglecting the plot.

Once in either the Yellow or Red Zone the "stick to the plot" rules apply until I'm back at the maintenance target weight.

I'll try to stick to the daily weighing anyway - it'll be a good habit to keep up and it doesn't take more than a few seconds each day.

Friday Weigh In - Surprise drop

My weight has stayed pretty much steady every day for the last two weeks... apart from the last 2 days when it's plummeted.

It'll probably go back up this weekend, but the scales this morning reported a record low of 17st 0¾lbs - so a loss of 4lbs over the week and just 5¾lbs to go to my target of 16st 9lbs.

I don't know what I did differently, but something changed. Perhaps working on the car at odd angles is a surprisingly good way of burning calories or something.

Let's see if I can crack the long elusive 17 stone barrier next week! That will bring me into the maintenance plan level for what I want to stay at.