It is hard to believe that The Diet is about 3 and a 1/2 years old. It was over three years ago that so many of us decided to get healthy, lose some of our extra weight, and try to help one another stay motivated to do it. It still surprises me to look back and see how big of a success it was for so many people.
The Diet has been a huge success for me personally and not just on the scale. I don’t know what my general health would be like today if it wasn’t for the support I received. I know more about dieting than I ever have. I have seen many people lose weight and get healthy. And I’ve been able to share a lot of what I’ve learned with others both through this site and in conversation.
But it has also been an immense challenge for me and I have been unable to keep the weight off for more than a few weeks or a month at a time. I’ve never been as heavy as I was at the first weigh in but I have fluctuated between being about the weight I’d like to be and being a lot heavier than I’d like to be.
Over the weekend I did something that I had always wanted to do but I never took the time to do it. I entered all of my weigh in data into a spreadsheet so that I could track my weight over time. This enabled me to create a chart of all 50 weigh ins that I’ve done on this site. Here is what it looks like.
Here are some of the things I’ve learned by really drilling down into the data found in this chart.
I lose weight pretty consistently when I want to. If you look at the beginning 25% of that chart (from left to right) you will see that I lost a consistent amount of weight over a fairly long period of time. I did it again towards the middle of the chart and then again nearer to the end. So, I’m able to focus on losing weight for a period but I somehow lose focus and gain some back.
Another thing I’ve learned is that I only lose weight when I’m writing about it each and every week. Weighing in, for me, is obviously paramount to my losing weight on a consistent basis. Any big jumps in weight over the last three years has been due to the fact that I didn’t take the time to weigh in each week. The three biggest spikes in the chart are the result of a lapse of time between public updates on my weight. In late fall 2006 I began to let my weigh ins slide. One or two a month rather than 4 or 5 a month. Then, in mid-Winter 2007 I attacked my weight again bringing it down to reasonable levels before Spring hit. I managed to keep it at a reasonable level through all of Summer 2007 and then BAM!, in Winter 2008 I completely forgot what I was doing and only weighed in once!
I made a huge mistake in 2008 by only weighing in a twice.
Earlier this year I got back up on the horse and began to focus on running rather than only weight. I lost twenty pounds in less than three months. And, for much of the Spring and Summer months, I kept that weight because I was running so much. Then I forgot how much I was enjoying running.
Now it is Fall. And I’m very disappointed to report that I’m back to where I was so many times before. I’m 207 pounds again. I was 207 pounds in March 2009, June 2008, and in July 2006. Each time I’ve been at this weight it has taken me about three months to get near where I want to be. So, today marks day one of that three month period. My goal, as of now, is to get to 180 pounds. This means I want to lose 27 pounds in three months.
My next goal will be to somehow figure out the ultimate solution to keeping the weight off forever. FOREVER. And if that means weighing in each week here on my blog, so be it.
So, as I have said so many times before, see you next week when I’ll be 205 pounds or less. I hope.
