Talk about taking your lumps! So, there it is… It’s amazing how a couple of cheating days will reverse any forward progress. Thankfully, I have my trusty bathroom scale to keep me honest. That scale effectively punched me right in the nose this morning! I wonder how much worse it would’ve been had I not celebrated a Sober Halloween and instead added a six pack of IPA on top of the half pound of candy.
Zero+ ; Triple ; M: 148 ; C: 109 ; P/U: 70 ; W: Rest
Health R.O.S.
- Weight: 206.9
- BMI: 28.0
- Fat %: 21.3
- Water %: 57.4
There’s nothing like a harsh dose of reality to inspire commitment. I am hopeful that this digression and my morning weigh-in will result in a new low weight threshold in a couple days time. Despite the water % reading, I’m convinced that I’ve retained two or so pounds of water. With a little focus, I should be able to shed that by Friday and get back in the good graces of Mr. Scale.
The Scale Inspires Me to Double Down
As much I I resisted jumping on my bathroom scale this morning, in retrospect, I’m very glad I did. Having my weight increase by a couple of pounds redoubles my commitment to achieving my long term goal of 183 pounds and <25 BMI. I’d like to be under 200 pounds by Thanksgiving. I had originally thought I would be somewhere near 190 pounds by then, but that’s not happening at this point. Let’s be realistic.
I’ve come to the realization that at my current rate of weight loss, I’ll be lucky to get down to 190 by Christmas. As I keep reiterating, as frustratingly slow as this round of weight loss has been, slow and steady will eventually win the race. The good news is that I continue to trend in the right direction – DOWN. That’s the most important thing. Whether 190 comes by Christmas, or the end of January, or even later, what truly matters is my ability to keep my eyes on the prize and not give up.
The scale, the dumbbells, the pushups, the resistance bands, yoga, the daily hikes, the massive reduction in my alcohol consumption, 80-90% Plant Paradox eating & cleansing, the intermittent fasting, and daily mindfulness meditation practice are the practical toolset that will get me there. This last one is of particular importance. Because without meditation, I’m not sure I would be developing the discipline to stay the course for the eight months to a year it may take me to achieve my health and wellness goals.
Without meditation, I’d almost certainly still be smoking pot everyday and drinking most days. I have little doubt about this.
The Honesty Tool
As I’ve mentioned many times, my humble bathroom scale can be quite the honesty tool. But even though it has all of these fancy readouts and features, I have to take the data with a grain of salt.
If I am to read the Water % at face value, it implies I’m actually retaining less water than I was at my last weigh in. I find this a little hard to believe, and in two day’s time I bet I’ll be two pounds lighter following a ‘big pee’ or two. However, given the amount of sugar I ate and the amount of insulin my pancreas secreted to deal with it, I’m not shocked to see my Fat % tick up by 2/10 of a pound. That may be a little more difficult to deal with, but deal with it I must.
My scale also doesn’t properly account for muscle mass. Given the amount of push ups and dumbbell exercises I’m doing combined with more challenging hikes and steeper inclines, I know some of my weight gain is muscle. Muscle is denser than fat and therefore weighs more by volume. A guy at work commented on my “guns” the other day, so it must be working. No one has put ‘Dominic’ and ‘look at your guns’ in the same sentence since high school when I held most of the weightlifting records as a varsity football player and shot-putter.
A Slight Temptation Averted
Last night, my wife opened a nice bottle of Pinot Noir, and even though wine isn’t really my thing, the idea of unwinding with a glass of red really appealed to me. Fortunately, the urge to drink was fleeting. During what has become a nearly automatic RAIN response to cravings and emotions, I reminded myself of that 3rd beer I dumped down the sink last Saturday night. And as quickly as it emerged, the craving was gone. Drinkie was banished.
In two days I’ll hit five months of daily meditation, in another week or so I’ll be marijuana free for four months. But I’m still in pursuit of that day when alcohol quits me like pot did. Will that ever happen? That remains to be seen…
Onto Day 88
