Weigh in 2:1

One year ago today I stepped on the scale for the first time.  To that point I had been able to convince myself of a lot of things, but the truth wasn't in there.  The quantifiable reality of the situation did what friends, colleagues, and doctors could not.  I had started this blog for accountability from the outside, but now I had personal accountability, and though you, my friends, may cheer for me in the good times and bad, none of you are as hard on me as I am on myself when I do not work hard enough.  I am okay with failure after a good effort, but too often I let failure come without really trying.  Stepping on the scale the first time was a refusal to behave in that way any more.  Weigh in #1 may have been the hardest part of this process to date.  It is a stark thing to see 25 years of bad habits boiled down to a number.

In the year since I truly started down this road I have gotten on the scale many times.  I actually had a friend suggest I weigh myself less frequently to avoid becoming obsessive.  Funnily enough that was never going to be a problem for me.  I crave information, it is probably the #1 feature of my personality, so after the first weigh in the scale simply became a source of information.  I treated it like checking the balance on my bank account.  I have overdrawn before, but never because I checked my bank balance too often.  Weighing myself helped me recognize patterns and respond quickly to poor choices.  I got away from that in the last couple of months, along with some other things, and my results suffered.

Today I check my balance sheet for the last year.  I am interested to see how the numbers stack up, and since I am doing this as I write, you will get my first impressions.  Here are the numbers as of today:

Current Weight: 285.2 lbs
Starting Weight: 440.2 lbs
Weight Loss This Week: 4 lbs
Weight Loss Total: 155 lbs

Great week.  This makes up for some of the slip ups of the last month, and is a great springboard into the new year.  I am a bit off of where I wanted to be.  In November I was thinking I would be down around 260 at this point, but the winter is a hard time to lose weight, and a small weigh loss with steady maintenance of the good results of the previous 10 months is nothing to sneeze at.  Here is a break down of the year:

Weight Loss Total (Year 1): 155 lbs
Weight Loss Per Week:  2.98 lbs/wk
Weight Loss Per Day:  0.425 lbs, or 6.8oz per day
Percentage Of Total Body Weight Lost: 35.21%

I must admit I am at a loss.  I have been disappointed with my progress for the last couple of months, but the totals and percentages are a real eye opener as to just what I've accomplished.  Losing 6.8 ounces a day may be the number that shocks me the most.  To put that in perspective that is 1 2/3 sticks of butter...a day.  Over the course of the year that equals 155 boxes, or 620 sticks, of butter.  Now not all of that is fat.  My body is handling less mass, so it necessarily uses less muscle, but if the body fat monitor on my scale is even close, then at least 2/3 of my weight loss has been body fat.  That seems like a pretty good percentage.

At the pace for the last year my original weight loss goal is about 22 weeks away.  That is unrealistic.  Weigh ins will now become progress checks, but now that I am down to a more manageable weight there will be a much broader set of metrics and goals.  Waist size, stamina, toning, and over all health are now more important than that "number".  I think I am really entering a new phase of my health journey.  I will not change what has gotten me here, but there are certainly things to add.

(Please read the title as "year 2, #1".  This will be the new title scheme on weigh in days.)