Okay, confession time. In the five years since I left the corporate world to become a full time writer, I’ve undergone some fairly significant changes. Some have been awesome, and some have been awful. Right up at the top of the awful list is the way my closet has gradually filled up with clothes several sizes too small. In other words, I’ve expanded more than my horizons.
But no more! I’m officially on a Weight Watch (read: diet), and have been since February. Why am I just now telling you about this? Three reasons. (1) I’ve made enough progress to want to talk about it; (2) I want the accountability of a public announcement so the progress won’t stop here; and (3) I don’t like the way my blog is starting to have that neglected look and since I’m heads-down on another book, I can’t think of anything else to blog about. (See, I told you it was confession time.)
Now I will give you a glimpse into my obsessive nature. I’ve been charting my weight loss. I do weekly weigh-ins, and since I am the self-styled Queen of Excel, I log the results into a spreadsheet and produce a chart every week. Probably a holdover from my corporate days, but I like to look at trends, and a chart is a good way to do that. Take a look:
The number of pounds lost is on the left axis, and the dates are across the top. As you can see, I’ve had a few ups and downs., but I’m happy to report that there are more downs than ups. Not great news if you’re looking at the stock market, but that’s terrific in the dieting world. Since starting this diet on Feb 17, my net weight loss is 23.8 pounds. Not too bad, huh? I’ve hit a couple of plateaus, and suffered a recent setback due to the nefarious influence of an irresistable carrot cake with cream cheese icing. But I publicly vow to avoid carrot cake in the future. (See #2 above.)
Though I call this my Weight Watch log, I’m not doing Weight Watchers. That’s a good program, but I decided to try another method. I’ll tell you about it in another blog post. (If I really try hard, I can stretch this diet thing out over a few blog posts. You won’t feel neglected, and I won’t feel like I’m neglecting my blog. It’s a win-win!)
By the way, if you’re interested in dieting observations, click over to my friend Kathleen Wright’s blog, Confessions of a Startled Fat Woman. She’s a terrific writer, and her journal of her dieting adventures is entertaining and encouraging.