Is This Even Possible?

I got on the scale first thing today, as I do every day, and I stared and stared at the number. I got off and back on sevral times, then went off and had my coffee and stared at the wall and weighed myself again before my shower.

I was down FIVE AND A HALF POUNDS from the day before!!! How can that be? Is the scale malfunctioning?

To recap, I've been plus or minus the same four pounds since February, on the mother of all plateaus. I very slightly exceeded that after my vacation, but quickly got back to the range. I started Weight Watchers on-line and felt comfortable with the points and the emphasis on fruits and vegetables. I lost a tiny amount of weight the first three weeks, from the top of the range to the middle, a whopping two and a half pounds. But I was using lots of the weekly points, especially having too much chocolate in the evenings, and even allowing more than a single serving of ice cream in the house, with predictable results. I decided it was time for drastic measures. Time to blitz my way off the plateau. There was one answer that towers over any other when desperate times are here: Cabbage Soup.

I've done a number of things right the past few days. Starting Saturday morning, I loaded up at the farmers market and at Whole Foods. I spent Sunday cooking cabbage and cauliflower. I made Cole slaw with ginger miso dressing, cabbage soup with lamb, and braised cauliflower. Hugely tasty. I included olive oil in the recipes. I've decided the savor I get, the richness, from sautéing the vegetables in good olive oil makes the difference between cabbage soup as medicine and having it as a satisfying dish. The same thing holds for the other dishes I made Sunday. If I'm going to live on it, it can't be just fuel. (On the other hand, I have gone too far the other way on previous blitz attempts and made lamb stew with cabbage- completely different proportions and way less effective.)

So I've been living on my cabbages, and peaches and cherries and watermelon. My points total plunged from averaging 33 last week to averaging 17 for the last five days. Another smart thing I've done is put the Cole slaw in tiny containers and have it for my afternoon snack. And, from the start, I decided on a single Dove dark after dinner. Just the one, no returns. For these five days, I've been able to stick to this.

My Monday weigh-in for WW was exactly the same as the week before, though I started with the cabbage on Saturday. If that was my only clue, I would be crushed, but I weigh myself daily and had seen lower weights. Tuesday was down a pound and a half from Monday, just below the lower edge of the range. Progress! I was up several times last night to pee, but that is not unusual. But when I looked at the scale, I truly didn't believe it.

My scale is an electronic scale, which I've owned for more than a decade. I got it because it has big numbers I can read without my glasses. Also because the number is the same whether you lean right or left, unlike my old dial scale. But it has a peculiarity which I believe is deliberate because other people have told me theirs work the the same way- it is biassed to show the same weight as the last time it weighed something. This really bummed me out once when I thought I was on a plateau but instead my weight was inching down. I have developed a technique to break the "stickiness" of it's number-- I have a brick in my bathroom (pulled from the tank where it had been used to reduce water usage). Every morning, I step on the scale with my brick that weighs about five pounds, then back on the scale without it.

So when I saw the weight the first time this morning, I thought the scale must be broken. It doesn't have any adjustment / calibration mechanism-- I checked it again this morning to be sure. I moved it around, making sure it was on a hard flat surface. I stepped on and off several times, with and without the brick. I did get one reading half a pound different, but that was it. I went away and came back half an hour later and it was exactly the same.

I'm still a little suspicious the scale is off. If the scale is accurate, then most of this weight is water. But so what? That probably means I've burned some fat up and replaced it with water, and finally peed it off last night. I've been both thirsty and peeing all day, just a side effect of the cabbage.

What will I see tomorrow? (I won't be home till bedtime so won't check tonight. Besides, I never weigh myself at night.) If it's still down, I'll check on the scale at the gym to see if it's in sync, just to make sure it's not the scale.

So what does this matter? Did my clothes fit me differently today? Not really, certainly not from yesterday. But this number was seven pounds above my goal weight. My goal weight has been the goal for thirty years. I don't know when last I actually saw it, except for a few days at the end of The Big Loss, in 1999. This goal could become reality some day. Even if what I saw today was ephemeral, it's still far below the range I've been in, and represents a real change from the plateau.


Sherbert update