Weight Checkin

In spite of the flu, I was successful at sticking to Atkins induction eating, and so had the typical Atkins dramatic drop in weight.  On this graph, a keen-eyed viewer would notice the individual weight points just before the drop, higher than anything else in over two years. This is what caused the alarm bells to go off.

This impressive one-week plunge in weight is typical when narrowing the diet from including sweets and starches to only vegetables and protein on Atkins. It's water. But, of course, the high reading on the scale also included water, so both the gain and the loss have the same components.

My pants feel slightly better, but I haven't worked out in over a week and I had all-time lows on fitbit steps while I dozed through my fever. The way my clothes fit should be further improved just by getting moving again.

Clearly what actually counts as weight loss success is seeing a trend that lasts longer than a week. But let's admit seeing the plunge is motivating!

Where I felt my best, in terms of how strong I was, how I looked, and what I was eating, was the first half of last year.  I wasn't blogging then.  I wasn't tracking my food. My weight had gone up from achieving my goal - but I always figured that goal wasn't sustainable, so I wasn't sad about that. It seemed I had some stability, at a new and better set point.  But, eventually, whatever precarious balance I had went kerflooey.  So now I need to figure out how to get back to that range, and how to keep it there in a sustainable way.