Day 30 of 100 Days to Thanksgiving

Day 30 of 100 Days to Thanksgiving
253/236/195
September 13, 2005

Got on my balance beam scale just now and saw that I still did not
weigh less than 236 so still just 17 pounds gone.

Actually the indicator would have gone a bit higher if I moved it to
find out the weight I actually weighed this morning, but I know that
it's water weight, I know the information will be distractive, etc.
As long as I am eating substantially fewer calories than my weight
maintenance requires (and yesterday I had 1200 calories), then I know
that my weight will go down (and is going down at the cellular level).

I interview people daily as part of my work and routinely ask them
about sleep problems. A lot of people toss and turn at night after
looking at the clock on their bed-end table. I ask them how is looking
at the clock in the middle of the night is useful. I point out that for
a person with sleep problems, the information provided by a clock in
the middle of the night is almost always bad. People start thinking
about how little time they have left to stay in bed, start worrying
about getting back to sleep, etc. I tell people with sleep problems to
hide all the clock faces they have in their bedrooms (and maybe tape
over the VCR face, if it tells the time) and if they wake up in the
middle of the night, to tell themselves they went to bed 20 minutes
before they woke up.

Similarly, I don't think I'd ever want to weigh myself on a scale
that isn't a balance-beam scale and which doesn't allow me to avoid
information about weight fluctuations. The information that I have
gained a few pounds of water (or roughage weight) is information I
don't need and which is demotivating.

I didn't go up my little hill last night because my legs still hurt a
heck of a lot from my weekend hiking. If I bend at the knees from time
to time during the day, it helps with the pain, but tonight I'm going
up the hill. (I had to leave for work in a town 80 miles away very
early yesterday and I got back somewhat late as well.)

I hope everyone has a great day and week and month ahead! I hope we can
all stick to our schedules and continue to do what is working for us!

Yours,

Caleb