I’m laughing at myself this morning after stepping on the scale an extra time.  I find it ironic that my weight almost always drops from Sunday morning to Monday morning.  Why is that?

Probably has more to do with what I ate on Saturday than anything else.  And this past Saturday, I had a great meal of grilled grouper, cauliflower mash, and asparagus.  To top off the meal, I splurged by sharing a deep dish apple pecan pie with ice cream.  Hey, it was in honor of my birthday which occurred this past week.

The difference in numbers on the scale this morning make it so very tempting to use the lower weight.  But if I did that, then I would be straying from the pattern I had set-up to use a consistent day/time each week as a measurement of changes over time.

It’s a good idea, but honestly, part of this is my mild OCD talking.  “We” must keep things the same and abide by the record-keeping “rules.”  But really, it’s just my self-imposed rules which are in effect here.  So with that, this week’s weight is 232.1 pounds instead of Monday’s 228.4 pounds.

Is 3.7 lbs such a big deal?  Heck, yah!!  It’s significant, not only because that’s a big different in poundage, but the lower number is clearly over the 15% loss line on my graphic chart.  Actually, it represents a 16% weight loss since January 2010!!

I really would have liked to discuss crossing that 15% line this week.  But alas, I’m officially (according to Sunday’s weigh-in) only at 14.5% this week.  So very close.  Next week it will be a different story. 

So what do I talk about this week then?

I received a comment recently:

Congratulations.   Would love to know how you lost so much weight in such a short period of time.   Could use the help!.   Vickie

...to which I probably gave a lame response:

Hi Vickie,

To be honest, I have lost the weight by being very conscious of what I am eating, when and how.  I started using "LostIt!" on my iPhone.  It is an application which I use to keep track of what I eat.  The database is rather large and if you don't find what you want, you can enter the nutritional values of foods directly into the application.  I have done this from the packaging of some foods.

Also, by entering my weight and some other measurements, the application calculates what my daily caloric needs would be in order to reach my goal.  I'm not exact with it, but I have been eating about 1500 calories/day since February.  Sometimes more, sometimes less.  I try to make sure that my food choices are healthy.

No specific diet, just conscious eating and keeping this public journal which helps to keep me motivated.  Being open and honest has helped too.  My roommates have been respectful of my needs so that has been very helpful.

For years, I laughed at the idea of the "eat less, move more" theory of weight loss.  However, it is true.  Go figure.  :)

It occurred to me later that I didn’t mention that: