Diet day 137
I spent almost the entire month of February at essentially the same pound on the scale. It was enormously scary and frustrating, but I learned several things from it.
- There really does seem to be a starvation response in which my metabolism really does slow down. I've got the numbers to prove it now: during February, my metabolic number (calories per pound per day) dropped from 10.9 to 10. Doesn't look like much, but it's a ten percent decline.
- Stressing out over it makes things worse. Stress makes everything worse, and I've got enough stress, thank you, without volunteering for more based on two-tenths of a pound on the bathroom scale.
- EFT Tapping, while not a magical weight cure, really does help reduce stress, in very subtle ways.
- It was scarier to increase my calorie intake after a hundred days of dieting than it was to decrease it on Day One. I'm still a little scared of falling off the wagon because of the extra "treats" I've been allowing myself the last couple of weeks, but so far, so good.
- There's a lag of ten days or so between altering caloric intake and seeing changes in the trend. I need to remember that. The ten-day lag is a test of patience and belief.
- My thrilling weight loss toboggan ride slowed to a crawl when I passed back through the weight I last had on a particularly bad day five years ago. Things fell apart in my life on that day, at that weight, in some of these same clothes. This not without significance. I spent the month dealing with it.
- On that basis, I can predict my next plateau: the weight I was at fifteen years ago, another significant falling-apart point. It's like I'm going backwards through time and pausing to pick up the pieces. Too bad I won't actually be 25 again at the end of it all. Sigh.
It looks like the rain is giving us a break for the first time all week, so I'm going to get out on Eleanor with all three baskets and burn 500 calories or so doing the Major Shopping. Then maybe a pedicure. You know, to celebrate getting off that one endless pound.
Crossposted from Dreamwidth, where there are
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