At the beginning of this journey, I was weighing myself every day (or maybe even more than once a day!).  And I’d start my day either energized or demoralized.  My coach, Renee, gave me some very specific feedback, “Put the scale away!”.  I resisted for a couple of weeks, but I finally took her advice and the scale has now been relegated to the garage, in a closet, which is blocked by other garage-junk.  It’s very hard to get to.  But did it help?

Yes.  It did.  I now just go about my week, following the program, and not worrying about whether I’m up 1, down 2, on a day-to-day basis.  I’ve also become more attuned to what’s going on with my body.  I’m not like some people, who can tell when they’ve gained an ounce or two, but I’m improving.  My level of “attunement” is whether my pants feel loose or not.  It’s not a great indicator, but it is an improvement over my previous head-stuck-in-the-sand behavior.

All that being said…  The scale was kind to me for the last two weeks.  This week… not so great.  Why, I wondered?

Is it something that is out of my control (sort of): am I in a good loss/not so good loss bi-weekly cycle, are things not “moving” through my system quickly enough, is my body recovering from a big loss the previous week, is it hormones, etc?

Or there something else going on that I can control?  So, this week I’m really taking a closer look at what I’m doing.  I feel like I’m sticking to the program 100%.  But am I?  Am I drinking enough water? Have I let little things slip in that shouldn’t be there?   The answers are:  no, I haven’t been getting in as much water as I should.  I’m probably at 64-80oz per day, but Renee advocates 96oz.  And yes, I have let little things slip in.  I’ve been using a slice or two of prosciutto as a snack when I’m hungry.  Hey, that’s ok, right?  No carbs.  But Renee pointed out that preserved/processed meats may not the best choice and suggested a hardboiled egg instead.  And prosciutto is not on the phase 1 list…  Am I doing anything else that’s a little off program?  Oh yeah, that salad that had a small piece of avocado, and I ate it? oh yeah, that’s out too.

So – I’ve got to re-align myself with the program and be focused 100%.  Time to step up my game to get the results that I want.