Total Weight Loss

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

My Faulty Memory

I still hadn't gotten over my disappointment last week of learning that I'd only lost 10 pounds in a year. I'd been trying to use it as positive tool, telling myself not to waste any more time. It was working in that I was following my plan to the letter, but still I couldn't shake that little dark spot in my mind. Yesterday, I decided to chart my weight loss by year. I wanted to be able to see what I weighed on June 14, 2009, 2010, and 2011, and every date in between.


This really wasn't a difficult task because I am a numbers geek. I have all sorts of data kept every way imaginable so, making the graphs really just meant sorting the data another way. So I began cutting & pasting the data into a new spreadsheet. As I began to review the data, I was shocked by what I saw. I yo-yoed even at the very beginning. As I had absolutely no recollection of this, I was certain I'd made an error cutting & pasting. I reviewed the original document and I had not made a mistake. My weight had gone up and down even at the very beginning.


I had memory of zipping right on down the scales, with large, relatively speaking, losses every day. That was another memory marred by time. I had plenty of days with minimal and even no loss. How odd!! I remembered stalling out just about time to cross over the 200 lb mark in to ONEderland. That was correct, but not complete. I did not remember jumping back over the 200 lb mark once crossing the threshold. The worst part is, I crossed over more than once...more than twice...more than three times!! Yes, I jumped back up over the 200 pound threshold 4 times before I got under to stay.


Oddly, that made me feel better than anything. I don't feel so bad now for jumping up out of the 160's. I'm going down for the fourth time this time, and I'm hoping/planning that history will repeat itself and this will be the final time I have to crack the 160's. I'm also hoping that I won't have that experience again in the 150's and 140's, but if I do I'll try to handle it better.







And just for the record, we still have no router.

6 comments:

  1. Great revelation! Sometimes we can get so bogged down with certain "stats" - for me it's getting (and staying) under the 200 mark and then 194 is one of those #s that I've seen sooooooooooooo much, it's become a hurdle for me to get under. I have to start looking at it a different way. Thanks for this post - it helps me too!
    Dawn

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  2. My husband has a spreadsheet that has many years of our weights. Talk about ups and downs! So... let's make sure that our ups are over and you and I are moving in the right direction and staying there!

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  3. it's amazing when those rose colored glasses come off isn't it? we do tend to see the past as being better than it actually was, good memeories overshadow the bad and i get wistful when i think of the past.........now when i was living it NOT so much. lol great post and wonderful that it gave you perspective. xoxoxoxoxoxo

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  4. I absolutely LOVE my spreadsheets that I've kept faithfully since October 1, 2006 when I began this journey for I'd hoped was the last time. I have one for weight and one for steps recorded on my pedometer each day. I frequently go back see where I was 5,4,3,2,1 year ago. That was a wise thing for you to do. Why is it our memories are so faulty on the positive things, but can remember negative things eternally???

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  5. Wow that was awesome! That's why I keep information. I have the same kind of memory. Makes me crazy some times!!

    Keep up the great work. You are awesome!

    Stay focused!

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  6. Great post with a great reminder of how faulty our memory can be. I think it helps so much to have an accurate record to look back on when we are discouraged.

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