Up, Down and In the Middle

Interesting news story I just saw on television about Olympic athletes. It was in CBS Sunday morning, the day of the Superbowl and the title of the feature was "Winning is Everything." Their contention is that, on the Olympic medal platform, the silver medalist always seems less happy than the bronze medalist. Naturally, winning gold is a life-changing pinnacle of athletic achievement. But the reason they proposed that the silver medalist is less animated than the third place winner, is that they beat themselves up over how close they were to WINNING, the best, the gold. Person number three on the other hand, relates his victory to the rest of the pack and is glad to have made it to the platform at all.

I've carried this analogy into my efforts to be healthy. A daily weight check is something that helps me see how the food and exercise choice I made the day before impacted my goal. Some days, I know that I'll go up in weight, and I have a pretty good idea of why. Other days, I see a numeric affirmation of the previous day's hard work. But then there's the plateau. There is usually not an obvious explanation for these days, which are usually 3-4 days long. My exercise is right on, calories under 1200 and water intake on par. Losing weight makes me proud and I want to keep up the good work. Gaining weight makes me disappointed in myself and I want to work harder. But the leveled off plateau which is part of the process, is something I don't know how to handle. It's like a wash out day...not good, not bad, just part of the waiting game.

So, I need to back up and look at the bigger picture. I have been doing everything right for the past four days but my weight has been stuck at 182. Frustrating! But last month, I had a similar period where weight plateaued at 191. Don't forget to look at the big picture!