Today I have time, but also the "shakes"!

I had planned to make a post today--but I did a different yoga workout today and my lower arms and hands are still shaking.  This was a CORE workout.  I can only imagine how my abs will feel tomorrow.  And this was only 20 minutes!!!  Don't believe me...YOU try it--core yoga #1

Today is all about my "true weight".  I stumbled upon this in a comment related to Roni's request to join her Wednesday weigh-ins.  Since reaching my goal weight, I've been wondering exactly how to go about KEEPING my weight there.  Or more exactly, I've been wondering how I will know if I am NOT keeping my weight where I want it. 

During the weight loss phase I often saw my weight bounce up when I did not expect it to, and I saw losses at times where I probably didn't really deserve it (no one should eat an entire pound of See's candy in a week). 

During the last phase of my weight loss, it took me about 4 months to lose just over 2 pounds.  It was so slow that it didn't even feel like it would ever happen.  It doesn't take too much imagination to realize that weight can sneak back on just as gradually if you are not being vigilant.  I've also been on a few vacations during that time period and I've seen that 5 pounds can appear just like MAGIC.  Many times the bulk of that weight has been travel bloat--but what if my vacation is longer than a week, or if I'm traveling for work (more on that later)?

So, I downloaded an app called True Weight.  It is based on The Hacker's Diet tools.  The basic premise of the tool is that your weight is going to fluctuate based on water retention, brown waste, how good of a job you do standing the middle of your scale, etc.  That your true weight is actually somewhere in the midst of all those measurements and that small upward or downward trends get lost in the middle of those.  Trust me, this hacker guy uses a lot more words to say this (and I never did get to his "diet") but his basic premise really resonated with me.  It took me a few attempts, but I did manage to import my last 70 weigh-ins into the app and I've now been using it instead of my old stand-by Weightbot.  ("70!" you may exclaim--remember, I am a compulsive daily weigher, I even ask for a scale when I check into hotels--they almost NEVER have them--or if they do they are in the fitness center--yeah, like they want me showing up there first thing in the morning in my birthday suit).

So, what has it shown me so far?  Well, it appears that I've reversed my weight gain trend from vacation, however, my "true weight" is still elevated above my "goal weight" even though the last couple of days my "scale weight" has shown me to be at the same weight as before vacation.  Of course this is because the elevated "vacation weights" are still getting averaged in with the complicated weighted average.  This is a great back to school project for any of you math teachers.  If any of you are english teachers--sorry about the excessive use of quote marks!  Basic take home message--VIGILANCE!  I am not on vacation any more, I don't need to finish off lunch with a s'more--have an apple instead.  Picture is worth a thousand words, right?  So here it is...Be sure and notice how the dotted line really rises and falls compared to the smoothed line.  If I were only weighing in once a month, I might draw really different conclusions about how I was doing depending on when I happened to weigh myself. 

Okay, I don't think I can type much longer--so I gotta finish off with this.  Barring me failing my drug test or having some random bank robbery conviction show up on my background check--I will be employed next week.  Can I get a "WHOO HOO!"?  It will be 13 months to the day since I was last pulling a regular non-state sponsored paycheck. 

Unfortunately, I think this may cut into my blogging time.  Some of you may be offering up prayers of thanksgiving for that, HA!  Perhaps I will be able to just be more concise--but probably not :)

Well, I'm headed out the door to run with little dog.  It may take a bit of creativity to figure out how to keep both of us in fighting shape now.