Week 13: No Instant Pudding

"There is no instant pudding." -- W. Edwards Deming

Last week's number: 303.0 pounds
This week's number: 304.3 pounds
Week-to-week loss: -1.3 pounds
Net loss: 45.7 pounds

The above quote is not merely just a wise choice when trying to lose weight. It's something to keep in mind when implementing any kind of improvement scheme. Nothing happens immediately; it takes effort and persistence.

The past few weeks have not been my greatest. I've been under a lot of pressure and, as I mentioned before, I tend to eat to resolve stress. With most of the stress off of me now (finals are over--successfully as far as I know--and my mother-in-law has transportation, and therefore independence, again) I can focus on getting back on track.

The last time I had a gain on this program it really upset me; this time I'm handling it a little better knowing that my body is bound to plateau at some point and a pound or two is natural variation for any human being over the course of a week. I didn't notice it before because my weight was so high that I attributed the difference to error in the scale. Now that I'm more conscious of it I'm paying more attention.

It's important in any diet not to weigh yourself too often, or these daily or weekly fluctuations will influence your attitude. In statistics, and in quality assurance in particular, this is reflected in two different ways:

Type 1 error: thinking something is bad when it's really not. The classic example is that of a jury convicting an innocent man. Usually it refers to rejecting a perfectly good product as defective. In this case, it's thinking you're not losing weight when, over the long haul, you really are.

Type 2 error: thinking something is good when really it's not. For example, a jury acquitting a man who should have been found guilty, or accepting a defective product. In this case, it's thinking you're losing weight when you're really not.

My weight fluctuation is less than one-third of one percent of my total weight, which in any statistical or engineering context would be considered background noise. The fact that I basically broke even in a week when my dietary discipline was far from what it should have been is itself a good sign. While I didn't stick strictly to the diet, neither did I go overboard. This is a good sign for the future.

But it's not good enough for what I hope to accomplish. I need to keep the pressure up and get the exercise routine going full force again. And I need to develop the habits I'll have for the rest of my life once this diet is over. I do not want to get back to the way I was, ever. I want to be the best I can be for my age and given the constraints I need to work around. The key to that, however, is actually working around them.

On to the next week!