dianaschnuth

I never thought I was much of a numbers person — not after snoring through a stats class my Freshman year of college, then struggling through other collegiate-level maths. I’ve discovered, though, that I enjoy finding and tracking trends, be they at work or in my weight loss.

I’ve been seriously bummed this week, and losing faith in the SparkDiet, because I’ve remained at 201.5 pounds for the past nine days straight (not counting one day when I lost half a pound, then gained it back the next). The only thing that kept me from totally giving it the big heave-ho was my $10 wager with James. For total SparkPoints earned, not for total weight lost, thank goodness.

At any rate, I have my own Excel spreadsheet and graph that I’ve been updating over the past, oh, more than four years, and I’ve incorporated weekly averages into it. I average my weight for the week, Sunday through Saturday, and subtract that average from the previous week’s average to help gauge my weight loss. I’d forgotten that last week’s average was 202.2, and it turns out that this week’s average is 201.4 (thanks to that one lower day), so I actually lost 0.8 pounds since last week. That makes me feel better.

SparkPeople, though not exactly the diet I would have chosen for myself without the online tracking, at least has some nifty graphs relating to food and exercise and goal-setting. It tells me that my recommended daily fiber intake is 25-35g, and informs me that I’m consistently below that level. I can also see that my protein isn’t as high as a former low-carber’s should be. So, my goal for this week is to meet my recommended fiber and exceed my recommended protein levels. Those things alone should push a lot of the evilness out of my diet.

Today will be fun. Today, Aaron and I are meeting Jason at the Happy Rose Buffet, where I will be selecting only the healthiest items possible, having only one plate of food, and sticking mainly to sushi. I will set a good example, and I will be proud of myself.