Weight Loss by Month: March 2022

Let's start with a riddle:

I finished the month at the same weight that I started. I also lost five pounds this month. How is this possible?

Okay, so maybe it's not that hard of a riddle. But after gaining five pounds in the first half of March, I'm back on track with my weight loss plans and goals. 

Eesh, how many months has it been since I've been on track? Uh oh. Time to rip the band-aid off. 

After having a good stretch of 14 months, I fell off the wagon for the last six months. 

The last six months included: a trip to San Fransisco, a work trip to Rome and Greece, Halloween, my birthday, Thanksgiving, a family trip to New York, a work trip to Cancun, Christmas, New Year's, my wife's birthday, football playoffs, Valentine's Day, a work trip to New York, a family trip to Florida, and Spring Break.

Not only did I give myself permission to eat whatever I wanted on vacations and special events, on the days in between I kept compulsively eating snacks and junk food to keep the good times rolling. 

After losing 62 pounds in 14 months, I gained 31 back in five months. 

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It's frustrating and I only have myself to blame. Here I am making the weight-loss recap the best post of 2021 as I'm undoing the progress. 

It's like driving from LA to NY and when you get to Pittsburgh, you turn around and drive back to Denver. 

Or when you're saving up $6000 for a hot tub and then you go and spend half of the money on something else. 

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But it is what it is. I'm back on track and the past six months just means I'll have to be that much more dedicated in the future. As Shea Serrano says, you can't win a game seven without losing three games first.

It's a reminder that even 14 months of continuous action is not enough to change lifelong tendencies to overeat. 

While Brit likes to point out that I become obsessive when I'm eating healthy (checking the calories of everything, weighing, writing down how many calories I have left for the day) I saw that I'm obsessive in the opposite direction when I'm eating unhealthy. My brain sends a signal that I'm not caring how much I eat today so I might as well go to the kitchen and eat three bowls of cereal just because I can. Nevermind that I just had lunch an hour ago. An hour goes by and repeat, what else can I eat?

So yeah, I'm back on track. And posts like this are important to help me stay on track. Right now I can take it one month at a time. Just try to make some progress in April. Keep stacking good months.