LOSING WEIGHT BEGINS IN YOUR HEAD

Hint #1 (and maybe the most important hint of all)

 Losing weight begins not on your plate or in your stomach but in your head. Before everything else comes the very real, and totally honest decision to lose weight, and the summoning of a complete mental dedication to achieving that goal. Or to put it another way and strange as it may sound, you must be willing to lose weight. After that decision, the rest is only process, a process made easy by following whatever diet program you prefer (I lost 40 pounds in 60 days on the Medi-fast program, which I highly recommend). Think of this as the difference between essence and form. The essence of losing weight is the mental dedication. The form  (the diet program you choose) is only process

IS A PUZZLEMENT

As I've said before, I'm very grateful to whatever is the cause of my remaining at goal weight since Labor Day despite the fact that I now eat almost anything I want. Oh, I am a little more cautious when my weight creeps up a pound or two or when I know I'm going out for dinner. On those occasions, I revert to a Medi-fast routine and drink lots of water and my weight goes back to the new normal. Earlier this week, I was back at my doctor's office for a routine follow-up and we were both surprised to find that his scale registered my weight as five pounds less than my scale at home, which was 15 pounds less than his scale registered my weight in September. This isn't possible since I weigh myself at home without any clothes and in his office I at least have on my pants (even though, like we all used to do at Weight Watchers, I took out my phone, my coins and my wallet, which is stuffed with credit cards). I'm sure his scale is wrong - I urged him to have it checked - but I suppose it's just as possible that mine is not working properly. Whatever the cause, I'm pleased that me weight seems relatively stable. But it is a puzzlement.

Stay tuned.

FEARING RETRIBUTION

I've been very lucky. My weight has stayed at the Labor Day level ever since then, even through the usual and many holiday temptations. And even though I have to admit that I've not been so careful  in following my Medifast routine during the last 30 days. It appears as though I can eat and drink almost anything I please, at any time, and it makes no difference. My weight may go up a pound or two but the next day, it's back down again. It's really spooky, and I fear the wrath of poundage will descend on me at any moment. Maybe this stability has something to do with that old thing we learned in Bio 101: the theory of homeostasis, one of the only things I remember from that class. That is that things have a natural tendency to stay in balance. So if my body has decided that my new weight is the right balance (instead of the old weight, that was 40 pound heavier), how can I complain? Still, I'll try to be a little more conscious. Perhaps I should just give the cookies I just baked to the staff downstairs?  In order - now that I've somewhat bragged about this - to avoid retribution?

Stay tuned.