Tell 'em what they've won...

Growing up, my brother, sister, and I were limited by the amount of TV we were allowed to watch during the week.  2 hours was the rule.  So once the weekend came, the 3 of us went into "binge mode".  On Friday night, we all crowded around the little black and white in my sister's room and settled in for the epic Friday night lineup of "Dukes of Hazzard", followed by "Love Boat", and capped off with "Fantasy Island".

However, during the weekdays in the summer we had the opportunity to cheat a bit.  My Mom stayed home with us during the day, but when we were just old enough to be left alone without a babysitter for a few hours, she started taking an aerobics class.

Her car wasn't even to the end of the driveway before the TV was snapped on and we were ratcheting that dial (no remotes or push-buttons back then, mind you).  There wasn't a whole lot to offer in that mid-morning weekday lineup, but beggars couldn't be choosers.

For the amount of time she was gone, we were usually able to get in episodes of "Card Sharks", "Press Your Luck", "Diff'rent Strokes", and maybe even catch "Price is Right", before we had to hastily clean up the complete state of disaster we had put the house in during the few hours she had been gone.  It was kind of like "The Cat in the Hat", but without the cat and all of the other weird shit that happens.

Anyway, I was reminded of this the other day:

Recognize it?  It's a game from the "Price is Right" .  Contestants would try to guess the prices of products, and for each dollar they were off, the mountain climber goes up the hill, often reaching the end of the mountain and falling to his (apparently hilarious) death.

What made me think of it was a graph I've kept of my weight loss efforts over the years.  In my previous post, I wrote about a food/exercise log I've kept since 2008.  I've also kept a spreadsheet of data of my weight over time.

I actually started the spreadsheet in 2003, when I started Atkins.  From that data, some previous medical records, and memory, I was able to enter data for my weight losses and gains since I graduated high school.  Here it is:

Listening to someone's weight loss story, you often hear the phrase, "but then I ended up gaining even more weight than I'd lost".  Certainly true for me, but look at how predictable the "gained back" amount has been.  You can draw a fairly straight line through each of the peaks.

I remember looking at this graph back when I started Atkins.  I thought to myself, "Wow, I was well on my way to 300 lbs."  Well, I got there.  And from what you can see, 350 and 400 aren't weren't that far around the corner.  Scary.

Continued success with the eating plan, weigh-ins, and exercise.  I'm down another 3 lbs this week, which is a pace I'm extremely happy with.  I realize this pace will inevitably slow, but hey - I'll take it while I can get it.

I've also cut down my diet soda intake by 75%, and dramatically increased my water intake by not bringing any diet soda to work with me.  That's got to be a good thing, too.