Sometimes you find something that works because it is the thing you are supposed to do, and sometimes you find something that works because you finally figure out how to make it something you actually want to do.
That has been the theme around here lately, because tracking has somehow gone from the thing everyone knows they probably should do to the thing people are actually experimenting with.
Food, protein, water, steps, sleep, weight, medication, even dashboards. We have people who track everything, people who track almost nothing, people who track passively, people who track manually, and people who are starting to wonder whether they might actually be tracking too much.
Which, honestly, is useful information too.
Because the goal was never to create another place where you can come and collect a list of things you are failing to keep up with. The goal is to figure out what actually helps you, and I think that has been one of the more interesting conversations to come out of this little tracking experiment we’ve accidentally created.
Before you keep scrolling, drop your win in the comments.
Big, tiny, weird, completely unrelated to weight loss... I want it. These roundups are built from what happens in this community, so give me something to celebrate.
Wins We Loved This Week
There were some really good ones this week. One of our Besties is down nearly three pounds after a week of teaching and running around the library, which may officially make working in a school a cardiovascular activity.
Another is down 1.7 pounds after an emotional week and, more importantly, had a birthday dinner at a teppanyaki restaurant where she ordered exactly what she wanted, had a glass of wine, ate some fried rice and about half of her meal, and stopped when she was full. No guilt, no “I blew it,” and no deciding that because she had birthday food she might as well turn the entire weekend into a free-for-all. She just recognized that she was full and trusted herself enough to stop, which is a very different kind of win.
Someone else went from 222 earlier in the week to 215.6 on the scale this morning and had to get off and get back on because apparently 215.6 sounded suspicious. I understand that reaction completely. Sometimes the scale gives you a number and you are like, “That cannot possibly be my business,” so naturally you have to get back on and verify the evidence.
Her week also included the end of her cycle, less stress at work, and finally having some help in the kitchen, which is a pretty good reminder that our bodies are responding to approximately one million things that have nothing to do with whether we were “good” that week.
We also had a 1.6-pound loss at a WW weigh-in, which wasn’t a new low but was still lower than the previous week. Another Bestie is down another pound after a week involving a broken-down car, helping her mom four days, and three soccer games over the weekend, and although she still hasn’t made it to the gym, she is increasing her walking and has once again declared that the gym is the goal for this week.
At this point, I feel like the entire community should probably be standing outside the gym with balloons when she finally makes it through the front door.
And then we have the scale-stuck crew, which is always going to be part of this conversation because bodies apparently refuse to follow a clean little progress chart.
One Bestie walked more than 8,500 steps five days last week and said she feels lighter, but the scale has been sitting stubbornly at 203 after she had previously seen 199.
It is frustrating, obviously, but I loved that she could identify something changing even while the number wasn’t cooperating. That is one of the reasons I keep wanting us to talk about more than just the scale, because sometimes your body is changing before the number decides to send you the memo.