Kthunk

Another week, another 2 pounds. Well, 2.2, but that makes up for last week's 1.8, right? So: 236, a grand total of 37 down. The Weight Watchers site is tsking at me again for losing weight too fast. Hey, WW site? Bite me.

I did a Bad Thing yesterday: I built a chart to calculate how long it should take me to get to my various goal weights. It's based on my average loss over the most recent 12 weeks, and will update continuously as I go, so it's at least got one foot in reality -- if I start to plateau, those dates will slide out appropriately, and once I'm past a plateau, they'll bunch back up again.

And I know you're not really supposed to look at the final destination from this far out -- it's discouraging, to know just how far you have to go and how long it will take. You're supposed to just focus on the near-term goal.

But I've been feeling kind of discouraged about the speed of this anyway, lately. And I know, I know it's dumb; I didn't pile on the fat in six months, and I can't expect it to go away that fast, either. But the near-term goal is around 220, and I've been there, inside the last five years. It's not an exciting goal for me. More exciting is the under-200 goal, and more exciting still are various landmarks beyond that.

So I built the chart. And actually, it didn't really discourage me. Well, no more than I was already discouraged, anyway. I don't know how much it helped, but at least it gives me some ball-park dates to work toward. At my current rate of loss, I should hit my near-term goal around mid-April, the under-200 goal in July, and what I'm currently thinking of as my "ultimate" goal right around this time next year.

I'm aware those numbers are a bit optimistic -- they don't take into account any plateaus, or weeks that I don't lose because of various events or holidays or whatnot, or the fact that my rate of loss is likely to even out, the closer I get to my goal. But I've been doing this now for four and a half months, and even though my clothes are all much looser than they used to be, I don't really feel any different. It makes it feel like this is going to be going on forever. Another year? I can hang in there for another year, I think.

We shall see.