I didn’t gain any weight yesterday. I stuck to what I’d planned to eat for the day and didn’t engage in any grazing. The result was a loss of a half a pound, which initially was disappointing, but then it occurred to me that losing half a pound on a non-fasting day was actually not too shabby— I’d still maintained enough of a caloric deficit to burn some fat.

I’m approaching the 250 pound mark. After a quick check of my weigh-in history, I realized (with a bit of shock) that I haven’t weighed less than 250 pounds since September of 2022. This is interesting because it coincides with my meeting of someone who has become a very good friend but has also frustrated me more than anyone I’ve ever known. It may be unfair to say, but I think the chronic stress of that relationship has led to some of the overeating (like a lot of people, I eat when I’m stressed). Additionally, we’re both sugar addicts, so when we get together, we often indulge in things like ice cream, chocolate, cake, and other sugar bombs. As a result, we’ve both gained a significant amount of weight since we started hanging out in the fall of 2022.

This friend and I have recently had a falling out of sorts, although the reason for that is a mystery to me. Prior to that falling out, she was determined to lose all the weight that she’d gained since we met, but I’m not sure if that’s actually happening since she’s currently not talking to me. Unfortunately, she has other bad habits (addictions) which make her overindulgence in sugar pale in comparison, and, for whatever reason, she lacks the ability to put consistent, sustained effort toward anything but her bad habits.

I mention my friend because she’s a model of some of the behavior I see in myself—although her behavior tends to be much more extreme than mine. When talking about how the brain (particularly the prefrontal cortex works), executive function refers to the ability to plan, prioritize, and execute goals. I’m convinced that my friend has a deficit in her executive function, and sometimes I wonder if I do. The reason I’ve been thinking about this is that weight loss is a goal, and any goal requires a plan to achieve, and that plan is comprised of steps to reach that goal. People with poor executive function have difficulty losing weight. A discussion of the issue can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/3dzpjynh.

Anyway, during this journey, it’s become glaringly important that setting goals (and planning on how to reach those goals), is paramount to success. You’ve got to plan. Period. I’m not terribly good at planning, but this project is (I think) gradually making me better at it, and I’m interested to see how my ability to plan, prioritize, and execute improves over the course of this journey.