THE FLOSSING OF BEVERLY

6 November 2002

Maybe it was the floss.

There is a joke about the things people do before a WeightWatchers weigh-in. You wear your lightest clothes, remove everything you can--shoes, rings, watches, earrings. Pee. Poop. Don't shower for fear residual water weighs something. Don't exercise in case you build a heavy muscle.  Cut your hair.  Floss your teeth.

Yeah. It must have been the floss.

It certainly wasn't light clothing. Not at 37 degrees. And I don't remove jewelry.

I'd been worrying about today's weigh-in. I knew I'd been "more or less OK," but I hadn't journalled--I did that disasterous thing of trying to keep it all in my head. And that usually leads to eating more than you should. And there were those brownies Nancianne brought to the party which she said tasted so good and which I had to sneak a piece of. Or two. (but not 3)

And the champagne. While I almost never drink alcohol any more, we had to toast Steve's award, didn't we?

So what was the weigh in going to show today?

And what would I do if I gained?

Could I confess a gain two weeks in a row? That would be embarrassing. Maybe this would be the first week I'd actually lie to the readers. Not say I'd lost a lot, but maybe say I stayed the same. Yeah. That's what I'll do.

But no. I promised I'd be honest here, and no matter what awful thing the scales showed, I'd have to 'fess up.

And I can't quit. Just can't. Not after all the support I've had.

But it's so embarrassing to confess gaining weight twice in consecutive weeks, after all this good work to now. I just hate to see the number at the bottom of this page go down instead of up.

So I got trapped into doing all those pre-weigh-in things. Yesterday was a vegetarian day. And I purposely didn't bring food to work so I wouldn't go crazy if I got the munchies. (And we all know that once I get there, I never have a break to go get food.) I drank gallons of water (flush the system).

With beans for both lunch and dinner, there was no problem at all with all the "elimination." This system is cleaned out, Baby. I brushed and flossed my teeth (I'm sure plaque is very heavy).

I thought about putting on light-weight clothing, but it's 37 degrees out, for Pete's sake. Let's go back to plan 1: lie.

At 7:30 I took a big breath--time to face the music.  I wrapped up in a warm jacket, popped my bike helmet on my head, got on the bike and resolutely pedaled up to WeightWatchers for The Moment.

I didn't even look at my chart from last time. I didn't remember what I weighed. But when I saw the numbers come up on the scale, I thought they were lower. Hmmm...maybe I didn't do so badly after all.

But when she did the subtraction and told me how much I'd lost, I didn't believe it. Holy sh!t....7.6 lbs. How did that happen? I've now returned to where I was when I started gaining back, and then some. I've lost 81 lbs total.