The scale finally moved back down again. I’m back to where I was at week six.

Wow. Had to look that up this morning. That’s a LOT longer than than I’d expected. Four weeks with either no movement or weight gain.

This is part of why I’m doing a public accountability. So I won’t blow off this sort of thing.

Last week was much more of a normal week. Didn’t go out to eat too often. Mowed and worked around the property. Because it’s been so rainy, even went to the gym once to walk.

One of the things I realized this morning was just how important it is to maintain a positive body image even while actively trying to change it. I am generally happy with who I am and how I look but dieting can be a slippery slope down into negative body image. I’m lucky that I have a wonderful husband who thinks I’m sexy. It is something I have to guard against though.

As I said before, my original plans for how I was going to behave after I finished losing the weight was not going to be enough. I have figured out a piece of it, what I’m going to do to maintain my weight.

My diet changes regularly. About once every three to four months. I am lucky in that I do tend to eat the same two or three things during a week. But eventually I get tired of all of it and need to change everything.

Every time my diet changes in the future, I’m going to need to record the calories. I can’t depend on my body telling me that I’m full. It’s way too easy for me to overeat. I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

So while I was able to lose weight this last week without recording my calories, I also ate practically the exact same meals that I was eating when I was recording my calories.

One of the other things that I did was I measured out one of my snacks. I absolutely adore the Epic pork cracklings. (I prefer the 4505 chicharrones.) How much was half an ounce of cracklings, that is, a single serving? I weighed it all out, and divided it up as separate snacks. So that way, when I want to eat one, I’ll only eat the appropriate amount.

It felt a bit obsessive to be weighing out my snacks that way. However, it also showed me exactly what a single serving looked like. In addition, there were really only four half ounce servings in the bag, though it claimed that there would be five. Though I’m a bit pissed off for being cheated, it also made me feel better because I generally only got four servings out of one of those bags.

I’ll do the same with the chicharrones when I open the next bag. Measure and weigh out the individual servings so I won’t eat too much. I won’t do this every time, but for a few bags, I think I need to, in order to figure out what is a serving.

And I think that’s it! I’m at a coffee shop this morning, though I figured I’d be able to just write fiction without coming here. I’m in a really cool section. However, I’m not sure what comes after that, and being here will make sure that I focus and keep writing, even after I finish that section.

What are you working on this week?