Richard Ha writes:

Goal: lose one pound per week for 39 weeks
Starting weight on 5/23: 214.6 lbs.
End goal: 175 lbs.

This week’s target weight: 208.6 lbs.
Today’s actual weight: 208.4 lbs. 7/2/06
I am 0.2 lbs. ahead of schedule

I gained 2.4 lbs from last week
Weight loss since 5/23: 6.2 lbs.

Resting heart rate 5/23: 65 beats per minute
Today’s resting heart rate 56 beats per minute.*
* This goes down as one gets into better shape. Lance Armstrong is said to be at 32 beats per minute. My lowest was 52 beats per minute many years ago.

We arrived back home from New York City on Wednesday evening and immediately jumped on our accurate-to-1/10-of-a-pound home scale.

I gained five pounds in the last part of the trip, when I stopped exercising at the fitness center because I wanted to rest and recover for the trip home.

Here, by the way, is the view from the fitness center there.

Because the fitness center was where the scale was located, during that period I wasn’t exercising I had no accurate way to monitor my weight. By the end of the week, back home and with a little exercise and eating a little less, I had cut that back to a net gain of 2.4 lbs. for the week.

I’m back in my normal exercise routine now. Since the unexpected weight gain has been on my mind, I have cut back a little at each meal. Not much, but just enough to know that I’m doing something positive.

And I’m putting in a few more minutes of training. Not much, just a little more than I normally would. I don’t need to get it back all at once. The lower my expectations, the better the chance of exceeding them.

I’ve been on the scale four times a day since I got back. Fortunately, I was nearly three pounds ahead of schedule before I gained all that weight.

This has been my basic approach:

1. It’s important to keep track of one’s weight. Because I stopped going to the gym two days before leaving NYC and did not weigh myself for four days, I had no way of knowing I was drifting.

It was only a few pieces of cheesecake from Juniors. I needed to try the different ones to really know about good cheesecake. And, oh yes, the Italian food and gelato was unreal. In no time I gained five pounds.

Get a good scale. If on your scale you can make your self “lose weight” just by shifting your weight around, throw the scale out. I use the Weight Watcher scale. It is accurate to one-tenth of a pound and is relatively inexpensive. It has a leveling mechanism that does not allow you to seemingly lose weight just by shifting your weight. Weigh yourself as often as you like. This is a good thing. It will help to prevent five pound weight gain surprises.

2. Set goals so they’re easily achieved. I set mine at one pound per week for 39 weeks. That allowed me to get ahead of schedule. And then instead of quitting after unexpectedly gaining five pounds, it gave me an excuse to feel good. Like, “Boy was I smart to have been 3.6 lbs. ahead of schedule.”

You need to set yourself up to have a lot of little successes as you lose weight. It’s good for your psyche. I had one disappointment. Yes, it was five pounds’ worth. But I’ve had four days of successes since then. Had I not set myself up for small successes, I might have quit the program right then. The term “blowing your diet” comes to mind. But I don’t even have a diet to blow. Instead I’m feeling pretty good about myself.

3. Find any excuse to reward yourself. If I must cut back on quantity, then I plan to reward myself by going for the best tasting food. I now make salads with lots of little intense flavors. I like anchovies (great Caesar salad and great pizza must have anchovies). Rasberry salad dressing is good and sharp crumbled cheeses are good. Cocktail tomatoes, Japanese cucumbers, baby lettuces are all good. Throw some apple bananas in; why not? Doing this makes me feel happy instead of deprived.

I also plan to reward myself for every five pound increment that I hit. The next one is 205 lbs. I haven’t decided what the reward will be. Maybe I’ll hang the portable TV in the garage, hook up the music channel and get good earphones that will make my granddaughter jealous. And for hitting 200, that should be extra special, right?

Now I’m thinking of what else we can grow that will taste really good. Hmmm. What about sweet onions? Asparagus? Those would be good in the salads. And if we are eating less, maybe we need to grow (and eat) things that are more intense in color, for their nutritional value in addition to their good taste. This makes business sense to me. And I’ll bet that my thinking about this is fairly typical of baby boomers.