Check Your Stress on the Bathroom Scales

Thursday, April 04, 2019

It’s no secret that I’m losing weight.

Indeed, the fact that I *AM* losing weight makes me more inclined to tell everyone about it.

Heh heh!

You can ignore the scale on the Left-hand side. I’m using a set of scales that may not be correctly calibrated.

What counts to me is the DIFFERENCE in weight from day to day, and in the chart above you can see that in early September I am about 4 pounds lighter than I was last June.

I have been weighing myself daily for about five years now, and can stretch that chart to cover all five years.

I am fascinated by perturbations; what makes my weight spike at intervals?

The yellow marks are my daily recorded weight values; they fluctuate, quite naturally, by plus or minus two pounds per day.

So what counts is the TREND of my weight, which is outlined in red and also in blue; I use blue when my recorded daily weight is less than my trend, which is a running average.

(Blue is therefore the equivalent of a Gold Star, without the expense of buying gold stars!).

Observe the are bounded in green.

Just over a week ago, Friday 26th, my early-morning weight pegged in at 167 lbs. No cause for alarm, but why on that day? I was taking two days holiday, and was looking forward to it.

Don’t you think my stress would be DOWN that morning?

No. Weight is a function of stress; when we are stressed out we drink beer (calories) or eat ice-cream (calories); we eat to feel comfortable, and if we aren’t comfortable in our daily lives, we treat ourselves.

My guess is that in the three or four days leading up to my heavenly vacation, the PROMISE of a great time in the future felt like pressure in the present.

So Friday morning, before I set off, I had a peak at 167 lbs, brought about by snacking to relieve the stress of waiting for vacation.

Once on vacation I pig out on hamburgers, ice-cream, I treat myself to a can of pop, and generally disregard any heart-and-stroke advice for two days.

And look at how my weight starts coming down again, even though I’m eating what I shouldn’t!

Weigh yourself daily and plot the trend.

Then go back to those peaks and work out what it is that causes you stress.

And get rid of it.

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