That was a foolish thing to say. I thought I'd get on the scales yesterday: I have put on pretty much 10 pounds in 10 days.
How do I feel about this? Well, not great at first, until I thought about it for a little while and a few things dawned on me.
The first is that I haven't really put on 10 pounds. For one, the difference in my weights from the last Saturday weigh-in to yesterday was actually only 9.75 pounds. Also, as I'd stepped onto the scales only a few hours after finishing binge eating, I still had a good amount of food in me, and I was likely also quite hydrated from the 3 giant-sized Coronas I'd had the previous night.
The flip side of the thermodynamic diet
Maybe things weren't all that bad. Of course, I had put on weight, and a good few pounds at that but, in some ways, it's reassuring. It's good to be brought down to Earth occasionally of course, but it also adds additional evidence to the central hypothesis of this diet - what causes your weight to change is a difference between the amount of calories you eat, and the ones you get rid of through work and heat.
Since the 3rd of January, the difference has been in favour of losing weight, with my net intake of energy being less than my output of energy net, leading to the consumption of my body's internal stores of energy and a concomitant loss of weight.
In the last 10 days, I have eaten significantly more - and have drunk even more significantly more - and spent the majority of my time parked on my arse in meetings, at airports or on buses, trains and planes.
There was no way the net energy output would be greater than the net energy input over this period. So, extra calories stored internally and weight goes up. As the current graph shows all too clearly:
And the laws of the thermodynamic diet are conserved!
The big realisation though, is that it doesn't really matter. I'd had a couple of weeks where two times of indulgence had run together: the work trip to France followed by a weekend away at a music festival and a day off where the holiday spirit had continued and I got a bit carried away - not great when you started the day with a ridiculous hotel buffet breakfast.
It's the mini Danish pastries that get me every time. I imagine that's what crack must be like.
Keeping the weight off
How often is this juxtaposition of circumstances likely to arise? Not very. And, as I've said before, the whole point of this diet is to put me in a position where I can have indulgent binges and not really worry about it. If I put on weight, as I've done here, then I have the tools and the confidence to know I can lose it again.
The reason for being on this diet is not about seeing how much weight I can lose just for the sake of it. I love eating and drinking. They are a big psychological release for me. A big wine and steamed pudding binge can be just what my mind and body needs some times and I have no intention of sacrificing that; it's too important.
This diet isn't about getting myself to a point where I'm lighter than I've been since I was a child. I'd look terrible for a start. Yes, I like having a defined set of abdominal muscles and being relatively toned, but I don't want to turn into a wee thin shadow of a person who would be unstable in a stiff breeze. That's just not my scene.
I think my initial down-heartedness about the weight gain was more about this blog. I wanted to show how losing weight could be easy. How you didn't have to follow any fad diet, or spend money on esoteric foods or weight-loss consultants. You just needed to be able to count and apply a bit of common sense.
I thought that having a data-point on the graph that was higher than the previous one would make people think that the diet didn't work and that there was no merit in this simple scheme. However, I think, what I've actually done, is actually confirm that it does work.
Hopefully you'll see that when the graph heads down again, which, as of this morning, it's already starting to do...
For now though, it's possibly time to close out the month of March without any additional binge days, get the graph heading down again, and be ready for the next round of Sauvignon blanc and sticky toffee puddings!
Day 72 - 1800 calories
Breakfast
2x scrambled eggs (200)
Lunch
5x double chocolate cookies (1100)
Dinner
2x Weetabix with milk (250)
Wine (250)
Exercise
2m plank
75m walking
Day 73 - 3000 calories
Okay, not in the plan, but it's been a long day: up at 0530, home from work at 2245.
Breakfast
Sausages (200)
Protein bar (200)
Snack
Jaffa Cakes (600)
Lunch
Chicken curry with rice (500)
Snack
Chicken curry with rice (500)
Dinner
Beer (200)
Pizza (800)
Exercise
80m walking
Day 74 - 3050 calories
Breakfast
5x chocolate cookies (1100)
Lunch
Chicken breast (400)
Dinner
Beer (300)
Egg on toast (300)
Yum yum (500)
Weetabix (300
2x biscuits (150)
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