That'll teach me

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Yes, I know what you're thinking - this doesn't look like a very interesting picture! But this is what I use to try to keep control over maintenance - the new phase of my life.

The blue circles are my daily weigh-ins. The far left is when I decided that I had reached my maintenance weight, and the far right is today, and each line down is another month gone by. Each line up is 2kg (about four-and-a-half pounds), so you can see that the difference between my lowest weight and highest weight in maintenance is about a whopping 10 pounds! My blog last week was about how, as we all know, it is normal for weigh-ins to bob up and down, and so I look at the moving average - that's the black line. Any point on the black line is the average of all the weigh-ins in the previous month, so that smooths out those blips.

Mr Completely-in-Control was happy that the black line had been going down or staying level for many weeks. Then last week Ann and I went away for a few days to celebrate her birthday at a small hotel we like a lot - especially because of the excellent food. They made a fuss of her on her birthday itself, and brought out champagne and a birthday cake, after we'd finished the big meal. My moving average was OK, so I thought that I would just have a little taste of cake. I'm not even that keen on cake, but this was delicious, and had chocolate on it too. I haven't had any cake or chocolate for over two years, and something snapped. Half an hour later the big 12-slice cake was half-eaten, washed down with the champagne. And the next night we finished the other half of it.

I had really thought that my urges to eat a lot of high-calorie food were a thing of the past, but that holiday (and especially that cake) brought me down to earth with a bump. And my mood wasn't helped because I have been back home for three days, and the weight is not dropping off as it used to. I suppose that is because nowadays I am eating more because I am maintaining, not trying to lose. And the moving average is clearly going up! So, it's back to basics - out of the cupboard with the kitchen scales, and back to keeping my food diary. That moving average is going to start coming down again, before a slip turns into a slide!