The more things DON’T change…

So after celebrating my birthday – and by celebrating I mean eating as much crap as I could get my hands on for 3 days straight – I was absolutely sure that I had gained about 30 pounds.

That’s the way my mind works.  I irrationally think that off plan eating instantaneously makes me pork up and, on the other side, I irrationally believe that running 6 miles burns enough calories for me to eat TONS of food without consequences.

So I have been avoiding the scale but stepped on this morning to – GROUNDHOG DAY.  Yes, my weight remains absolutely steady. 

I have known a lot of people who have stayed what – from appearance anyway – appear to be the same weight for years.  In fact, I was just thinking about this recently when I walked by a guy who is fairly infamous in our town thanks to the buttons and stickers he wears all over his body in support of a famous evangelist.  He has always had this pudge of a belly.  Certainly overweight but not grossly obese.  I walked by him and observed that his “pudge” appeared to be the exact same size as when I first encountered him about 20 years ago. 

And then there are those people of normal weight and slim weight who it seems like anyway, stay the same weight with no active effort made to increase or decrease their weight.

And, of course, there are those that lose weight, but regain, but seem to regain very close to where they started. 

That would seem to back up the opinion of some experts that believe the body has a “set point”. 

But remaining a stable weight is a foreign concept to me.  I was a fat kid who turned into a really fat teenager, and whose weight climbed and climbed and climbed.  Then, I spent over 2 years gradually losing.  The next 2 years or so was going up and down around a range of 5 pounds – but not without effort – it was a constant vigilance and effort to maintain in that range.

And then a steady gain until I ended up here.  So what if this is a set point?  Is it possible to reset it lower where I would like to be?  Happily if this is a set point, it is wayyyy lower than the 344 pounds I had made my way up to. 

And I can’t deny there is some naughty satisfaction in being able to pig out and not gain.  But I asked myself today – what if you HADN’T eaten all that food over the weekend?  Since you didn’t gain, would you have LOST a couple – so was it worth it?