Weight

You’ll recall last year that I was concerned about the steady decrease I was seeing in my weight. After hovering in the mid-180 lb range, I’d dropped to 168 lbs within six months after years of consistency. I’m pleased to report that I’ve again gained a consistency. I’m eating better, exercising, and weigh less. I’m 10 lbs up from my lowest weight last summer and 10 lbs down from my highest weight ever. And even though I’m only 10 lbs down, I look even lighter because I’m slowly adding muscle mass. Since I’ve started seeing result from the weights, I’ve been using them consistently. On the other hand, my cardio work has fallen off. I need to get back on it, but that’s a story for another time.

You knew numbers, in some form, were coming, right? Here’s the dope for May:

The data plot does look erratic, but the vertical scale exaggerates the variation. The difference between the highest and lowest weights are a mere 5½ lbs.

The graph is from an iPhone/iPod Touch application called Weightbot. As soon as I noticed my weight starting to change, I wanted to keep track of it. Not because I worry about each pound, but because it’s good to know what’s going on over the longer term. Despite this desire, I couldn’t remember to weigh myself daily and record the number. Part of the reason is because the best time is after going to the washroom when one wakes up, before eating or drinking. This is a fairly narrow window!

I knew myself well enough to realize that to get the numbers I wanted, I’d need to make it easy and fun. For $1.99, Weightbot helped me do what I couldn’t do alone.