Public Humiliation

Remember back before Christmas,when I posted a list of interesting fitness-themed gift ideas?  One of the things on the list was the Withings internet-connected body scale.

Well, ours arrived day before yesterday.

Yes, we now own a scale that keeps an online record of my weight and body-fat percentage.  It will even post the results to Twitter.  The prospect is  . . . horrifying.  But oddly compelling.

Let me just get the public humiliation part of this over with:  I’ve gained 17 pounds in the last two years.  Yes, I know–I write a blog all about staying fit and eating carefully and watching your weight.  I should practice what I preach, and I’m embarrassed to admit that I obviously don’t.  Actually, if I’m totally honest, I’ve gained 20 pounds, but that was over a longer period of time–I weighed 123 pounds back in 2003, for a few months.  I was training hard.  At least when it slipped back up to 126 my clothes didn’t stop fitting.  Now?  Let’s just say my wardrobe is limited to stretchy waistbands at this point.  It’s time to get back to a sensible weight.  Starting today.

So, now we have this scale.  It’s not all that different from the scale we had before–our old Tanita did a body-fat reading as well as a weight measurement, so I’m not getting any data that I didn’t already have.  Which makes me wonder why this new scale seems more interesting.  Thus far, what we have is a fairly attractive new toy that keeps a computerized record so we don’t have to write anything down.  I haven’t yet set up my account to tweet my read-outs (although I probably will, because apparently I have some sort of perverse social death wish).

What you see in the graphic above is what happened when I stepped on the scale this morning.  Ugh.

I think it’s the automatic record-keeping that appeals to me.  Lee has always been in the habit (and by always I mean for the last eleven years) of writing down his weight and body-fat, so that he can see trends before they get out of hand.  I don’t do that; I’ve never been that organized.  I’m also really good at convincing myself that today’s 1/2 pound gain “doesn’t count” because of the salt in last night’s soy sauce, or because I’m PMS-ing, or because yesterday’s weight lifting is making my muscles bigger already (riiiiight).

I know all this sounds like I’m advocating obsessing over details, and I know I usually talk about balance and perspective and lifestyle vs. diet and all that, but over time, it’s the details that add up to the big picture.  I think that by not forcing myself to pay attention to the details every day, I was able to ignore (maybe deny would be a better word) the trend that was right there on my bathroom scale.

So now I’m putting the trend out there for the world to see.  I hope that having the visual–the graph that shows me the picture of my day-to-day progress–will be enough to keep me motivated.  If it’s not, I’m going to need you, my dear readers (all three of you–there are three of you reading, right?) to give me a swift kick in the pants.

Public humiliation, indeed.