I am good at doing “all the things”. I get my workouts in. I track what I eat. I drink my water. I send my food journal to my accountability buddy. I’m doing everything right…on paper. So, WHY isn’t the scale moving in the right direction? It’s extremely annoying to feel like I’m doing everything I can but the scale is not showing it. What’s worse, the scale is moving up! What is going on? What do I do?

How would you stop a landslide like this? I decided to revert to when I was most successful. For me, I lost the most amount of weight and was the most CONSISTENTLY good when under the direction of my bariatric surgery team. If I went to them and asked them what to do, what would they say? I already know what their answer would be…because it was always the same. What does your food journal say?

My journal is spot on, right? I track everything and send it to my accountability buddy, right? Wrong. One of the things that got me to 420 pounds was that I was a secret eater. I was the best at hiding my food consumption. And that skill has not gone away. While I was tracking, I wasn’t being honest. I would not track extra peanut butter pretzels. Or the chips I grabbed from the work snack drawer. I would drink a coke and not track it. My food journal wasn’t a true picture of what I was consuming. It was the glossy magazine edited version. The version I would allow everyone to see. I wasn’t doing “all the things”. I was doing “all the things” that I wanted people to see.

So, to break a habit, you have to commit to doing something different. I committed to logging every bite. If you bite it, write it. ABC=All bites count. I started to take photos of my food and post them to a separate instagram account. “Public accountability” I’m not 100% at taking photos of my food, but I have been 100% tracking every bite. And what is the result???

I am down 11 pounds this month! And no, my intent is not to brag. My whole point is that once I committed to logging ever single bite, I was successful for doing everything and being completely honest about it. Will the scale always show such dramatic results? Absolutely not. I think the size of this loss is a reflection of how long I was secretly eating. And, it all came from commitment.

So, look at what you are doing. Take a good honest look at what you are doing. Are you being completely honest? Are you truly doing what you say you are? If are, Great! Keep it up! If not, what can you change? Make a commitment to yourself that you will be honest. You have a cupcake for lunch…oh well, just log it. You went over your calories. No big deal, just move on and make tomorrow better. Commit to whatever you need to do!