Day 36: Whipsawed

As it turns out, I wrote off the technique of big breakfast, relatively small dinner, and nothing in between, too early. Last night, I had to empty a full bladder three times, which meant that I was finally getting rid of the excess water that's been replacing my shrunken supply of fat.

This evening, I got a weighing that was three pounds below yesterday's. That's what I got, three times in succession.

In the financial-services industry, this whole experience is known as being "whipsawed." What it means is: you get a good idea; you put money down on it; things go wrong; you bail out of it; the loss turns out to be temporary; and you see that you were right all along, only you wound up with a loss instead of a gain because you had bailed out.

On Main Street, though, being "whipsawed" isn't that bad. All it means is that you're right on something, but you're not sufficiently sure of your footing as of yet to know that you're right. Outside of playing the market, a "whipsawing" is just a way of learning that you don't have enough experience yet to trust your own judgement. It's a typical journeyperson's mistake.

This learning experience has given me some good news to report. Eating a big breakfast that consumes most of your daily ration of calories, a dinner that takes up the rest, and nothing caloric in between, does get your weight dropping when shrinking fat is not met with shrinking weight. It's worked for me twice - and the second time it worked was right after I had given up on it. I can't say that it's a plateau-buster as of yet, because it hasn't been for me, but I'll try it out when the next one comes along. My social calendar is going to be minimal for some time now, so I can test it without any complications getting in the way. If it doesn't work specifically, I'll try other variations, such as the big-lunch option. (The big dinner option seems to have lesser potential.)


Weight as of approx. 6 PM today: 231 pounds.