The Wanning Summer:

What They Learned

The main thing Rhonda and Bill learned about taking the month of August off from reporting on this blog was how very vitally important it is to have accountability. And they learned that the encouragement they get from you is extremely important, too.

So, how did they do without that accountability nor encouragement through your comments? First the bad news. Rhonda stayed the same weight. And Bill only lost five pounds. For the most part, they actually ate pretty good throughout the month, but on the 26^th, 27^th, and 28^th they went up to a cabin where the stake presidency had a retreat. Each couple provided one meal and each meal was lavish! Ironically, Bill and Rhonda provided the most fat-laden and refined carbohydrate-rich meal of the weekend – made-to-order omelettes and huge sweet rolls from the Joseph Smith Memorial Building Bakery. And there were a lot of left-overs, and of course they had to eat those!

Now the good news! Rhonda and Bill went to the gym for an hour every day, five times a week, for each week in August, except the week they were “trapped” in that cabin in the mountains at 10,000 feet! They only went four times that week.

Bill is just within five pounds of his goal (set last April) for where he should be at this point. Actually, Bill and Rhonda's weekend binge at the cabin is really a success for set point weight loss. For all practical purposes, they should have gained a lot of weight this past week. But they didn't. That's because the body's weight regulating mechanizm in the brain kept their body weight the same, despite what they ate. Now that wouldn't happen every week if they indulged like they did this past week, but because they have been exercising and eating right all the other days, it saved them this time.

They lost on those all important body measurements, too, which is a double indicator of success. So all in all, they did okay, but keep those encouraging words coming!

Here are their set point scores for the first four days of August:

Rhonda: (T) 95 (W) 95 (T) 95 (F) 93

Bill: (T) 100 (W) 100 (T) 100 (F) 100