It's been a couple of weeks since my last post. Last weekend, we ran a lot of errands, including a trip to Lancaster to buy an aquarium. We went to several stores in York without finding what we wanted. Finally, someone suggested a place in Lancaster. This place has every shape and size aquarium you can imagine (they even sell a 1,000 gallon acrylic aquarium) along with a massive room filled with fresh fish, saltwater fish and aquatic plants. I kid you not when I say this place was the size of a Wal-mart.

Anyhow, today's topic is individual events. I went for weigh-in today and, after being down .8 last week, was up 1 this week. I couldn't figure it out. I knew I didn't track like I should have, but I didn't think I did too badly. I had a treat or two, and then I remembered.

It's an amazing thing, really. Individual events in the course of a week can be rationalized without realizing its effect on the big picture. They can also be selectively remembered. A family dinner out where you splurge a little is conveniently forgotten when you are rushing to get something for lunch for the drive between meetings. This is forgotten when you take the family out to a favorite restaurant (even though you pick the healthiest items on the menu). You also forget about the desert that you had one night instead of the light potato chips.

Each event, taken individually is not destructive. One would argue that a successful eating plan should include these treats. The problem, of course, is that each event cannot be taken individually. Each event should be considered as part of the whole. Going out to dinner one night should be tracked and remembered when you go to the drive-through for lunch. If that can't be helped, and sometimes it can't be, you need to adjust the rest of the week. This is where effective tracking comes in.

No one likes paperwork, and tracking is paperwork. I know, though, that when I do track, I lose. I have options with Weight Watchers. I can track online, on paper or on my iPhone. I have to maintain the discipline to take a few minutes to track every day so that my eyes can stay on the big picture and so individual events don't break away from the chain.