A good teacher shows her students where to look, but not what to see. Watching is essential to learning but it does not work in a silo it needs to be coupled with three other attributes for learning: intention, engagement, and reflection. I know about this because I’ve written (with my co-author and friend Jill DeRosa) a book for teachers, WIRE for Agency, WIRE is a metacognitive framework (Watch, Intention, Reflect, Engage) to use with students so they may know themselves as learners. If you identify how learning happens, you can have a greater sense of agency in your life. Which brings me to this post. My weight loss journey has been a great lesson in personal agency because it’s something difficult that I am making happen. I am making it happen because I know myself as a learner, and today I want to reflect on what is going well.

Reflecting on Gratitude

I don’t think anyone has ever done anything important all on their own. When doing hard things, I have skill sets I employ like developing habits, strategizing, and perseverance. But that’s not allthinking about my weight loss journey (because this is very important to me) I know that it is my community of family and friends who are making a profound impact on my success. This is not a new discovery, but I think it’s important to take a beat for gratitude.

Reflecting on a New Habit

Daily weigh-ins are a relatively new habit for me that has made a very positive impact on my well-being. The data that this practice garners is helping me stay rational about the process. Today, was a little victory – the scale moved downward into a new… let’s call it a territory, and I know progress happening. Numbers don’t lie, they are concrete but it’s more than what the number is, it is understanding the context of their patterns. The scale is teaching me about myself. I am learning how my body responds to weight loss. I can see fairly predictable patterns and I know that if I stay the course, I will reach my goal. This has alleviated the emotional trigger that the scale used to provoke. Amazing.