160 Chapter 14 – Sabotage-proofing through setbacks You don ' t drown by falling in the water. You drown by staying there. Unknown How do we work out if there is a part of our mind that does not want us to succeed? How do we understand its modus operandi – the strategies it uses to sabotage our plans? Setbacks. Whenever we eat more than we intended to, or start gaining weight, we are presented with valuable information. While over-eating is usually obvious and a binge is crystal clear, gentle weight gain can sneak up on us. For this reason we need to weigh ourselves reasonably frequently – every few days.( Women have to allow for the fact that fluid retention around their menstrual cycle can cause weight variations.) The goal is to become really clear on how your body manages its energy balance and exactly what is causing you to gain weight. For this reason, too long between weigh-ins can confuse the issue as your awareness of your recent eating fades. Once you feel you have an understanding of what you do to gain weight and your weight is reasonably stable, weigh-ins can become much less frequent. If you don’ t have a clear understanding, you need to you keep an eating awareness diary along with daily pedometer counts until you understand the relationships between your intake, output and weight. The same amount of food can cause different amounts of weight gain for different people depending on individual metabolism. But when we are getting to know ourselves this does not matter. You just need to become an expert on you and what situations cause you to lose weight. Are there particular foods that put more weight on you than others? Is alcohol a