How to know when 'most of the time' is good enough

I love comparing stats and numbers and backing up my personal opinions with cold, hard data. Weird, I'm aware.

I follow several weight loss bloggers. Some, who I envy because it seems every week they lose, lose, lose - and never, ever have a gain! I'm jealous of those that "seem" like they have no problem taking the weight off (I know this is only my perception). I also run into several posts during a week of bloggers posting a gain - big gains - week after week. Lose and gain, over and over, the same 5 pounds. I am not judging anyone, just observing and using this observation as a catalyst to reflect on my own behaviors here.

Over the last 6 months I haven't felt like I had many weeks with significant gains (+1 or more), so I went to the data to investigate what my behavior when it came to the scale.

The Breakdown

1. I had 6 weigh ins out of 26 weeks with a gain (1 week was less than a pound gain, and 1 week was 0.8 pound, but I rounded up)
2. That is 23% of the time where I gained
3. Which means, I lost weight 77% of the time!
4. I missed 2 consecutive weigh ins due to being out-of-town for vacation (the only 2 I've missed)
5. I lost 33.4 pounds in 26 weeks (June 6 - Nov 21)
6. That is 10.14% of my starting body weight
7. My BMI went from 44.6 to 40.1
8. That is 4.5 points
9. If I lose at least 2.8 pounds from my weigh in on Sunday, I will be OUT of the morbid obesity category (BMI of over 40) and move into the severe obesity category (BMI of 35-40)
10. I have dropped 2 dress sizes and I already feel like I am working on crossing over into the next one.

So, my point is, that I gained 23% of the time, however, I lost weight 77% of the time which goes to show you to be successful you do not have to be perfect, but you have to be great MOST of the time to see results.

I am often hard on myself. I am my own food police, I am the food police to others (I am working on this). I feel guilty if I miss a work out, I push others to not cut out on theirs. I want to do everything perfectly, because if it's not perfect then I think what is the point? However, I think my biggest positive behavior has been when I do gain, or do go out and eat some french fries, I don't get down on myself BUT I do make a conscience choice to TRY BETTER NEXT TIME. There is a fine line between beating yourself up about a bad decision and being apathetic about your bad decision and not taking the chance to learn from your mistakes to make better choices the next time because in the end, if you aren't learning through out this journey then what is the point?