Sleeping Off Those Extra Pounds

I've recently become concerned about my weight.  Not so much that I'm getting fat -- just the expected middle-age "thickening".   My pants size hasn't changed in thirty years, but it's trying to and I refuse to budge.  "Never give a inch" [sic] was the Hank Stamper family motto in Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion.  I'm going to hang that in my bathroom.   But, more of a concern to me than my actual weight is the wildly fluctuating readings on our bathroom scale.  It's a pretty good one and has always agreed with the big butcher's scale at the doc's office.   So why then does my weight vary up to five pounds in a single day?   A couple pounds here and there would account for meals and water, but five?  I've set a goal for myself of ten pounds, so having a margin of error of 50% is taking the fun right out of not eating ice cream and every other damn thing I want.

I wake up three to five pounds lighter than I was when I laid down.  I can lose half the weight I want by sleeping for seven hours.  Now there's a diet program you could sell!    I then gain it back by working like a dog for eight hours.  Shop work.  Woods work.  Office work.  No matter.  Here's those five pounds back.   Theoretically I could meet my goal by skipping work and sleeping for two days.   I'm not sure I could sell that plan around the house, but it's worth a try.