If you haven't heard, StickK is now live and accepting contracts. StickK founder and Yale economist Dean Karlan suggested that I try a "maintenance contract" to consolidate the progress I have made in losing weight, but I still have at least 30 pounds to go. And I am not feeling the need to take a contract out on myself just yet.

Just this morning, I had one of those experiences that every successful loser cherishes: I broke through a plateau. Weight loss plateaus are a well-known phenomenon -- you change your diet or increase your exercise, lose a few pounds, and then get stuck. If you have been doing things the right way -- i.e., making incremental advances -- chances are that your plateau is simply a new equilibrium. Moving off the plateau is a simple matter of adjusting the critical variables (diet and exercise).

Over the past six months, as I have shed almost 35 pounds, I have hit four or five plateaus. They usually last a couple of weeks, though this last one has kept me in the same place for three weeks. In each instance, it takes me awhile to realize that I am not making progress and awhile longer to calibrate my diet -- less sugar and fat, more fresh veggies -- and expand/intensify my exercise. Eventually, however, I break through.

There is a life lesson in that, I think.

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