My parents have a curious, but arguably pretty genius tradition. Every year, they weigh each other in, and have to hit a point on the scale that they agreed to, 35 years ago. My dad is a doctor, and my mom is a nurse, and when they got married they made the determination that the slow creep of weight—a pound or two a year until suddenly it’s an extra 30, or 40—was at the root of many of the illnesses that darkened the door of my dad’s practice. At first, there was a financial reward—a yearly allowance to spend with impunity, which helped them figure out how to handle their finances when they were newlyweds—but these days, they just do it for their health. Their weight might vacillate by a few pounds over the course of the year, but they always pull it together before it’s time to weigh in, which means that they’re still the same size as they were when they got married.

Rob and I drove to Monterey this weekend to see our friends Nick and Olga (buy her awesome album!) and to go see the rad jellyfish at the aquarium (and the Hearst Zebras in San Simeon, and the colonies of Elephant Seals along the coast in Cambria, and all the delicious cookies at the Big Sur Bakery). Nick is a fanatical tracker of the minutiae of life and inarguably one of the the most famous infographic designers out there: After all, his Feltron Annual Reports—a year of his life in stats and graphs and maps and charts—were just in MoMA, and somehow Facebook enticed him to move to Palo Alto and design Timeline. ANYWAY, when it comes to organizing data, nobody does it quite like Nick: He’s the one who turned me onto the Fitbit years ago (and took me to a park in NYC to precisely measure my tread), and got me to track my embroidery and shoe cost-per-wear on the site he put together with Ryan Case, Daytum. (I’ve been really bad about updating it lately.) Anyway, the latest tool in his repertoire is the Withings Scale, a digital extravaganza that tracks weight, BMI, and lean body mass—and then uploads it to a pretty, Feltron-worthy site. Rob and I ordered it on the spot, at the hotel bar (maybe not the most appropriate place to start New Year’s Resolution diet plans).

It can be hard to find that line between being obsessive and in-touch with your body. My mom weighs herself erratically, while my dad gets on the scale every morning so he can check himself before the pounds really mount (he may be small, but the guy really likes to eat). I think the Withings—as crazy intense as it might look—could actually be the right solution for me and Rob, since you can see your standing graphed out, over weeks and months. It puts those subtle shifts all in a bit more perspective (and highlights if you’re heading in a skinny fat direction, which is pretty much what I was all about until SoulCycle got me back on a spin bike). I’m pretty curious to get to know my lean body mass numbers. Do you guys have any solutions that work for you?

clockwise, l-r: THE 2010 FELTRON ANNUAL REPORT; OLGA BELL DIAMONITE, $8.00, Bellinspace; WITHINGS WI-FI DIGITAL BODY SCALE, $159.99, Best Buy.