10 Weeks and 10%

Sometimes the scale totally shocks me.  I stepped on yesterday morning hoping to be around 145, and I weighed in at 143.6.  I just stood there and stared--for a moment, I thought because I wasn't wearing my glasses, I wasn't seeing the numbers properly.  Nope, it really was 143.6.  I came downstairs and entered that number into my WebMD tracker, and immediately, the message above appeared in my email--congratulating me on losing 10% of my body weight since I started this Challenge!  10%?!?  I hadn't even thought to include that mini-goal on my list that I wrote out last week of small milestones that are keeping me motivated, and yet, here it is.  Not only did I lose 10%, but I way surpassed 10% with this week's 3.6 pound loss--I've lost 19.4 pounds in the last 10 weeks.  (For those of you keeping score at home, 10% was 16.3 pounds lost.)  19.4 pounds means that I've lost 1.94 pounds per week--amazing!  I never thought I would be this close to my 2-pound-per-week goal, and even with those weeks when I felt like the weight wasn't coming off, the average is still so close to 2 pounds!  Crazy.  In addition to the 10% lost, I'm also past the halfway mark of this Challenge!  I've lost 19.4 pounds, and I have 15.6 more pounds to lose to hit my goal weight.  The next milestone is getting to 141--the tip-top of the healthy BMI range for my height and gender.

I thought this past week was going to be a tricky one for weight loss, for a few reasons.  Abby's school had their pizza fundraiser for the month this week, so we ordered enough pizza to last us a few dinners (for the record, I love pizza fundraiser night--because I love pizza, and because I love nights when I don't have to worry about dinner and no one fights about what we are eating!!).  I thought for sure that eating pizza three nights this week would not be helpful at all on the weight-loss front...  Also, I didn't get my Zumba workout again on Friday evening--my neighbor and I showed up for class only to discover the dreaded substitute was there again...for the second time last week!  Ugh.  We opted to go walk around the track again--so instead of a step class and two Zumba classes helping me toward my weight-loss goals, I had a step class and two evenings of walking around the track.  We walked 2 miles both nights, but still--walking is not burning nearly as many calories as a good Zumba class!  And I had my girls' day out with Brynne on Saturday, when I figured I would overload on calories.  Sadly, she and I didn't get to spend as much time together as we had hoped, so we didn't have time to eat too much!  Ha ha.  I would gladly have eaten more to have gotten more time with my friend, though, so we're going to reschedule.  :)  It was still a wonderful lunch with one of my dearest friends!

um, where's the sun these days??

This week is going to be full of its own challenges--it's Spring Break!  So Abby will be home with the boys and me, and our usual schedule of activities is cancelled for the week.  It feels a little like freedom to me (no morning bus rush--woohoo!!!), even though I know Abby and Jake will both miss their gymnastics classes this week (and Alex, too, since he loves playing in the waiting area at the gym!).  Dan took a few days off at the end of the week as well, so hopefully we'll get some good family fun time in together.  I still have my exercise classes this week--crossing my fingers for no subs, and a good week of working out for me!  It's the last week of the 10-week aerobic session here, so I'm going to sign up for the next 10 weeks that begins on April 1st--without these fitness classes, I totally wouldn't be anywhere near where I am in my weight-loss Challenge, so I definitely still need them.  And considering that it is snowing here right now, I'm not going to be getting outside for walks anytime soon!

Oh, as a final note--I wore a shirt this weekend that I haven't worn since 2005, before I had Abby.  It felt a little triumphant.  :)  It was one of my favorite shirts back in the day, and it's still pretty cute--I felt a little self-conscious in it because it's still meant for a lighter version of me, but I wore it anyway...and it made me feed good!