Payoff

My body sends me the weirdest messages.  The last two weeks, I stayed on plan, didn't splurge a ton, and exercised as I have been since I started Challenge #2.  I managed to lose 1.4 pounds over those two weeks combined.  This past week, I went to ColdStone twice, tried to eat more so that my calories burned through exercise didn't erase my calories in through food, and I even ate a calorie-laden (delicious!) burger from Red Robin.  I weighed in at 147.2 pounds this week, which is a loss of 2.8 pounds--double what I lost the previous two weeks combined!  What gives??  Back in Week 5 of the Challenge, I joked that my body wanted me to eat more Cheesecake Factory, because I lost a large amount of weight after way overeating there.  It's definitely a pattern--the weeks when I indulge some of my not-so-healthy cravings, I lose more weight.  I have no idea why that is, but I like it.  :)  I hate depriving myself, and I definitely didn't feel deprived this past week--and my efforts still paid off!  I've lost 15.8 pounds since I started the Challenge 9 weeks ago--that's an average of 1.75 pounds per week.

it IS perfection!

So I'm feeling a lot better than I was last week and the week before--I feel like I'm back on track again, although I guess that will remain to be seen in the coming weeks.  I do finally feel like my clothes are fitting me a bit differently--not a remarkable difference, but I have noticed that my jeans aren't as tight.  Still a little tight, but not skin-tight!  My upper body hasn't changed much, in that my shirts still fit the same--I wish I could lose some of the roundness in my arms and in my back.  My stomach also definitely still looks like I've had three kids--I'm not sure how to fix that problem.  A friend of mine (who has gotten crazy healthy and lost an insane amount of weight the last year, and totally inspires me every day!) said she also has the extra skin hanging off her stomach from her babies--and she doesn't know what else to do since she has some rockin' abs under that extra pouch.  I don't know how the contestants on The Biggest Loser can lose hundreds of pounds and not have all that excess stuff around their mid-section...it makes me wonder if they all have a skin removal surgery or something before the finale?  They've never said anything about a surgery on the show, though, so I think if they do that behind the scenes, their results are a bit disingenuous.  I'm not at the point where I only have excess skin--there is definitely a lot of fat still hiding in my stomach folds.  I don't know where I've lost those 15.8 pounds, but I sure hope it starts coming off my stomach one of these days!

I still need a shirt like this!

The next big milestone for me on this adventure is 17.5 pounds lost (weighing 145.5 pounds)...that will be halfway to my goal weight.  I might be able to hit that next week, but I know better than to count my chickens before they've hatched...especially after the last few weeks!  Dan told me that we should celebrate when I hit 20 pounds down--and I said, "What--with cake?"  Ha ha.  He suggested cake, pie, and ice cream.  I told my mom that idea, and she came up with a brilliant plan--I could have my big gluttonous celebration when I hit 20 pounds, and then gain 2 pounds at the next weigh in from all the goodies, and then celebrate 20 pounds lost again the following week!  Brilliant plan.  I think I'm mostly looking forward to when I hit 141 pounds--an odd number, perhaps, but it'll be when I hit the "normal" range on the BMI chart for my gender and height.  I don't know when I was last in the "normal" range, so I think that will be pretty exciting.  I'm glad I have some of these smaller goals to look forward to, because the fact that I'm not even halfway to my overall goal weight makes this whole process seem a bit daunting--it feels like it's been a really long time since I started all of this, and that means I still have a really long way to go.  It's a lot easier to stick with it when I'm feeling encouraged and finally noticing some payoff.

So, just to prove that I am listening to my body and really trying to comply with the message I'm hearing, we went to Cheesecake Factory last night.  I actually got the Skinnylicious Chicken Salad Sandwich that I ordered, and I shared a piece of cheesecake with the kids--and I didn't feel like I was skimping on my life at all, which is essential for my sanity and my ability to keep this up.  Bring on the weight loss!  ;)