Finally!  It’s been a long time coming and I lost some ground with our move, so I’m VERY happy to announce that I’ve met my weight goal and am more than ready to be finished “losing” weight.  I have to admit, it was a little anti-climactic this morning; the truth is I’ve been at the 135-mark for about a week now and have been literally ounces away each morning.  Because of some travel plans we have coming up, I NEEDED to hit it by Thursday (or I would have felt like a complete failure) and I was already stressing, so I weighed after, ahem, using the restroom, and voila!  135.6 to be exact!

I told Andrew a long time ago that my “reward” on the day I hit the magic 1-3-5 would be a guilt-free sundae at Antionette’s. I’ll bring the camera to document that tonight.  He said he’s going to get me a present, too!  (It’s my love language–gifts–and Andrew is a phenomenal gift-giver.  I married the right guy!)  This is potentially the BIGGEST accomplishment of my life (so far) and I’ll be milking it for all it’s worth 🙂

Anyway…

I am so incredibly proud of myself (can’t you tell?) and surprised at the same time.  I don’t even remember when I was 1-3-ANYTHING, middle school, maybe??  My dad always used to say, “You can do anything you put your mind to.”  Apparently, despite all my body-whining for the last ten or so years, I never really “put my mind” to doing anything about it.

If you’ve been following the blog, you know I started my weight-loss journey (this one, at least) back in March.  Since then, using Livestrong’s MyPlate calorie counter, I’ve lost a whopping TWENTY pounds.  Where did it come from, you ask?  A little here and a little there–trust me, it was there!  Those “pesky ten pounds” on my 5’7″ frame I knew I was carrying all over turned into a personal challenge to look and feel better than I’d ever before.

Here are some photos Andrew-the-photographer took this morning before he rushed off to work:

I am so ready to be DONE!  Hitting the ‘maintain’ button on Livestrong has been a long-awaited moment.  The most important thing to me is that I actually (and finally) accomplished something I’ve always wanted to, but never really tried hard enough.  I don’t ever remember a time in my life, to include being relatively young, that I didn’t want to be thinner.  Sometimes I needed to, other times I didn’t.  More recently, I didn’t really think I could.  I’ve been more active in the past five years than ever, yet I never lost any weight.  I may have toned up a bit, and I had excellent endurance, so I just figured I was stuck with a ‘slightly soft’ physique.

Until I tried.  Just like running a marathon, you never know until you try.  It’s food, people.  It isn’t exercise, although that’s a big part of it, and it’s not even WHAT you eat.  It’s HOW MUCH.

And it’s more than just ‘trying to eat well’ or ‘watching what I’m eating.’  That may work for some people, but not for me.  I have to physically write down everything I eat, or put it in a computer to tally it all up.  When the calories are gone for the day, they’re gone.  It’s about discipline and accountability.

I didn’t give anything up, I just had to make choices.  If I wanted to splurge on dinner that night, I had to get a good workout in and go easy throughout the day.  I can’t tell you how many days I “failed” and went over on my calories because of a spontaneous dinner out or a lack of self-control.  It was devastating, but only momentarily.  The most important thing to remember:  Tomorrow is a new day.

Weight-loss, for me, is going to be a life-long process.  Not that I’ll be counting every calorie for the rest of my life, but rather that I’ll always need to be aware of what and how much I’m eating.  I’m a foodie with a history of being obsessed with my body size–not a good combination.  What I strive for is a healthy, balanced diet and lifestyle that I can maintain year after year.  Will my weight fluctuate from day to day?  Certainly.  The goal is to keep it in the ballpark by making good choices.

There are things I’m still working on.  The biggest of which is simply STOPPING when I’m getting full.  It’s a foreign concept to me, and a new feeling, leaving the table without feeling full.  This alone is probably the biggest challenge for me, yet by mastering it I will reap the most reward.  I so envy those, like Andrew, who don’t eat when they aren’t hungry, no matter what yummy temptation lies before them.  Me?  I see a brownie and all of a sudden it’s all I can think about.

My goals from here on out will be to maintain my current weight through diet and exercise, and to go from weighing myself every day to once a week.  Right now I have been stepping on the scale each morning, mostly because I have been constantly waiting for that next lower number to appear.  Now, I need to make sure I’m not creeping back up over the course of a week.  Will the number go up and down?  Yes, but when it goes up, that’s when I need to make good food choices for a couple days to get it back in check.

Here’s to meeting goals, healthy living and my ice cream sundae tonight!