Success at Losing

You may or may not know that I've been in a weight-loss competition for the last 10 weeks. The goal was to lose 10% of your body weight (what many doctors and health organizations recommend for improved overall health), and the winners (anyone who reaches that goal) receive a nice cash prize collected from all of the participants' initial buy-in. There are 11 competitors and $600 dollars on the line. I hope that I will be one of the few that take part in that cash prize tomorrow. (I'm only about 1/2 pound away as of this morning.)

Regardless of financial windfall, I'm really pleased with my overall progress. And especially the changes that I have made in my diet and exercise. I've been eating far less than normal and am surprised that I really don't NEED as much food as I was consuming. I've been skipping out on desserts and really thinking before I put things into my mouth. In the past 8 days, I have worked out 8 times. Of course this was easy since I was on trimester break. But, before that, I was getting in 4-5 workouts a week. Kickboxing classes, cardio, weights ... I've been doing it. And, while I HATE exercise, it hasn't been too terrible. I certainly don't love going to the gym and working out (with the exception of kickboxing because that is just awesome!), but it's something that I'm doing to improve my overall health and decrease my overall waistline so I stick with it.

Not sure why I have my big toe here? Hmmm ....

And decrease it has! I'm wearing clothes that were skin tight on me a few months ago. In fact, those clothes are a bit roomy on me now. While I don't love the vision of my nude self (and I'm not sure I ever will), I'm getting more and more happy with it. I've even bought some clothes in mediums instead of larges! I'm currently the thinnest I have been in about 10 years, and that makes me happy. My goal is to get to my Senior Prom size. Since I'm not sure what my weight was then, my goal is actually to get into my prom dress. Yes, I still have it. Or, rather, my parents do and they are shipping it to me as we speak. It's a pretty hot little number (not the big poofy satin things that we all know and dread as prom dresses), and I hope that I can someday fit into it again. I do worry that my 30-year-old hips may be too large for it now, but we'll see. If I could lose the last 10 pounds or so to get there before The Boy's graduation in May, I'll be ecstatic.

Of course, once the competition is over, things will change a bit. I won't be all-consumed with reaching a specific goal by a specific deadline, so my eating be a little more relaxed. But I think I have overcome my "comfort eating" issue and my "boredom eating" issue which both constitute for a large number of calories consumed unnecessarily.

We'll see how that goes, But, for now, I'm pretty happy with where I am.