Completion of Week 10!

The end of 10 weeks....I tried to find some witty way to start this post. I googled 10 weeks to see what you could "do" in 10 weeks. Well, that was a disaster! The first 11 things that come up are all pregnancy related. Since we're not going anywhere near there, we'll just skip the "witty" part, and let you all know how this past week has been.

The past couple of weeks have been a little crazy. Between birthday celebrations, and there's been several, out of town guests and family visits there's been non-stop opportunity to not follow the program. I'm happy to say that through birthday dinners, out of town guests and family time, I've managed to stay on program and realize just how special my friends and family are to me. I love you all, so much! You've made turning 40 a joy!

Yesterday's weigh in was pretty good, with a 2.6 pound loss for a total of 41.8 pounds in 10 weeks. I have 20.3 pounds to go, but am seriously considering continuing on for another 10-15 pounds past my original goal. I'll give it some serious thought once I'm a little closer to the end, but at this point, I'm thinking I'd like to do another 15 pounds.

This past weekend my friend Jen, who lives in Connecticut was here. She came down for us to have a great girls weekend together. We have shopped, until we've almost literally dropped. She met a few of my friends, went to a baseball game, we had some great dinners and just did a lot of catching up. On Saturday, we headed over to the other coast to visit my parents and celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday. We celebrated with all of her children, five of the six grandchildren (we missed you, Becca) and so many friends from the area. At one point we counted over 50 people at her party. I've never seen her so happy! We headed back to Tampa on Sunday for Jen to fly home on Sunday night, only for her flight to have been cancelled at the last minute due to the snow storm. After a long hold-time with the airline, she was finally rebooked, but the soonest flight out was Wednesday morning. Her weekend trip has now turned in to almost a week long. It's been fun, but unexpected travel issues are never convenient. In October, it will be my turn to go to Connecticut, as Jen's getting married. Hoping there's no travel issues then, since I'll be heading home soon after and she'll be leaving for Europe!!

I'm struggling a little bit with water consumption this last week. I'm not sure there's been a day that I've actually finished the whole gallon of water. I'm guessing that's why this week's loss was "only" 2.6 pounds. Gosh, I hate to say "only" and 2.6 pounds in the same sentence, but when you compare it to the typical loss, it's "only".

As well, I'm still struggling, at times, with the acceptance issue of being happy and proud of what I'm doing. I know that I'm doing the right thing for me, and that I've made the decisions I need to make for it to be a lifestyle change and not just a "diet" but sometimes I still struggle with what other people think about it.

It dawned on me the other day, as I shared a story with a friend, that the last time I was this "stringent" on a diet was back in 2004/2005. I had a surgical procedure scheduled for December of 2004 and when I went for the pre-op physical, the surgeon told me that I couldn't have the procedure done, because my BMI was too high. I needed to lose 12 pounds. I was devastated about having to put off the surgery. I had it scheduled (it was out of town), had flights booked, hotels reserved, the works. I had to change it all, and was unable to reschedule until the 12 pounds was gone. I remember at that point making the decision to lose the 12 pounds as quickly as I could, no matter what. That's exactly what I did. Then I didn't care. I lost the 12, had the surgery and went right back to the old habits a soon as I was home.

I feel this time that it's completely different. I don't feel deprived of anything, I enjoy the food I eat (it's really good stuff!) and I've finally learned that it doesn't matter what I'm eating, or for that matter, it doesn't matter what anyone else is eating. I'm doing what I want to do, for me. There's part of me that can't wait for the final results, but I guess I need to decide what the stopping point is before I can have that!

Well, I've rambled on enough tonight, so in closing, I'll leave you with this quote and a couple of photos:

“Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.”


My grandmother, mother and I


Jen & I