So, umm…I REACHED GOAL! YAHOOO!! YEEHAW! WOO HOO!!
I actually reached it a couple days ago, but it was the weekend and therefore family time so I wasn’t online much at all. The good news is…I managed the weekend well and I’m still at 134.8! The plan now is to maintain through this week and then resume losing next week. My new goal is reduced body fat (I’m thinking 20-22% range) and/or a maintenance range of 124-129. Obviously it’s all dependant on what my body decides to do and how I feel about it. I’m 100% content here, but I think I could stand to lose a little body fat. There’s still plenty of jiggling going on during workouts, ya know? I really just want to firm up, but I suspect that’ll come with fewer pounds and continued exercise. I love being a size 8 and feeling good about how I look in my clothes. I can’t complain at all. I dreamed about being this weight for 10 years without having the drive to do enough about it. Now, I’m already thinking about how my workouts will adjust in maintenance. As much as I love being fit and active, I prefer to do it by being active outside…walking/running, gardening, sports, etc. The weight lifting is something I plan to cut back on or at least change once I reach maintenance. I still plan to run and get back to triathlon training this spring. I guess I’ll have to find a weight program that’s pretty minimal and use that during my less-strenous training times. We’ll see soon enough.
On the house front, I took brseay’s advise and decided against planting bulbs. My mom and I are going to start seeds and hope to have some healthy flowering plants ready to plant by spring. We are going to have A LOT of landscaping to do. Good thing there’s no major rush. It will be time consuming and should function as an incredible exercise regimen! :) Now that the exterior walls and roof are up and they cleaned the inside up from the scrap boards and all, it’s nice to be able to begin planning and picturing how I want to arrange the rooms. We’ve already been able to eliminate some ideas due to layout. It’s just so stinkin’ EXCITING!! Thank you, Jesus!
Yesterday was a busy, but exciting day! I got up to our building site about 8:30 a.m. to watch them putting the exterior walls up on our house!! At noon, the builder walked us through the house for the first time and we got to walk into the “rooms” and it was AMAZING!!! By 5 p.m. they had the roof trusses all on. Today the boards and paper for the roof are going on and getting shingled. I was so giddy yesterday, I felt like a kid getting their dream gift on Christmas. Just imagine when I actually get to move into the house! LOL
Unfortunately, I am still hanging on to a fraction of a pound keeping me from 135 even. It’s amazing how much more patient I am about getting there since I’m finally really realizing this is for life. The next month plus will be a matter of the ups and downs of maintenance which is excellent practice for the rest of my life! It’s not an excuse to eat badly, but I also don’t want to spend every holiday avoiding my grandma’s home-cooked favorites…isn’t gonna happen! I’d much rather enjoy the day in moderation and eat ”clean” the rest of the month. Makes a lot more sense to me! Did I mention my DD’s birthday is on Thanksgiving this year? Yeah, I’m not gonna go through the day on 1200 calories. But I will choose not to gorge myself. I will have a reasonable portion of the foods I want and I will keep my exercise routine up so I don’t have additional calorie overload from not expending any cals. My DS’s birthday is 10 days later, so it’s a loaded month from November 26-December 26, but I can maintain. I WILL MAINTAIN and come out of this holiday season at or below 135!
I’m SO close to the 135 goal. In fact, I was inching up on it all last week….losing in .2 increments. Then came Sunday. My family ate out for lunch. Now, I’ve gotten a pretty good hold of how to eat out well and all, so I wasn’t too concerned. In fact, I had planned what I’d eat at 3 different places, just to be prepared. Well, DH chose a place not on my mental list. I thought maybe I’d be okay, but NOPE! We got there, I got the breakfast buffet and ate until I was stuffed! Granted that’s not nearly the quantity it used to be, but still…NOT GOOD! I realized right away what a bonehead I was, so I started drinking mass quantitites of water the moment we got home and then ate a healthy supper, so the scale showed me up 1 pound. Now if I was in maintenance range, I’d realize what a dumb mistake I’d made and learn from it, but still be fine since I have a small cushion. I am NOT hwever there yet, so it’s like I have to undo the damage and get back to losing so I can reach that magical maintenance range. I do realize maitenance will look a lot like losing. I’ve been lurking on the maintainer’s forum for a few days. I want to know what I’m in for..LOL I’m cool with still counting calories, exercising and realizing food and I are not ever going to have a “normal” relationship. In fact, my mentality is partially there. My parents think I’ve lost enough and should be done losing and so I just tell them I basically am, but I want to stay there, so I have to keep making healthy choices. Yes, I CAN eat grandma’s delicious Christmas candy, but not in bulk. I CAN eat my children’s birthday cake, but just one serving. This is my LIFE. I CAN enjoy it without going crazy with food! Yeah, I’m still figuring it out and maybe I always will be, but thank God for bringing me this far and I intend to STAY healthy. That doesn’t mean perfection, but it does mean realizing unhealthy behaviors and correcting them ASAP. I hope to soon be posting that I’ve surpassed 135 and I’m headed toward my maintenance range!
Alright, welcome to November in my life!
The builders have gotten the basement walls up and this week they’re waterproofing them and then backfilling around them, so we’ll have such exciting progress! Yay! I know it doesn’t sound like anything huge, but it’s been so amazing to watch it all happen. We’ve got the papers in to get electric hooked up next week, too! I mean it makes my heart soar to see the progress and know that we’ll be back in our own house in a couple months. I’m debating planting some bulbs so we have flowers come up next spring, but I’m not sure how disturbed some of the ground will get right around the house. I may put them out by them end of the driveway or something. I enjoy gardening and I know it will feel more like home to me once flowers are growing there in the spring.
On the plan part of my life, all is going…well, according to plan! LOL I am looking forward to reaching my weight goal of 135 this month and see what happens after that. I have decided on my goal maintenance weight range, based in large part on having a good body fat percentage. I’ve exceeded all the goals I made for myself at the very outset of this journey. At first, I had a goal weight of 150, a goal size of 12, and to reduce body fat. All goals met!! I revised the weight goal many months ago, but had no idea what to reset the goal size to, since I wasn’t sure how my body would change with the continued loss, ya know? Well, I’m pretty much in 8’s in misses and 9’s in juniors now, which is beyond my dreams. I’m thinking if I can get more of this tummy fat gone, I could possibly get into 6’s by the end of it all. I KNOW I’ve never worn that size as an adult and I’m pretty sure I never wore it as a teen either (at least not mid-late teens). I have absolutely no desire to go any lower that that. In fact, if I stay in 8’s I’ll still be completely fine and content. I am still so shocked they fit! It’s what size my skinny, eats-like-a-bird MIL wears.
Anyway, once again I was recently able to gain some perspective and really prayed that God would allow me to enjoy where I’m at. He has so graciously granted me that and it has made a tremendous difference in my mood toward finishing this weight loss, and everything else, for that matter. I am looking forward to posting being at goal soon, so I can share the joy with you all. Here’s to November being a fantastic month for us all!
