I am officially at a "normal" BMI! Now that's something I have never, ever been at!

wow! i am planning on following you real soon!

I made it from Very high risk BMI to just High risk. As long as it comes down slowly i'll be happy.

I did 25 pushups! In the initial test (100 pushups program) I could only do 8 or so. Those were only knee pushups though.

I started trying to at least do one real pushup every day and I've almost done it. Before I'd just get into position and not be able to move, but I'm getting there!

Awesome... I can't wait to be just over-weight!! You will see me jumping like a wild woman when I reach normal!!

I had someone I didn't know at school tell me I look good and that she noticed I have been losing weight. Sometimes you need that little boost!

I put on a top today that was skin-tight when I bought it and it's now too baggy. Dang, missed its wearability window!

Lately my coworkers have been accusing me of being 'disciplined' (they mean it in a good way, I think!) I don't think of myself as disciplined at ALL -- I struggle constantly, even three years in, to stick to my plan. But knowing that other people see me that way makes me think that maybe I haven't been giving myself enough credit.

Today I exercised 5 miles. I jogged 1.5 miles and did the bike at a medium resistance for 3.5 miles.... that's the most I've EVER exercised in one sitting and I was so incredibly proud of myself.

I have a pair of size 16 (not 16W) slacks that have been hanging in my closet since last time I lost weight. I tried them on a couple weeks ago and they were still too tight to wear comfortably. Today after facing the very real fear that my size 18W pants could fall off if I wasn't careful, I tried on the 16's again.

Guess what I wore to work!??

I'm SO jealous (in a good way)! Congrats!!!

Thanks for the congrats and the carrot! I've been at this since January and it's going slow for me, so it was nice to finally be in a smaller size. I tried on size 16 jeans last weekend and it wasn't pretty, so I have a ways to go before I can buy new jeans. And now the dilemna is...I only have one pair of work pants!

Oooh, I know exactly what you mean!! Last night I was joking with a friend about whether or not I should go out and party, or go home and go to bed so I wouldn't be feeling yucky when I try to write a paper today... I was saying something like, "Hmmm, do I want to make a bad decision or not?" He responded with (something like), "Well, you know I'm always in favor of bad decisions, but you seem to have gotten SO good at avoiding them... I think that's called 'growing up'..." I was so (pleasantly) shocked! It doesn't really occur to me that people would look at me and think, Now *there's* a person who's in control of herself!, or think of me as someone with good willpower or anything like that, because like you, I guess I tend to focus more on all the struggles and the times that I haven't made wise choices, etc. But you're so right--I think we do need to give ourselves more credit! I mean, clearly we didn't come this far without having at least a little discipline, right? Hehe. It must have been so cool to see yourself through the eyes of someone else.

I've been absolutely amazed by some of the trigger foods I've resisted lately, but I already blabbed all about that on the CIC forum, so one of my other cool NSVs is that I got a compliment from my boss yesterday! I work shelving books in one of my school's libraries, and I've been with that department for just under 2 years now, so of course they have seen the whole "transformation." Well, yesterday I was wearing one of my new dresses (from my eBay shopping spree! LOL!), and if I may say so, I think it showed off my shape pretty nicely! So I had been talking to my boss, and as I was walking away he suddenly said "You know, you are looking so shapely these days! I remember when you first came to work with us, and... You're just like a whole new person!" Man, that felt great!! It was funny, because I could tell how hard he was trying to avoid saying something that could potentially offend me (older male boss commenting on the body of his college-aged female employee--kind of a sticky situation, haha!), but it was so kind. I love how wearing new clothes really seems to shake people into noticing--since I still wear a lot of my old clothes (my sewing machine is my best friend nowadays), maybe the change isn't always as obvious, but I never wore dresses before, so I really must have looked like a totally different person. And I really like this new person... I think I'll keep her around.

I bought a size 16 khaki skirt at Target on Saturday. It fits and looks great, but the other skirt I currently weight (yes, the other ... the only other) is a denim knee-length. This one is shorter than that and I am suddenly embarrassed about my legs because they have several patches of unsightly vericose veins ... I know, and me at not even 28 years old, with no children, etc. Ugh. It's too bad, because everything else about me in skirts like this is fine. I am thinking of wearing tights with it, but I feel like that looks funny in the summer? I have thigh-highs so I don't mind ...

Anyway, this is a real NSV for me because I went shopping out of drudgery, to get a few temporary things that aren't literally falling off, and I ended up wistfully delighting in certain items. It was different than shopping previously.

I tried on a few summer-y dresses and was excited because they were so pretty and looked okay, too. The only thing was that the sleeves still cut it a little close for my chubby arms, which makes me feel uncomfortable. I am thinking a few months on those arm-y clothes, but maybe in the meantime I will look in the women's section of department stores instead, for similar dresses with more flattering sleeves. It would be a real boon to me to feel pretty in a summer dress, and I am going to a semi-formal event next week, anyway.

For me, the clothes NSVs are almost always the best! I had 2 NSVs this weekend. For the first, I spent Saturday night at a friend's house. In the (bad) old days before I was on Atkins and she was on WW, we would have gone out, bought a couple of gallons of ice cream, some bakery items for breakfast, then gone out to a nice dinner somewhere. Oink! This time, I brought my food with me, she had her low-cal dinner, and then watched a movie. No oink! And still a fun weekend with a friend.

The second, I tried on my new pair of 16 (not 16W) jeans again ~ last time, I wasn't able to get them over my hips. This time, I was able not only to get them up but to zip them! They are still WAAAAAY too tight to wear in public, but I have no doubt they will be fitting by my secret unwritten size 16 misses goal date of July 7th (halfway between my 16W and 14W goal dates!)!!!