It's been far longer than I would have liked since my last post. I write bits and pieces of blog posts in my head everyday, but getting them actually typed has been proving difficult. W loves watching things on you.tube and as soon as I sit down at the computer, he needs to watch something, or Hudson needs something.
I am proud to say that this week, I hit goal weight. I've lost a total of 78 pounds since January of this year.
As nice as it was to see the number on the scale, it feels a little anti-climactic. I'm feeling a lot of what now?, and I need to find something else to work towards.
Veggies seemed to be the key to breaking through my plateau. As much as my diet was still a more or less healthy one, when I really looked at it closely, I was starting to get a little slack and one of the main things that had changed was how many veggies I was getting everyday. I had gone from eating 1-2 cups of veggies with every meal to maybe half a cup with one meal a day. Not only was I not getting enough veggies each day, not eating those veggies left me hungry and looking to fill up on something else. I never gave up bread at any point, but I had been decreasing the percentage of my daily calories that were coming from bread.
So, over the past couple of weeks I’ve made a much more concerted effort to stay on top of groceries so that there were lots of veggies around and to make sure that they were getting onto my plate. More salads with lunch, and more veggies as sides with supper. More fruits as snacks as opposed to the other things I was snacking on, like the 100 calorie granola bars, or crisps, or cracker chips.
And, it worked. It definitely wasn’t super speedy, but it was movement on the scale in the right direction each week (or each day in my must weigh each morning world) and then this week I finally saw the number that I had been looking for.
I’ve had lots of people ask me, “So, are you done now?”. My answer is, not really. I think that my weight will probably go down a few more pounds. I’m not going to push it too hard, but I’m not doing anything really drastic and I think that my body will probably drop a few more pounds. I don’t think I’ll change my goal weight though. And besides the number on the scale, if I’m being completely honest, I’m not satisfied with my body quite yet. Don’t get me wrong, I know I’ve come a long way and have lots to be proud of, and I definitely am, but I want more definition in my muscles, I want to be able to lift heavier weights, I still want to be more fit.
I’m coming very close to returning to work (eek!) and I am very well aware that I’m not going to be able to be a gym rat anymore. But I’ve made my health and fitness such a part of my life that I know I will find the time to continue to work on my body. Like every other aspect of our lives over the coming months, I’ll figure out what works. I have fantastic support systems both at home and the gym, I hope to build some new support and get some co-workers to join me when I go back, and I’m committed to figuring it out.
Now I just need to come up with some new goals.
