Let's Do This

Hey Everyone! Happy New Year and welcome to 2010.

This year is going to be a big one for me with my wedding in less than six months followed by a honeymoon to my favorite place on earth, London. I can't wait to see what 2010 brings, and with that, I'm looking forward to continuing the journey I started 4.5 months ago.

To date, I have lost 30 pounds and I'm well on my way to my ultimate goal of weighing 145-150 pounds. I decided to stop "dieting" during the holiday season in order to allow myself to enjoy a delicious Christmas cookie now and then, and to not add a whole lot of stress to an already stressful season. Instead, I made the decision to maintain my weight loss during the holidays and hit the ground running in the new year.

I'm happy to report that during December, I gained exactly one pound, nothing more and that is something I'm proud to let you all know. Today I weighed myself and I'm at 202.6 pounds. I still haven't reached that solid 200-pound mark yet, but I've come a very long way from just over 230 pounds and not gaining it all back was my first accomplishment in knowing that maintaining is the hardest thing to do!

Tomorrow, it's back to my normal routine including shakes for breakfast and usually dinner, and watching my calories meticulously using the LoseIt application on my iPhone. It also means it's time to hit the gym regularly again (along with 10,000 other people with "new year's resolutions). Now that I'm back at it (and within six months of my wedding!) I'm definitely going to need some words of encouragement.

For all of you just getting back to the weight-loss routine, I wish you all the best! Don't make "losing 20 pounds" your resolution right now, but instead make it an attainable, daily-routine changing goal for years to come. I don't want to lose weight as a resolution in 2010, but I want to continue dropping pounds and being healthy this year to prepare myself for many years to come.

Happy New Year everyone! I promise that I'll post a new photo soon!

They All Noticed My Changes!

While I was home over the Thanksgiving weekend, I was pleased that I received several compliments on my weight loss. People that I've known my entire life, and individuals I met only recently all noticed the change in my size. It felt fantastic to be complimented like that!

I was a bit nervous to return to weighing myself this morning like I would any normal morning because I thought for sure that the scale would prove that I gained 10, 15 or 20 pounds from all of the delicious food I ate over the long weekend. Everything from wedding cake tasting to pizza and Thanksgiving turkey to buffalo wings, I had it all and enjoyed it! I was pleasantly surprised, however, when the scale showed 205.4. That is a weight I can definitely deal with and a good way to start my journey again.

I was thinking about my New Year's goal, to be down to somewhere around 180 lbs, and I know for sure that I won't be able to do that since that's 25+ lbs in four weeks, but I would like to drop comfortably into the 100s. It would be nice to see the scale start with a "1" even when I fluctuate up and down dramatically.

Tonight Mike and I are having homemade perogies for dinner with bacon, something that isn't exactly weight-friendly, but I have to get them in before I swear off naughty foods for awhile! I survived the first big holiday filled with delicious treats practically unscathed, and I know I have another one right around the corner. It's time to be on my best behavior so when those Christmas cookies cause temptations, I can have one for taste, but not splurge and ruin all of my hard work!

There are two photos from the weekend taken with my iPhone in this blog. One is a picture of Mike with his new nephew Evan after Evan's christening on Saturday, and the other is of me and my best friend, Stephanie at her dad's 60th birthday party. Mike popped into the background of that one too!