I Love the '80's

It's been nearly five months since I "owned my number" and celebrated dropping below 200 lbs. All summer long, my weight remained in the 190's, mostly fluctuating between 193 and 196. Today I finally broke through the 190 barrier and got back into the 180's!

I know five months is a long time to lose 10 lbs, but I'm actually fine with my rate of progress. Although losing weight is part of the big picture for me, it is usually not my main focus. I'm not willing to go to extremes to lose weight quickly, because I don't want to employ any methods that I cannot maintain long-term.

My approach to eating is all about balance and moderation. I do not diet. I just try to make mostly good choices, most of the time. When I indulge in foods that I know are not good for me, I don't call it "cheating." The psychology of that kind of language bothers me. To me, cheating is about dishonesty and breaking rules. I'm not trying to force my eating habits into strict rules, and I'm not lying to myself or anyone else about what I'm eating, so the word "cheating" just doesn't apply.

For me, the honesty is the key part. I don't delude myself into thinking I'm eating healthy all the time even when I'm not. I know when I eat a cupcake that it's not the best fuel for my body, and that I will likely see the results on the scale and feel them in my clothes. Being honest with myself about what I'm eating helps me to be aware when the indulgences start to get out of hand, and the bad choices start to outweigh the good. That's when I either have to accept that my weight loss is going to stall for a while, or start exercising more self-control to get my eating back on track.

Clearly the summer was one of those stalling periods (lots of cupcakes...and boy, were they good!), and now I'm back on track with the self-control. I'm happy to be back in the 180's again, and hope to go down another clothing size before too long. It would be nice to make a good chunk of progress with the weight loss before getting engulfed in the holiday season...it's much harder to make good choices at that time of year!