20 down!

aesselmont lost 1 pound since her last weigh-in! She's lost 20 pounds so far.

I kinda felt like that status update on myfitnesspal homepage deserved an exclamation mark today, am I right? I finally cracked into the 160's and I'm so glad to be out of those 70s.  I seemed to have sluggishly trudged through the last half of the 70s but I finally came out on the other side and I hope to never go back up there. It feels good to have seen the 80's go by, and then the 70's go by and now I'm looking forward to breaking some new ground as I make my way through the 160s.  I was 166 lbs before I was pregnant with Liam, and I was back to that (on a broken skinny scale) for a few short weeks 3 years ago but I really have never weighed less than 166 in maybe 5 years.  I'm only 3 pounds away from beating that goal and then I'll be on new ground as I sink into the 150s.  I can't wait!  I even sold some of my chubby clothes online this week and it felt good to have people take them away never to be seen again.  I have my goal jeans washed and ready to button up (alllmmost there but it's a nasty muffin top) and a cute white blouse that my mom bought me in 2006 that I have NEVER been able to button up and it still has the Banana Republic tag on it.  Goal Outfit ready to go baby.  Maybe 10 weeks to go?

The big obstacle coming up is a trip we're taking to Vancouver next week to visit my sister and her family.  Travel is not a friend to weight-loss but I have some tools that I hope I can use to try and stay on track and maybe even lose some weight.  Of course myfitnesspal is my best tool, but next to that I plan to do 7 miles and then 8 miles with my sister while I visit.  I also have a pact with Greg to split meals when we eat out.  No way do I need an entire restaurant meal to myself.  Sharing the food helps cut the calories but it also keeps away that nasty bloated feeling you get when you ate your own Happy Meal. I really hope that with those I can still come home in two weeks being on track.

Another thing that's been a reality for me lately is that my running is not the major player in my weight loss.  At first it was hard to separate the calorie counting and the running to see which was really responsible for the numbers going down, or at least which was more responsible. It seemed logical that running would make me burn calories and therefore lose weight, but after dropping the calorie counting ball for a few weeks and not seeing the scale move, it became clear that running alone will not take these pounds off.  I was stoked today to break that 20 pound mark so I picked up our two 10 pound weights and tried to remember what it felt like to walk around with these on me only a few months ago.  It felt so heavy and I was feeling sorry for my muscles and my heart.  It also became obvious that a pound is a lot of weight and that's why it takes a lot of hard work to get one pound off your body.  One pound is not going to fall off, but it will melt away with hard work.

14 more to go....better get to work!