Final Stretch of Phase 2... Week 10

After a 3 week break from seeing my dietitian I finally got to see the damage my vacation did to my weight loss. Since my last weigh in I lost a whole POUND! Ha.. Didn't even think I was going to lose anything. Totally thought I was going to gain a ton of weight. So as of today I have officially hit my goal weight of 120 lbs!!!! I am totally happy and ecstatic! So how did this happen? You mean to tell me after my Miami vacation of nothing BUT DRINKING, EATING, and LAYING in the sun, did I lose 1 lb??? I'm not sure how this happened but I think that I probably lost the pound in the last 2 weeks or maybe even this last week.

As soon as I got back from Miami (after not working out for 4 straight days) I hit the gym as hard as I could and I went right back to eating the way I should be. However after all of that good food and drinking, I kind of fell back into some old habits. What I realized was that I could maintain and add things back into my life that I really enjoyed, like having a drink. So I continued to keep my calorie count low and work out but let myself eat just about anything. I've been eating chips, popcorn, and drinking. I think that this is what maintenance is about. Finding that good balance of doing the things you like and not driving yourself crazy. I tell ya, my sanity is back to normal.

I do want to challenge myself to lose another 5 lbs to hit my ideal weight. So I am going to bring myself back to week 8 in phase 1 (if you remember I lost 4 lbs that week) and try to maintain that until the end of the program. I believe if I stay active and bring back tons of veggies in my diet then I can lost those last 5 lbs. It will force me not to have any junk or drinks at least for the next couple of weeks (starting Monday of course :-) ). After 6 months of this program that shouldn't be a problem, or will it? I just got a taste of what regular life was like. So let's just hope I have enough in me to just pull these last 2 weeks out of my ass.

So what is my plan after this? I want to stay active, for the first time in my life I was able to run 50 minutes on the treadmill! I did it in increments. Started at 8 minutes, then 10 minutes, then 12 minutes, then went a whole 20 minutes! I think my knee is finally healed. I don't want to jinx myself so I'm going to take it easy and only run once or twice a week. I have to make sure I keep an eye on my calorie count as well. I've heard that after this program people think they're ok and start increasing their caloric intake and then stop working out. Then they start to gain the weight back. I am optimistic that I won't. I hear that meal tracking and physical activity is the key to keeping it off. SO I think I will do just that. At the very least doing some kind of workout everyday for 30 minutes 5 days a week. The food part is easy. I've made dramatic changes in the way I eat and the way the family eats so this should be a no brain-er.

My last blog post on the program will come at the end of June. I will have a series of appointments that will do my total body assessment just like when I first started the program. I will give you all of my final numbers and measurements. Wish me luck!