A New Year - a New Me!

So I can’t believe I have not blogged since Dec 23rd. What a whirlwind the holidays can be. I still held myself accountable by tracking my food and checking in with my Twitter group, but WOW – where has the time gone. Here comes week 11 and I am down 20lbs Do you realize that would be like me carrying out from the grocery store – 4 lbs of flour?

In the last few weeks it has been slow going – I have only been losing a lb or 2 a week, but now I decided that it’s ok to go slow. I would take a slow loss over a quick loss any day because I FEEL great and have felt great over this whole last 10 weeks. Obviously, I don’t feel as weighed down because of the weight loss, but there is something to not having all that sugar in your system. It’s more than just my skin looking so healthy or my hair growing so well. Before I used to feel sick after I ate any meal. It didn’t matter if it was a small portion or not. Usually just after my meal I wouldn’t feel “right”. I even went so far as to go to a gastro specialist to make sure it wasn’t something more. I am now convinced – the ‘something more” was all that sugar. On Thanksgiving and Christmas I allowed myself a taste (and when I say a taste – it was not your average piece of pie – it was maybe 3 spoonfuls of it) of my Dad’s homemade pumpkin pie – o.k. - forget calling this emotional eating because it wasn’t - I just happen to straight up LOVE pumpkin pie! After eating it on both Holidays, I didn’t feel so good afterwards – just like before this program. I know it was the sugar count in the pie. My family was eating leftovers just after Christmas and out came that pie and you know what… I couldn’t eat it. I just didn’t want to feel like that again. Truth… I will probably forget next year by the time Thanksgiving rolls around on how I felt this year and I probably will ‘indulge” in a “taste” of pie, but it definitely won’t be any time soon!

This New Years I did a new vision board (found a great one called a dream board on Oprah’s website). I took the time out to create it and print it (only downside is that you can not save it as a .pdf file because I would love to post it on my computer – but I did mount it on my fridge. Hey, if I have time to log my food like a madman than I can take some “me time” to focus my life for the New Year. It’s funny because in New Years past - I would just begin that emotional climb to attempt at some sort of weight loss – heck at this point I touched the flag at the top of the mountain and I’m walking back down! My new goal is to be at my target weight by my birthday in June. I have grown so much in the last few months that I TRULY feel that anything is possible. This has not been one more way that I let myself down- it has been about setting the course to a better life for me and my daughter. At this stage in the game, I am in control and I pick where I want to go. I feel somewhat corny at how excited and hopeful I have become. I can be my worst critic and I have found that this program has truly made me “nicer to myself”. Stay tuned because the finish line is within reach!