Labor Day Has Come And Gone

Labor Day has come and gone and with it my next goal to be achieved on my journey to a new me. As most of you know I have a one year goal to lose 100 pounds and in order to make this huge number "do able" I have broken it down into smaller goals. My latest goal was set after July 4th and it was to lose 85 pounds by Labor Day.


We were at the lake during the Labor Day holiday and did not return home until late Tuesday evening so my first day to see if I had accomplished the latest goal was Wednesday morning. I knew that I had done a great job keeping track of my calories and even resisted the yellow cake with chocolate icing that I had made for everyone to enjoy during the holiday weekend.  I will be honest it was tempting but I was good! So stepping onto Mr. Scale on Wednesday morning was exciting.  But what I saw was not so exciting.

The report was not what I thought it would be or what I felt that I had worked so hard to achieve. I was down 82 pounds. A heaviness fell in my chest as I stepped off the scale and with it all the disappointment set in. All those old feelings of "why do I try so hard?" "Why can't I just get this weight off once and for all?" "why was I born this way?" and finally "why didn't I enjoy a nice big fat piece of thar chocolate cake with a nice cold glass of milk?"

I can't explain it but there was a since of failure that had come over me and while getting ready for work I felt a dark cloud hanging over my head.  You may think that this is a little over-kill but this is how I felt.  There was not one day that I did not feel that I had done my very best to stay on track.  My 1400 calories per day have served me well for over 8 months now and I would like to continue to lose weight by enjoying 1400 calories per day.  Someone told me a few weeks ago that if I hit a plateau that I may have to decrease my calorie intake to 1200 or maybe even 1000.  Well I am sorry, but I disagree.  I do not want to take such a drastic measure that I feel like I am on a diet, and therefore do my best to get off of it as soon as possible!

So what to do?  Where do I go from here?  Which way to I go?  How can I jump start my metabolism into moving back down the scale?  I thought about it all day and I found myself texting my friend to see if she would be interested in going to the park and walking around the track.  Well said Yes!  So last night we walked 2 miles in 38 minutes.  That is a better pace than I normally do.  Then tonight we walked 2 1/2 miles in 42 minutes.  So the time is improving little by little.  Who knows I may end up jogging or running before this is over with.

So why did I begin to exercise now?  Why did I get back on the "I need to exercise wagon, again"?  Well to be honest, I don't see myself reducing my calorie intake to 1200 or 1000 calories per day because I would not be satisfied.  But I can burn 300 or so calories per day which would give me the equivalent of eating 1100 calories per day instead of 1400.  This is the direction that I am going to take.  I will keep you posted as to how often that I am able to walk.  I hope to be down 85 pounds in the next week so that I can start working toward my next goal of 90 pounds by my son's birthday, October 7th.  Stay tuned and hopefully I will have some good news in the days ahead!