Changing your mindset

I really like this picture of hubby and I taken around Thanksgiving at our favorite pizza joint. Since we don't seem to get alot of pictures taken together, I thought I'd share.

I touched on this yesterday about not being able to think about a time when I didn't want to lose weight. I don't mean that I was always dieting. Just that I always felt that I was too heavy. I look back at pictures from high school and think "Gee, I wasn't that bad". But still felt I was 20 lbs more than I wanted to be and what "everyone" else was. It's amazing how my own perception caused me so much grief. So as I ventured off to college where the late night pizzas were an almost nightly occurrence, I packed on close to 60-70 lbs in 4 years. That my friends is alot of pizza.

I have the same story as alot of people. Gained weight, lost some, gained it back and more, lost some, and the cycle continued for 25+ years.

For the first time in my life, I'm okay with my weight. Strike that, I'm happy as a clam about my weight. But in my mind, the adjustment begins on how to de-program a lifetime of self-loathing in terms of my weight. It doesn't really help that it's January and seemingly every other commercial is about losing weight, trying this-that-and the other in getting there. There's still that tiny voice inside that still says maybe I should go for a few more.

It's a strange feeling that I know is going to take me some time to get there. For those of you in maintenance mode, any tips for me?

And while I'm reaching out to you - congrats to all of you for making it to your goal. I'm so proud of all of you.

Transitioning to maintenance mode...

So there it is. It's taken me 3-4 months to lose the last couple of lbs and hit my ultimate goal. Saturday morning I woke up to see 143.5 - if only for a second. Then I did the whole step off/step on dance a couple of times and kept getting 144.0 even. 1 lb under my ultimate goal. Woot! Woot!

Now what? I can't remember a time in my life when I haven't wanted to lose weight. Ever. EVER!

I'm beside myself that I achieved what I set out to do. And then some. And I know I didn't do it alone. It took my husband, my surgeon, the support of my sister/SIL/family and all of you to make it happen along with a couple of forums. So I thank you for all your encouragement and support. Truly. It took all of it to get here.

I'm going to try and figure out the whole balancing act of maintaining. I don't want to get complacent and let the weight creep back on. I feel like I'm making the right choices (most of the time) and exercising. But allowing myself "extras" here and there without feeling guilty is going to be a new experience.

I'm enjoying the new me immensely :)