This is the week I gave myself 5 months ago to reach my goals.  Technically it’s this Friday, but the outcome will be the same.  I am 7 pounds away from the goal of 165.  I might be able to squeak in under the 5 lbs away mark, but it’s still not quite to goal.

Looking back, it’s a strange concept to decide an amount of weight you want to lose and then giving yourself a set amount of time to lose it.  What I have done in the last 5 months to make a lot of very healthy changes and stick with them for quite a long time.  Losing weight is a long process that isn’t fun or easy.  I’m trying to cheer on others now as they start the process, and trying to make it sound awesome isn’t really fair.  It’s not.

I set my arbitrary goal of 165 by Friday, September 2nd.  I’m at 172 today.  This is a huge accomplishment that I am in no way seeing as a failure for not hitting a specific number by a certain date.  In 5 months I’ve lost right at 30 lbs!  I’m sitting here in new clothes, because I’ve lost so much that my formerly “skinny” clothes are baggy.  I have also donated bags and bags of clothes that I don’t ever want to fit in again.  Health wise, I have always suffered from chronic back pain thank to a few back surgeries in college… I haven’t had ANY bad days in months!  I can also run 15 minutes without stopping.  It’s not about the number or the date, it’s about the process and not giving up.

It may sound like this is the end, it’s not. I still have my goal in mind and actually I see that I need to lose a bit more than 165 originally decided to be the healthiest that I can.  My next plan if you want an arbitrary date to tack on is probably to be 155 by Christmas.  I don’t have any idea what that will look like.  I’m pretty sure I weighed 155 in middle school so it’s a bit back in my memory.  I’m going big with 4 months to lost 18 pounds.  It should be very doable as long as Thanksgiving doesn’t get in the way too much!

Thanks for being my encouragement so far.