I'm not sure why but I couldn't get on Blogger last night....so, here is Monday evening's post:

Holiday Challenge: Day 1

I’ve officially started my self-imposed challenge: to lose 10 pounds by Christmas Day. Given that it’s a month from Christmas, I don’t think that this is unreasonable. I’m confident that I can do it. I may even surpass my goal, I’m not getting a head of myself, just saying, ya know?

So, today I kept perfectly on plan all day with my eating. No stray cookies after dinner for this chickie! I carefully tracked each calorie, just like when I first started out back in January. It wasn’t difficult; in fact, it was easier than the way I’ve been tracking things lately. I feel pretty good about it right now. I’ve left myself enough calories for a snack after I’ve typed this up. I generally try not to snack in the evenings but this is a healthy snack and we had dinner pretty early tonight.

Also, I exercised this morning. I didn’t do it for a long time or, particularly well, truth be told. What happened was that I slept in a bit and was rushing a bit. I was actually up really early but fell back asleep. I should never do that because it’s always so much harder to get going once you’ve fallen back. If it happens again tomorrow, I’ll just get up at 4:30 and get moving then. Getting up at 5:45 is just too late!

I know it’s just one day but it’s been a good one and I feel happy that it’s behind me now!

Now, here is today’s Progress Prompt:

People say that losing weight too quickly can be damaging for your health and your long-term success, why? There are many merits to a slow and steady weight-loss, what are the biggest ones for you?

I think that there is a lot of truth to this. I think that losing weight too quickly can cause a shock to your system which is never good. Personally, I know that the slower I lose weight, the better shot I have at keeping it off. In the past, I’d lose a chunk of weight quickly and then gain it back twice as fast. I never gave myself the time to develop good habits; I’d just use short cuts (read slim fast, cabbage soup, etc.) instead of exercising and eating better.

This is the first time in my life that I’ve been able to keep a significant amount of weight off. I’ve lost over 70 pounds since January and have kept it off. Sure, I would have liked to have lost a lot more than that by now but I know that I’m doing this in a healthy fashion. I see my doctor once a month so I have someone else keeping an eye on me and monitoring my health as I continue to lose weight. I’ve been stalled for a few weeks now but the big thing for me was that I didn’t gain everything back. I just stalled. I feel good about that, not great but good. Now, I’m ready to get back on my slow and steady ride. I want to move my body, everyday, and fuel it with healthy stuff. I’ve said this enough times that I know you’re all sick of reading it but this is not a “diet” that I’ll stop doing eventually, this is something that I’ll have to do for the rest of my life. I know that for me, the pace at which I’ve been losing weight is perfectly reasonable and safe and, most importantly, healthy.