15 pounds gone!! (well, 16.4, but who's counting?)

I lost 2.6 pounds this week!!  O.M.G.!  That brings my total loss since June to 16.4 pounds.  I am, of course, quite pleased with how things are going.  And I am reminded about why the weight loss part of the journey can be so much fun.  I am fitting into some clothes I haven't been able to wear in a while, getting dressed in the morning feels good again.  I have yet to face long term maintenance but I am ever-reminded of maintenance as the real challenge, the real purpose of what I'm doing.  In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy the losing ride!!

A couple more numbers.  At 182.6 pounds I am 4.6 pounds from my mini-goal of 178.  The new year is about 10 weeks away, so if I lose roughly .5 pounds a week on average I will reach my mini goal by the end of the year, which is so exciting.  I will be so happy to bring in the new year having reached that goal!!  I need to be clear with myself that this isn't a deadline to lose that weight by 1/1, but if it happens that will be great!!  And if I simply keep doing what I'm doing I think it will.  Woo-hoo!! 

So I have a small confession to make.  You might know that my weigh-in day is Friday and that I take a strong position on weighing myself once a week and once a week only.  My confession is that I've been cheating.  For the past few weeks I've been taking a peek at my weight midweek, usually on Tuesday or Wednesday.  I justify it by saying I need to know where I stand so that, moving forward in the week, I can tighten up on the eating if I need to.  So far I have been down from the Friday weigh-in and I find the lower number motivating.  I see that lower number and I am motivated to retain it until Friday.  I know many of you are not on my once-a-week-only bandwagon, and that some are even (gasp!) daily weighers.  This idea of a midweek peek of the scale might not worry some of you but it sort of does me.  I have been a firm believer in the once a week for a while now - Am I going to make this a regular thing?  Will it keep working even when the scale might not be down?  Will it lead to daily weighing?

Why am I so afraid of daily weighing?  I know why.  For me, I think it would make me crazy.  Weight fluctuates quite a bit on a day-to-day basis and I think if I followed the changes that closely I'd go nuts.  But maybe twice a week is ok, at least some of the time.  I admit, I don't want to make this a regular habit but I also find that little peek so alluring I don't know how I'll give it up now that I've given in.  I know, I know - I seriously overthink all this stuff sometimes.

On the exercise front things are cruising along well.  I have been doing my runs and bike for cardio and weight training, core work, stair climber and stretching.  I added 5 pound barbells to my lunges yesterday and while it definitely added to the challenge I was able to do it and look forward to mastering lunges with weights.  I'm on course to go 5 days this week and have almost 100% recovered from my cold (still have a lingering cough but it's almost gone).  I am still completely loving my gym time.

I'll close with a picture or two.  We had some family pictures taken and here's one of us with little Ms. M and one of the two kidlets together.