At Goal, One Year Later

Yesterday was a special day for me, an important milestone on my journey. On November 4, 2012 I posted this picture for my blog post celebrating arriving at my goal weight.

11/4/12

And just now, I took another picture.

One year later, 11/5/13

In my goal blog post I wrote:

I know this number doesn't really change anything, but it just feels so good to finally hit it. So good. As far as eating, I plan to keep doing what I'm doing. I don't really feel like I'm "dieting" per se. I think I'm eating a healthy, balanced diet. I'll just have to see what happens with my weight.

What did happen with my weight is that I continued to lose for a while, dipping down to a low of 134.8 pounds. That was a week after getting diagnosed with pneumonia. I've dabbled around in my head with what my "maintenance" weight should be and I find I like being under 140. Being over 140 isn't so bad either, and I don't actually mind wobbling around in the low 140's, but I see that as a sign to tighten up some, get back under 140 and carry on.

Things are tricky right now because although my weight number is low, my percentage of body fat is creeping up, now up to 28.5%. Weight gain is sure to follow. But I'm feeling confident that once of I have this pneumonia thing kicked, I can get my butt back in gear and lose some of the extra fat.

So I thought I'd take a moment to reflect on my first year of maintenance by sharing some thoughts.

• I got pneumonia 4 months after reaching goal and had to go on bed rest. But managed to recover and get back on track. And now I have it again. I have no doubt I'll be back on track before too long.
• I completed 8 races in the past year - The Turkey Trot, Kaiser half, Rock-n-Roll half, The Guardsman 10k, See Jane Run half, 4th of July 4-miler, Santa Cruz Triathlon and the Nike Women's half.
• My relationship with food is really changing. I still overeat from time to time, I still get in trouble with cravings, I still make less helpful decisions, but each time I get back on track. And slowly, very slowly, the pull of food to solve my problems is lessening.

I could go on and on but just know this, I have changed. "Obviously," you might say, but I notice this change in such subtle and almost imperceptible ways and for whatever reason, those changes give me hope. Hope that I might continue to change and grow in such a way as to eventually eliminate this "problem" of my food intake altogether. Or at least mostly. I met a woman in WW who was in her 13th year of maintenance and she said she was there. It took her about 8 years of maintenance to get there, but she did. The idea that I might one day slay this demon altogether is hopeful.

I'm excited to go to WW next week and share the news. And I hope to inspire or motivate anyone that needs it because that's a big part of why I keep this up - blogging and sharing and telling everyone who wants to listen that change is hard, but it's worth it - to potentially inspire someone else to go after the dream, to fight for it, work for it, value it. I feel great about my body, great about clothes shopping and going to social events, great about seeing my own picture or bumping into an old friend, great about seeing an 'out of order' sign on the elevator or eating a candy bar in public - I feel great. A year later, and it still feels great. I hope to never forget how much I wanted this, how hard I worked (and continue to work), and how worth it it remains to keep going to the WW meetings now and keep getting on that scale every day for a reality check.

Thank you all for the support and encouragement over the past year, I've learned so many things in the comments and gained so much support from you guys. Thank you!

p.s. I had fried chicken for lunch today. That is all.