Continuing the weight loss

Well here I am at week...hmmm....25? 24? and I've had some great success! I lost 3 pounds this past week which brings the total loss up until this point to 38.4 pounds. I am now seven pounds from my goal. 7? Holy COW!!!! 7 pounds! That's such a small number compared to where I started. I definitely can do this. I've learned so much about myself and improved my food and weight loss outlook so much over the past half of a year. Some highlights?

• I need accountability. I will probably have to continue my tracking in some way forever. I have made this a part of what I do every day and there's no reason to stop.
  
• I eat emotionally. Some people eat to live, others live to eat. I'm a live to eat who has to stop doing that. I need to think about why I eat everything I eat. I don't expect to change my makeup, I just need to continue other coping skills. I have friends who don't eat when they're stressed. Not a problem I'm familiar with...I eat when I'm sad, mad, celebrating, excited.
• I need to concentrate on filling, healthy foods whenever possible. WW lets you eat any foods you want, you just have to count the points and in previous attempts, I tried to eat the unhealthy things and count the points. There's nothing wrong with eating cookies and milk all day, is there? I counted the points. What's the problem? The problem is I'm not staying healthy, I'm not getting the nutrients I need, and I'm not staying full and satisfied between meals. I get that now. THIS time, I've addressed that issue.
• I have to stop seeing myself as a fat person. I don't see myself as attractive and adding weight to that just gives me a reason that I'm not attractive. I can always point to the scale and say, "Oh that's why I'm not pretty...I'm fat".
• I CAN lose weight! I can no longer use the excuse that it's too hard and I must have a metabolism problem. I don't. If I put the effort into planning and tracking, I can do this.
• I don't want to die young. I always thought that I'd have time to think about losing weight later. Why wait? It will only get harder and harder to lose the weight. I don't want to wait until I HAVE to lose it for some health reason. Now I can do it on my terms.

The journey (and the blogging) will continue. The emphasis may change. For example, the big summer trip is coming up right around the corner, and the job search and school continue. My Grand Adventure goes on every day. I am truly blessed.

Stay tuned.
Less later,
Laurie