Yes! August 1st brought me to 182 pounds, which is a loss of 3 pounds for the month of July! I feel amazing, I am so happy that this time I am not white knuckling it through weight loss, just trying to hang on and force myself to lose more. If I never lose another pound but manage to maintain right here, I will be content! That seems to be the key, for me, to making this a doable-forever way of life.
This week I was wearing one of my usual shirts and kept having to mess with my bra straps and tug at the neckline to keep them from showing. Finally I realized that shirt was now too big on me (and the bra straps could use some tightening, too.) I took the opportunity to sort my very few shirts hanging in my closet, take out 4 that are now too large, plus a sweater that I know has become too big for me. I gave them away to a friend who is also losing weight but is a size behind me, so they will fit her just right. I also heaved a big sigh and decided that my two favorite swimsuits, which I have not worn since winter, really can’t be worn anymore by me at all. They are size 20 and 22 but were tight enough to keep wearing for a long time. Now, they hang. Still in great shape, they made a nice gift for another friend who needed them. I am wearing my smaller, size 16 and 18 swimsuits now.
I also got two unsolicited comments this week: “Are you STILL losing weight??” Yes, I am… very slowly! But I guess it’s noticeable. Somehow even three pounds in a month is enough to provoke questions!
Last night I ate a *lot* more carbs than usual, which is something I tend to do a couple times a month. A friend brought some freshly baked, still warm, homemade bread and that is one of my favorite foods that I have no keto substitute for! I had two slices, heavily buttered, one as a snack and one with my dinner. It was delicious! I like knowing I can enjoy anything I want in moderation. No restriction means no stress about food… and no weight *loss* goals means no stress about weight loss. I do have weight *maintenance* range goals and that is working well for me.
I wanted to share some graphs of what my weight’s been doing over the past few months. Here are unlabeled, numberless graphs showing my weight each month from March through July:
April
May
June
July
Each graph is one month long and ten pounds high (ten pound span, top to bottom) so you can see how my weight fluctuates during each month. Weighing daily and graphing it has helped a lot with my peace about weight. Ups and downs are normal for me. It’s the overall trend that really matters. If you connected those five graphs together, you’d see that from March 1st through the end of July, I went from 202 pounds to 182 pounds. Not bad, huh?
My maintenance goal right now is to stay in the range of 180-185 pounds. I spent almost 6 weeks in the 184-189 range, so the timing feels right. My new range is just on the brink of the 170’s, so if I manage to go there I think that will just be a bonus!