Almost at the finish line!

Date: 04/29/2010
Starting Weight: 219.6
Current Weight: 156.8
Goal Weight2: 155
Final Goal Weight: 145-150
Loss Since Last Weigh In: 4.2
Total Weight loss: 62.8
Pounds left to lose: 1.8

Well my weekly blog turned into more of a “whenever I have time” blog. I am going to try my hardest to post more often. I want this blog to be a reliable source of information and encouragement to those on Medifast. I also don’t want it to end up being dull because I have some sort of deadline to meet. I am hoping to find a happy medium.

A little update on my past month. It has been sort of a rollercoaster for me in many different areas of my life. I pictured April and May to be more of a downtime, when I could really dig my heels into my goals and get there. I still am not doubting myself or my ability to get to my final goal by June 3rd. Rather rolling with the punches and coming out the other side confident and still making progress.

I did go off the program for five days while on vacation to California. I will admit again I went a little crazy and just ate and drank whatever I wanted. I didn’t gain an un-godly amount of weight, but by the time I was flying home my body felt like complete crap. I was bloated and the way I felt when I looked at myself, in the mirror was drastically different. I am sure being around the glitz and glam of the beautiful plastic that surrounds you everywhere in California didn’t help. I will admit I was flying home in pity party mode. I got back to work my first day back. I made a plan for a new exercise routine and some stricter guidelines to follow by. I find when I let myself go so far off what I know is right for my body, strict guidelines are a good way to jump start my attitude and satisfy my need for a schedule and some order.

Medifast isn’t just about eating some diet food and losing weight. It’s about learning to live and entire healthy lifestyle. Complete body heath, not just what goes into your stomach. You might notice that I often blog about leg pain and how it restricts my life. I decided while in California that living a year with this pain, enough is enough. I scheduled and appointment with a neurologist. After some tests it revealed I have a herniated disc in my back that is causing the pain in my leg. Insurance problems are keeping me from getting surgery right away. I will have to go to a different neurosurgeon that is “in-network” with my insurance provider. This will take until probably September time to get worked out. Everything is in god’s timing and I am okay with that. This affects my work out routine. Until then, I am trying to keep to lower intensity work outs. I stopped going the actual gym, but I might resume in a few weeks. I sure do miss Spin Class and Circuit training. For now I am doing nightly walks with my parents (who are on their second month of Medifast). It’s a pretty steep straight incline up a hill and then down hill the other half. Right now they are only able to do one loop, so to keep it challenging for me I run 5 blocks to their house from my apartment before we start the walk. Once we get to the bottom of the hill I try my best to jog back to my apartment. Once I get home I do a 7-10 minute abs routine from the 5 day abs dvd. It’s important when you feel ready, to add in an exercise program. It’s just a fact of life. You need exercise in your life, even if it is something small like a walk once a day. Don’t be afraid to push yourself. Trust me that five block job to and from home feels like death. Lol

Lastly, I encourage everyone to take a look at their past lives as they take steps toward a new one. Identify the negative habits and reasons that lead you to that breaking point of being overweight or even obesity. I was faced head on with mine on Monday, although I identified it early on in this process. I’m and emotional eater. When I feel hurt and broken I want to fix it with food.

If you don’t face those demons now they might come back to haunt you later. You will find yourself falling into old patterns. It’s all a part of learning and growing to be a better you that you can love and be proud of. Keep up the good work everyone! 1.8 pounds to go until my second goal and 11.8 pounds until my final goal. I never thought I would get to this point, but I am. I’m here, the door is open and all that’s left is for me to take the final steps and walk through it! If I can do it. You can too.