Hitting "It"

Think she's hungry? Cutie was thrilled to recently join us at the dinner table in her own booster, rather than hanging out in the swing on the floor. Since she'll still be nursing for another month and a half or so, she doesn't get food at the table, but manages to amuse herself. And, as you can see, sometimes she snacks.

I've managed to lose 4 pounds since our family challenge weigh-in on January 1st, this morning I was 165.5. That's pretty amazing for me in 10 days and it's my lowest post-pregnancy weight so far. For me the key to losing weight is mostly mental. I don't know anything now that I didn't know for the past few months. I always knew what I needed to be doing, harder exercise and tracking my food conscientiously, it just takes me getting to a point where the benefit of feeling better outweighs my happiness with the complacent lifestyle I fall into from time to time. I was actually holding a delicious looking piece of cake yesterday at a retirement party here at work and I passed it down to someone else without a second thought because those calories, while tasty, were not worth it to me right then. Would I be able to do it all the time? No, I know that. But a couple weeks ago my mindset was "what the heck, one more junk food won't make a difference" and now I've gotten past that. How does that happen? I don't know. I think that's why diets fail, though, people try to gut it out with the diet and exercise when their mind is not really there yet and they're just setting themselves up for failure, I think. I had to get really sick of where I was, not just telling people I wasn't happy with my weight, really feeling it myself, and that got me back on track. As bonus for me, in the past 10 days I've had more energy, great workouts, and slept well, too. I sometimes think about how I thought I could diet in the past. I really think that at one point in my life I believed that if no one saw me eat something, it didn't have calories. I remember going out with friends and being so hungry while they were eating, but I would eat until I got home and then I'd go nuts with it. Crazy, but in my mind it was what would work. I'm sure my weight loss will slow down. I doubt I'll ever be the 135 pounds that one on-line program recommends for my 5'7" medium frame body. I'll do what I can, work hard, and go for the best results I can. And I'm enjoying myself along the way.