17 Months and Counting!

Today marks 17 months since I reached my goal. It's exciting for me to see another month go by that finds me in my goal range and still in my goal size!

One of the concerns I had as I approached my goal was whether or not I'd be able to maintain, so marking another month off on the calendar is such a relief to me! That's not to say this has been easy, because it's not, and I haven't done this perfectly. I am learning how to fine-tune this process, and it will definitely be an ongoing process for the rest of my life - but that's OK! In fact, that's what it's SUPPOSED to be - a lifelong process of continual learning and improvement.

This past week of travel and meetings has once again tested my maintenance strategy. I won't know for sure how well I've done until I get home and step on the scale next Monday, but I think I've done pretty well. I brought a ton of Take Shape for Life/Medifast products with me and have averaged 3-4 MF meals per day, and I've done a lot of walking and hiking. The Medifast meals and walking/hiking have hopefully offset the few off-plan meals I've eaten. My jeans still fit comfortably, so I think I've done fine.

The good news is that if the scale is up more than a couple of pounds (and I don't think it will be . . . ), I know exactly what to do. There will be no sense of panic, and that is SO nice. I may need to add in another Medifast meal or two per day, but if so it's no big deal to me and the extra pounds will be off in no time. I try hard to not go on and off Take Shape for Life/Medifast 5&1 because that feels like yo-yo dieting to me, but I'm not opposed to doing a "Medifast blitz" if needed. At this point in my journey, I very much have the mindset of being willing to do whatever it takes to maintain my weight loss and my health for the rest of my life.

Because I'm a daily weigher (I don't recommend this, but that is what I do), it's been hard for me to be operating in the dark for the past week without my scale. I won't weigh on anybody else's because I have no idea how it compares to mine, so I'm clueless right now as to where I'm at. Although that feels a bit scary, it's forcing me to really pay attention to what I'm eating, how much I'm eating, and try to balance this with my activity level. I don't have the scale right now to tell me each morning how I did the day before, so I'm finding myself being a bit more mindful - and that's a good thing :-).

So 17 months later, the challenge of making good choices continues. On days when I don't feel like making good choices, I have to stop and ask myself what's really important to me. Once I establish what's important (staying healthy and in my goal range), those other choices are a lot easier to make.

Are you ready to make the choices you need to make today to get you where you want to go? I sure hope so!