At my size the amount of weight I have to lose is overwhelming to think about. Knowing that I need to lose a hundred pounds to just barely get under 200 seems nearly impossible, and it's really depressing and discouraging to think about--so I came up with a new plan for myself.

From now on, I'm going to concentrate on just "the next five pounds". People have been suggesting this on discussion boards for years, and I never thought it was a useful tip, until now.

I'm 287 this morning, which means I've lost 10 pounds. My Fitbit seems to be helping me maintain the 10 pound loss, but now I'm ready to work on taking off the next five, which will bring me to 282, and my 5% loss.

I was in sight of the 5% loss a month or so ago, but wasn't able to reach it. I'm going to work hard to reach it now.

There are still a few weeks left in this year, and usually I put a lot of pressure on myself to lose a certain amount of weight "by the end of the year", then the holidays arrive and I don't lose an ounce. This time I'm just going to work on the next five pounds.

I've even written all the five pound increments on an index card which I keep in front of me on my desk. I draw a line through each number as I reach it, which makes the loss more real to me until I get to a point where I'm actually SEEING myself get smaller.

Looking forward to reaching 282. Keep walking...