Today and tomorrow are a lot of milestones for me! Today, is 2 full weeks of not smoking, which is really a pretty huge accomplishment. Friday will be 3 weeks of daily exercise. Tomorrow, I'll have been on Spark People for 4 weeks. I spent the first few weeks beginning to be careful about what I was eating and moving a little more, and then became really earnest about it about half a week later.

All of those landmarks to say that I'm really pretty proud of myself right now. I'm making better choices about use of my time, and I'm making better choices about how I treat my body. I'm proud of what I'm doing, and I'm excited to talk to people about it. Early this week, I couldn't get to the gym so instead I did yoga and some intervals at home instead. Sure, I probably looked like an idiot flailing around my room to get my heart rate up, but I was moving and sweating and not using a set back as an excuse not to get a workout in.

Today, I got back to the gym, and it felt GOOD. Three weeks ago, 2.3 mph on the treadmill was enough to keep my heart rate up during the whole hour I walked. I would do short bursts of 2.5 mph, but I couldn't go long at that speed. Today, I had to go a minimum of 2.8 just to keep my heart rate in a medium intensity range, and my bursts involved 6% incline intervals and speeds of 3.5 mph. Regardless of what I see on the scale, that's PROOF that I'm getting fitter. And again, tracking my food every day (I haven't missed a day in over 2 weeks now) and continuing to move, I know that the scale will eventually show results as well.

My motivation seems to be holding strong. I feel like I've passed the initial high of "yay something new!" and have moved into a more matter of fact emotional level about this process. That said, I'm not dreading exercise, I'm still tracking food, and I still genuinely feel excited about what's ahead. I'm working hard on really loving myself and identifying what excuses I've held onto to put this weight on and keep it on.

Ultimately, I think I realized that I have to approach all of this - being super diligent about being gluten free, making better food choices in general, avoiding cigarettes, and exercising - from a place of loving myself and my body RIGHT NOW instead of always waiting for what I wish I could be. So far, it seems to be working.

Let's go, February. Bring it on!