Taking Stock:

I have lost 18 pounds since starting Spark in November of 2010. 9 of those pounds have been in this round of BLC (beginning mid Jan, 2013), and I can attribute them to DOING SOMETHING DIFFERENT. First, I joined the 6 days/20 min a day exercise streak challenge (and actually took it seriously this time). Now, I generally take off Wednesdays, but exercise all other days, and usually 45 minutes or better at a pretty high intensity. Second, although I am not perfect with my food intake, I am now a fairly consistent tracker, and have been making strides at staying within my calorie range. Third, this challenge started after the holidays, but before I started camping on the weekends again, so the “environmental challenges” have been kept to a minimum. I am having a taste at doing something better than one step forward and two steps back, and I like it! Now, I need to figure out how to keep up the momentum when life throws more challenges at me.

The first thing I am going to do is to reevaluate my goal – where am I going?

GOAL: Reach goal weight of 150 by 10/1/2013. That is a time period of 6 months and 13 days, roughly 28 weeks (kind of love that time limit as it reminds me of the zombie movie “28 weeks Later” !) I have 38 pounds to lose in that time frame – a net of 1.4 per week.

Next I have to figure out how to accomplish this when it gets more challenging. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” definitely applies here! What I’m doing now is working, so, in a nutshell: DON’T STOP! That means, exercise remains the priority, without excuse…keep streaking! Second, realize that IT ISN'T A LIFESTYLE CHANGE IF YOU HIDE OUT FROM LIFE. It isn’t realistic to decide to never eat the food provided at a party because you don’t have total control over the calorie count, or engage in other such social avoidance plans. It works for a while, but always leads me to feeling deprived and resentful. There is a balance to be struck here, and that is what I have to find: the sweet spot.

Next up: I'm going to determine my rewards! Yay!