In-Development Swagger (oh, and a weigh-in).

Has it really only been a week? It felt like a long one. My no-lbs-lost fit last weekend led to a good amount of food vigilance and a strong week of ketosis.  However, a girls night out dinner on Wednesday with red wine and Friday night drinking at home that actually led to a baaaaaad hangover  yesterday were the OPPOSITE of vigilant, healthy, and focused. The drinking had me worried but I also had a very low calorie 'recovery' day, so my 3 lb. loss this morning was not totally surprising.

Regarding the two previous weeks, I did a good amount of reading about the whoosh and low carb weight loss stalls and some of the 'recommendations' actually included drinking as well as having a cheat day or two to recalibrate. Right now I refuse to go there with eating a bunch of carbs, but maybe the drinking (even though I am not proud of it) did help. Either way, I am moving on and I AM 30 POUNDS DOWN!!!

I'm feeling good about finally hitting a nice round number, and I'm still experiencing the NSVs that are motivating even when the scale is stuck. This week I wore pants to work that were basically falling off and I realized they had to be retired- I'm down a full size and then some. My closet continues to gift me with 'new' shirts- I have a habit of buying things online only to find they are too tight. Sometimes I purposely buy them small hoping to fit into them soon.  This has been going on for probably the last 3-4 years so it's so satisfying now to finally get to wear them. I also don't have to do laundry as much because I am comfortably away from the 'fattest days' of this past fall when I had maybe 2 pairs of jeans, a couple pairs of stretchy black pants (mortifying), and like three shirts I could put on.

I read an excellent post this week by Bonita who talks about this interesting process of losing when you start at such a high number. At almost 80 lbs down, she feels like a super model yet to the 'general public' and even her friends she is seen as a regular old heavy person. I can certainly relate, although I will take a moment to say that I don't think it's a bad thing for us chunky ladies (and gents) to develop some in-development-style swagger. Yes, Allan, there are some bloggers out there who have been using the same lines now for far too long and have what you could call an overabundance of swagger wrapped in an ill-fitting denial Snuggie, but they're in their own special category.

Meanwhile, for everyone else working away at this, I think feeling awesome about yourself now is not only good but necessary. Self-deprecation is easy and boring.  'If you Build it They Will Come', 'Believe it Before You See It', and the creative visualization/dream board stuff is actually the hard shit. We're all going to have the days or weeks when we're feeling overwhelmed about how much more there is lose but let's not let the sassy/skinnyface/thighmuscleburn feelings get pushed aside. Every mile, every 1/2 pound, every workout, every time you realize you can slide a pair a jeans off without unbuttoning them- it all deserves acknowledgement. Have a sweet week lovelies!