Event Driven Goals

I seem to spend a freakish amount of time reading blogs lately. I'm fascinated (and perhaps a little obsessed) with the morsels of fact and opinions that I get from my fellow bloggers. Especially my fellow low carb bloggers. So, today I read a post by Deb over at Confessions of a Jersey Girl about the whys of weight loss and she made a comment about event driven goals.

Hmm.

Have I ever successfully dieted without an event driving it?

Let's see.

NOPE.

The last time I lost 40 pounds low carbing, it was for my 20th high school reunion. I was one of the planners of the event so choosing not to go wasn't an option. And you know how things like that are. Afterwards, all anyone remembers is which girls got fat and which guys are losing their hair. If you've ever been to a reunion, you know that I'm only exaggerating a little.

In any case, I was determined not to go to the reunion in a size 16 dress (as if we wear the dress size on the OUTSIDE of the dress, right?). So in January of that year, I set out on Atkins and by November I had taken off 40 pounds as was down to a size 10....Where I stayed for about 5 minutes before I went back to eating the way I'd eaten before. Not immediately. But a little bit here, a little bit there and before I knew it, 30 of those 40 pounds had crept back on.

So fast forward a few years to this year and the now-infamous cruise I'm going on next month. Once again, my motivation for this life change was not being the fat girl in the family cruise photos.

And I jumped back on the low carb bandwagon. It worked before, it can work again.

I had that date circled on the calendar as the driving force to "get there" by THAT DATE.

OK, so don't get me wrong. I am jumping-out-of-my-skin-happy that I've taken off these 33 pounds. But I have a number in my head that I'm trying to reach and that would mean losing another 7 pounds (or at least 5 more) in the next 2 weeks. And rationally, I know that may not happen.

So am I a failure for not reaching my "event driven" goal?

Of course not. (she says with some conviction).

But I sure feel a little like one. And even as I type those words, I know how RIDICULOUS it sounds to even THINK that.

I mean I've lost 33 pounds. THIRTY THREE. And even if I don't lose another ounce before the trip, I can proudly say that I lost 33 pounds and went down nearly 4 dress sizes. I am thinner now than I think I've been my entire adult life. I have more energy and feel like I am closer than I've ever been to the size I'm supposed to be.

But the true test of my success will not be the weight I've lost to get here but how well I keep it off after my trip. And that's the event we should all be driving towards.

Stay tuned for (a little) less of me.

Defining Diet Success

Note: I'm double posting this entry on both blogs because I feel it's relevant in both places.

It seems that I may indeed have reached my goal of the single digit size despite not yet having reached my goal weight.

As I mentioned in the last post, I can now fit into a pair of size 8 shorts but I was skeptical (surprise, surprise) that this was really my size. After all, women's sizes being what they are...is one size 8 the same as another?

And since I didn't think I owned anything else in an 8 to make a fair comparison, I figured that I would just keep doing what I was doing until the last of the weight came off. Hmm.

But I found a pair of jeans buried in my closet that I swear must be 15 years old. They are undoubtedly my "skinny" jeans. The labels inside is from the Limited and says size 7/8. Good Lord, when was I EVER a 7/8?? But I do recall wearing them and I suppose I've held onto them all this time as the measurement of "if I could only get into these..."

But I did...and without effort.

So does that mean that I am done? I honestly don't think so. I still feel like I want/need to lose 5 or 10 more pounds. I'm weighing in now at 144.5...down from the 177 that I was in early April. I'd really like to get down to 135-137 and then settle somewhere around there. I know it's only a number but I'd really like to get below 140 and stay there.

Decisions. Decisions.

I set out for the single digit size. And now I'm here. But obviously that 's just not good enough. I want that bit of cushion before I settle in on what my lifetime goal weight will be.

So stay tuned for (a little) less of me.