Paleo Update 4

Today is day 29 in our 30 day challenge.  I feel so good about the changes I've made in my diet.  I feel healthier overall.  I feel more energized and more ready to take on everyday challenges.

Have I lost tons of weight?  Not really.  Not yet.

As of today, though, I am 0.4 lbs. below my driver's license weight.  I picked a general sounding number to put on there back when I got my New Mexico license and before we'd bought a new scale for the new house.  Little did I know, I was nowhere close to that at the time.

But now, that number is officially higher than what is true!  I've lost about 12-1/2 pounds in the past 29 days and I'm okay with that progression because slow weight loss always seems to have a better chance at staying off.  I have nearly eight pounds to go take back the 20 I gained in recent months with medicine changes.

When I do (maybe by New Year's?), I'll be overall down over 40 pounds from where I was at Christmastime last year.  That feels really good.  It's a long way from some optimistic ideal I hold in my head, but a loss of 40 pounds is like not carrying around five extra milk jugs all the time.  It just makes life a little easier.

It helps me feel happier and more free to be me and to play with our kids when opportunities arise.

Tomorrow, I'll check my measurements again (as I did near the beginning of the Paleo challenge) and see what differences are there.  I'll probably take updated photos, too, for the record (I doubt I'll share those here, though).

But I plan to continue on.

As for H, I'm very proud of him for toughing out this challenge.  He officially ended it today when everyone wanted to go to Chick-Fil-A and while I was fine having some grilled chicken and a salad with olive oil for dressing, he was not.  It's one of his favorite restaurants and he's spent nearly a month turning down his favorite nuggets and dipping sauce.  Today, was just too much to bear.

I told him it was one day short and since he's not planning to continue on after this (though he admits he doesn't want to fully return to his old eating habits), one day wasn't going to make that big a difference in a lifetime.  He took a long time to think about what to order and then finally, he gave in and ordered what he'd actually like.

I was happy because he was happy.  For a 12-year-old boy, he really stepped up and showed us he can commit to something better than some adults even!  I'm really proud of him.

P.S. It's 12/12/12 and S's half-birthday today, too.  I can't believe in six months she'll be a legal adult.  It blows my mind.