Seventy Pounds and Counting!

That's me in my wedding tuxedo! I'm planning to use it for my niece's wedding in late August- I know that you're only supposed to use a tux if you're the groom or in the wedding party, but since this may be the last time that a 48 long tuxedo fits me...(I write this with fingers crossed!)

Anyway, this was a very good week! The tally is another eight pounds lost with seventy and a half total pounds lost. And I made it below the second one of my "benchmark" weights (300, 265, 235, 215 and 200 pounds are my significant benchmarks) A long time ago, my brothers pressured me to lose step on a scale because they were concerned about my weight gain post college. I'm actually fairly tough to pressure into anything (unless you're a pretty Latina that married me about a decade ago...), but I reluctantly stepped on the scale, slightly curious. Would I weigh 240 now, 250? I was shocked to see that I was 265! I think I spent the next week at the gym...

God, if I only knew I would weigh above 350 someday. Anyway, now in an ironic turn, I'm thrilled to be weighing "only" 264!

I do realize that I still have another seventy pounds to lose, but it feels great to be halfway there. And, thanks to my height, I don't look seventy pounds over weight. (Maybe 60 pounds overweight? lol) My clothes have all been to the tailor once or twice and I'm not too far away from fitting into my stock of 46 longs. In fact, I'm already thinking less about weight loss and more about the rebuilding of my muscles and the future eating plan that I'll need to keep the weight off.

In other news, my class on meditation was nothing short of amazing. I went in, armed with jokes about Kung Fu Panda and hippies. I left with all my preconceptions shattered. I felt so great after the class- relaxed, energetic and...kind of at peace. The last exercise they had us do was called a "body check" and it was a guided meditation where we focused on different parts of our body. Just fantastic. (as an aside, I felt my ribs after the exercise and was surprised that I could feel my rib cage! Guess I'd been to heavy to feel them before..)

It was an interesting mix of people- there was a type A businessman, a doctor in residency, meditation teachers looking to brush up their skills and some people who were open about huge problems in their life that they were hoping meditation would cure. There was a lady getting over the death of her daughter, another woman there on her birthday and a mother whose out of state son had sent her to the place that he researched as the best to help her deal with her stress!

I had a feeling that I was in the right place, though meditation doesn't come easy to me. My mind has always been restless and it's hard to focus the myriad thoughts running through my head to focus on just my breathing, for instance. But I think it's worth pursuing the discipline in meditation. It may help make this weight loss permanent.

Week 1- 5/8/14 334.5 16.5 318
Week 2- 5/15/14 318.0 6.9 311.1
Week 3- 5/22/14 311.0 5.1 306
Week 4- 5/29/14 306 6.0 300
Week 5- 6/5/14 300 4.5 295.5
Week 6- 6/12/14 295.5 3.0 292.5
Week 7- 6/19/14 292.5 8.5 283
Week 8- 6/26/14 283 4.5 278.5
Week 9- 7/3/14 278.5 5.0 273.5
Week 10-7/10/14 273.5 1.5 272
Week 11-7/17/14 272 8.0 264