Happy October 26th! Today is my 14 month surg-aversary since gastric bypass. In the last three years I have lost 146 pounds and yesterday I celebrated by taking 144 pounds of food to the Weight Watcher’s Lose for Good Campaign. That’s a lot of food! It filled my trunk. It took two of us four trips to haul it all in. It made a stack almost as tall as me. Do you know how good that feels? To know that I LOST that much weight? To be able to give to a great cause and celebrate my victory over obesity.

Today I am indulging myself with my favorite past time: measurements! I started out by comparing the measurements from last month and there was some slight gain there:

Compare:	26-Sep	26-Oct
Weight:	171.5	174.7
Waist:	32.5	33
Hips:	38	39
Arms:	13	12.5
Thighs:	23	23
Calf:	17	16
Bust:	“35/40”	“35/40”

So that wasn’t making me very happy. But then I decided that was not very positive, so I decided to take a friends advice and look at where I am today, with where I started in August last year:

Compare:	Oct-10	Aug-09	May-07
Weight:	175	279	321
Waist:	33	50	59
Hips:	38	58	64
Arms:	13	17	18
Thighs:	23	33	34
Calf:	17	20	21
Bust:	“35/40”	“44/50”	“48/54”

So that’s what I’m going to focus on – those changes and improvements. I can run a mile, I can swim a mile, I can lift weights and kickbox and do yoga and ride my bike for 23 miles.

For next month, and until January 9, 2011, my goal is to maintain where I am. Once I’ve mastered the art of maintenance, I can set a new goal to lose another 5% – which is less than 10 pounds. Then another 5% and another until I get to my ultimate goal. I will get there. I just have to get the fear of maintaining that goal out of my head first, so I don’t keep sabotaging myself with negative thoughts like: “What’s the point? I’m just going to regain it all.”

Because I’m not. I’m losing for good.