Posh: The countdown is on!!

Reflections:

WOW has been a great experience. 7 weeks ago, I decided to jump on board with this challenge. It appealed to my competitive nature and I decided to trash talk my way through it and figured that anything I did towards the challenge could only be beneficial. So, I worked out my exercise routine and stuck to the basics. That first day, I wondered if I would make it to the end...of the week, far less the end of the challenge. But I stuck with it and around week 4, I was feeling some mental frustration. Battle of the mind against the scale. I was seeing changes in my body but my scale was working against me. Week 5, I was able to make some peace and I started collecting other forms of data to measure my progress. Week 6, I tackled the nearby hill and found that I could make it up the hill and only had to pause once (not a stop, just a pause!). That was a big improvement from my first try when I thought every breath could possibly be my last... Week 7, I found a new workout tape that rolled fatburning, strength training and stretching into one routine and I love it! I was also able to do a test run of making healthy food choices. I went shopping on the weekend and stocked up on salad items and fruit. All week I snacked on fruit and 2 or 3 evenings, I got myself up to make a salad. It was a new and familiar feeling of eating all those fruits and veggies... new 'cause I hadn't felt it in a while and familiar because I've felt it before...Had that mentally clear feeling of I'm eating healthy stuff... Even made some choices of fruit over my favorite cheeseballs and cheese curls...Now I'm entering week 8 and the funny thing is, I feel like I just found my groove and I'm ready to go!!!

Making it to this point of the challenge was not easy. But having the support of friends and family made it much easier to do. I must give a shout out to my skinny sister, who exercised with me almost every day. Many times encouraging me to exercise when I didn't want to. My son also got up a few times to exercise with me and provided encouraging comments through out the challenge... Ginger and Sporty... Your enthusiasm, determination and grit were an inspiration to me. Early up in the challenge there were somedays I wanted to quit but you guys kept going and I determined to hang in there.... Mimi...where are you??? You aren't still doing the "lulling" strategy, are you?? Lol... I must say, I'm down for trashy novel reading in any upcoming challenges! Jill...saw you commented recently on the blog...nice to know you're still around! It feels really good to have this online community of people to share the struggles and joys of weightloss with.

So week eight, here I come! I'm gonna knock it out of the park!!!