Nicole feels

Today is a good day! I reached my goal: 135! Yippeeeeeee!!

In a nutshell, I set out to lose 14 lbs in 14 weeks, but I manage to drop the weight in 7 weeks. I also lost 10 inches total, and in the past seven weeks, I've logged 106.3 miles.

Now the challenge will be to maintain, and that can be just as tough, I think. I have to figure out how much I really can consume, with exercise (and trying to maintain that current level, at least), and not gain. I�d still like to tone a bit � not sure that I will lose anymore inches without losing more weight, which I don�t want to do, but one can hope, right? I am also still behind in my overall 500-miles-in-a-year goal, so need to keep up with that.

Having an accountability group (thanks bunches guys!) has really, really helped me. I don�t think I�ve conquered my food issues yet, but I�m working on it, and their support and encouragement has been invaluable.

You know, I didn't really do anything different than I did the last time I embarked on a journey like this. I knew what needed to be done � I just had to do it, you know? I just didn�t have the motivation until I couldn�t get into those capris. Oh, and that shopping trip where nothing I tried on fit. It then finally clicked that I had to do something.

My youngest said to me yesterday, �Now you can eat not so good stuff again.� But you know, I don�t really want to. I know I will at times � but I don�t want to lose the good habits I reestablished either. It seems our society is set up for us to make really poor choices nutritionally without even thinking about it. That is a HUGE part of the problem. It�s easy to eat �junk�. It takes time to make a salad � more time than it would have to eat those cheese steak subs with the family last night, but you know what � seeing that number this morning made it worth it.

So, I can relax a bit, but not too much. I kind of like how much my hubby likes looking at my a** again.