Down 3.4 pounds! In the past I've done a lot of rapid-weight-loss diets, and my first real week on each program I usually lost five or more pounds, so I was expecting to be disappointed with whatever today's number was - but actually, I feel really good about that number. Maybe it's because that number was all me; just me and my hard work. Me making the right food choices. Me getting my butt to the gym. Me making changes for me! In the past, in all honesty, the diets deserved all of the credit. They told me what to eat, and how much to eat, and when to eat, and even sometimes how to eat. And in most cases I wasn't required to work out, so I didn't. Any losses were a direct result of the science behind the diet, not a result in any way of my efforts. True, 3.4 pounds is less than five pounds, but it's 3.4 pounds - 3.4 pounds for which I worked very hard, and I'm going to enjoy both of them!

I'm doing my best not to set any goals for myself in terms of a time frame, but in the back of my mind I really want to be at my goal by the time bathing suit season hits: so, I'd say around mid-April. That gives me 24 weeks to lose 33(.8) pounds, which works out to be a little less than a pound and a half a week. That's completely doable! And so far, I'm ahead of schedule! I'm not going to make trackers this time, or hold myself to a rigid minimum standard - but as long as I'm averaging a pound and a half a week I will be happy. Sure, some weeks I'll only lose one, maybe only a half, but then other weeks, like this week, I'll lose two or more. As long as I average a pound and a half a week I know I'll keep in good spirits.