5 Pounds & 5.5 Inches - Slow & Steady

It's been just shy of a month since the last time I measured every inch of my body...and in that time, I've lost 5 pounds and 5.5 inches...from my calves, my arms, my belly and three from my friggin saddlebags.

This is why I love my tape measure.

I also love my new scale. Over the past three weeks since I quit Medifast, my weight loss has predictably stalled -- but my fat loss has been steady and significant. According to the scale, which measures % body water, bone mass, fat and muscle...I'm down from nearly 45% body fat to just under 43% and my muscle mass has increased from 33% to nearly 36% -- IN JUST THREE WEEKS!

My goal is to be under 40% blubber by the wedding, and I think that's totally do-able with the workouts I've been doing lately. I have so much energy and love working out now like I haven't in years. It's great to view food as fuel again. That's one component missing from the Medifast diet (which, again, has a LOT of merit -- but it's nice to feel my body responding so favorably after I abruptly jumped off of the plan). I find that if I do a workout of about 45-60 minutes before 2pm, by around 4:30/5, I'm ready for a mile walk around the neighborhood or another round of yoga or pilates. In fact, I've been averaging about 60-90 minutes of cardio and/or strength training 6 days per week over these past three weeks. It's fantastic and I feel so accomplished.

I feel especially awesome after scrolling through some of my earlier posts -- posts where I talked about not wanting to work out, not being able to work out as hard as I used to and only being able to do 15 minutes on the bike...or only being fit enough to play with the Wii Fit...wow, was I out of shape!

It's great to look over my shoulder to see all that's behind me -- especially when I look in the mirror and still see those pesky 40+ pounds I have left to lose. I have a feeling they'll be some of the hardest fought pounds yet.

I've lost 138 pounds and 86 inches. Another 42 pounds? Totally doable.