253.2

Starting Weight: 318.2 lbs.
Weight Last Week: 256 lbs.
Current Weight: 253.2 lbs.
Weekly Change: –2.8 lbs.
Total Weight Lost: 65 lbs.

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Good evening, friends!

Today has been a good day.

When I walked into Weight Watchers this morning, a couple of ladies were waiting at the door to greet me—seriously! Everyone at the meeting was on pins and needles waiting for me to announce how the oral defense of my thesis went; each time someone walked in the door, they stopped to ask me about it.

They all told me the same thing—that they’d been thinking about me all week.

The sense of community at Weight Watchers—or at least my Weight Watchers—is incredible. I feel so incredibly lucky to have met all of these wonderful people. It feels so good to have people genuinely care about you like that and to also genuinely care about them in return.

It’s hard to explain what it feels like to be part of my meeting; it’s a very special and unique experience, for sure.

I owe them big time.

Just like I owe all of you big time.

I feel closer to all of you—all of you out there in the blogosphere and all of the folks at my Weight Watchers meeting—than I do to the majority of other people in my life. I truly feel like I can be candid and honest no matter what out here in the blogosphere or at my meeting, and there aren’t too many other places where I feel that I can do the same.

Thank you for taking this journey with me.

You guys keep me going!

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So, as you can see from the top of the post, I lost weight again this week! I lost 2.8 lbs., bringing my grand total to 65 lbs. down, which means that I lost “new” weight! I am finally back on the right track after that silly 3.4 lb. gain two weeks ago, and it feels good!

I am now just 35 lbs. away from a 100 lb. loss, and that’s pretty mind boggling to me. On one hand, 35 lbs. seems like such a small amount of poundage to lose (at least compared to what I’ve already done), but on the other hand, it still feels a little daunting because my weight loss has reached that point where it’s not super consistent anymore, so I never know whether I’ll be losing 0.6 lbs. a week or 2-3 lbs. a week or nothing at all.

I want to put a timeframe on it, but I know that that’s probably not the best idea.

I’m just over 8 months into my health journey now (it was 8 months exactly on May 12th). Could I lose 35 lbs. by September 12th–my rebirthday?

Maybe… But it’s OK if I don’t.

It really, really is.

I didn’t set out to lose 100 lbs. in a year.

I honestly didn’t think I’d ever lose 100 lbs., let alone in just 12 months’ time, so I am not going to be too terribly disappointed if that doesn’t happen for me.

But, to be candid, there is another date I’d really like the big 100 lb. loss to happen by: December 12, 2015—the day of my college graduation.

This is what I looked like on May 23, 2011—the day of my high school graduation:

And I want a do-over.

I want to be able to take a graduation photo in which I don’t look back on it and just cringe.

I want to take a photo that I won’t be embarrassed to hang on the wall.

And while I am definitely much smaller now than I was when the above photo was taken, it would be really, really nice to be a full 100 lbs. smaller by then.

It’d make me so happy if I weighed ~218.2 lbs. on December 12th, 2015.

So very, very happy.

Stephanie, my Weight Watchers leader, said that she’s coming to my graduation no matter what, and when she said that at the meeting, everyone else said they’d like to come too—that I could have my very own little Weight Watchers cheering section.

I would absolutely love that, and it would be a big deal to have them there to simultaneously celebrate my graduation and a 100 lb. weight loss.

My 23rd birthday is on December 28th, and it’d also be nice to be down 100 lbs. for that occasion, too.

I will be happy if I can just shed these next 35 lbs. by December.

That’s my tentative (and hopefully realistic) timeframe.

The other 54.2 lbs. that I have to shed after that can take their sweet time, for all I care. 🙂

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I went to see my dear friend Betty on Wednesday, and it was such a happy day—for Betty and for me. She is hanging in there, which thrills me to no end. She’s a true fighter, and even though she is horribly ill and suffering from a lot of nasty side effects related to the chemo, she’s still giving the fight all she’s got.

Her blood work and other tests have come back looking pretty good, so they’re going to go ahead and do the transplant in June. She’ll be admitted into the hospital in a couple of weeks so that the doctors can start preparing her body for what’s to come.

She was so happy to see me and so proud of my weight loss efforts, and, of course, she sent me home with all kinds of Weight Watchers friendly food to help me switch it up so that I can hopefully get out of the 250s soon! She also offered to let me use the pool at her complex to get in some exercise, and when I complained about being afraid to put on a bathing suit, she informed me that she wears long board shorts and that I could easily find something that would cover me if I really wanted to.

I might take her up on the offer. Who knows!

I was just so happy to see her and visit with her. We sat and talked for hours, and I finally got to meet her husband, Charlie, too. They are some of the kindest people I’ve ever met.

Betty also told me that she’s going on a “Celebrate Life” cruise next March once this cancer is finally behind her, and she invited me along. She’s inviting everyone that’s important to her, and I was flattered to be included. It’s a 10-day cruise to the Caribbean, and who knows—maybe I’ll take her up on that offer, too!

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This week I’m going to just focus on eating as many power foods as possible. Last week’s attempt at Simply Filling was only somewhat successful, so I am going to make some adjustments this week.

I hope each of you had a wonderful week this past week and that the upcoming week is lovely, too.

Eat well. Be well.

rachaelxoxo