50lbs, Clothes, and Cupcakes

Monday (today) is when I officially count my progress and I'm happy to say that I'm at 224, another 2 lbs down from last week and 6 lbs down from several weeks ago when I was fretting over being back up in the 30s. My resolve is strengthened through these little ups and downs and I am actually starting to really, truly believe that if I just keep following the rules then I'll get there. This means that 1 lb from now (so maybe by Friday of this week) I will have lost 50lbs from my official starting weight. That is something I never thought I'd be able to say in my life. It's amazing, and if it stopped here, I'd be happy. But I don't want it to either.

The past week I've really busted my ass, sticking with the high protein/low carb thing, and exercising O!M!G! exercising. I killed it at rock climbing last week. Did a 5.3 and a 5.4 route for the first time ever. When I started climbing in December of last year I could only blaze my own trail instead of following the routes and sure, it's not that big of a deal that I can now sort of do some of the easier ones (some of - not all by any means.) But Damn! It's an improvement. And it is easier now than it used to be.

Then yesterday, I came THIS close to running a 10 minute mile, which wasn't even really an ambition of mine till I was on the treadmill - at which point I thought, "Hmmm, wouldn't that be cool if I could run this mile in 10 minutes?" I ended up at about 10:30 but that still beats the pants of my fastest previous time of 11:50! I'm getting excited about doing the 5K for the AIDS Walk/Run in October. At this rate, I might actually do the 5K in under 40 minutes which would be amazing. But just finishing it at all would be really thrilling too.

I've been selling some clothes of mine on ebay since they a) don't fit anymore or b) are just not my style and it's time to get rid of them. Here are 2 things no one in my life currently has ever seen me wear or ever will again, but I took pictures of them on cause it sells better that way than just lying flat on a table. And it's weird, I actually think they look good. Who would have thought? Not me, certainly. And I think I can say they look good because my head is not in the picture so it's not really me. *I* don't look good in dresses or pink things but this body does.






So today was a special thing at work (actually this whole week is) and they kicked it off with these killer cupcakes. I decided to have half of one since it's not something they do often. It was good, not the best I've ever had, but pretty good. And I was successful in eating half and throwing the rest away. I feel slightly bad about doing that but I keep telling myself I CANNOT live the rest of my life without eating a piece of cupcake. I can't even live the rest of the next year without that. I eat my dark chocolate every night because it's something I can have a small piece of and it's not high in sugar (70 percentage or higher cocoa, very little sugar actually) so I just won't have that today and we'll call it even.

Lastly, here is a picture I took last week in a new shirt, a men's medium. I love the shirt (in a purely ironic way, not cause I'm a Jesus Freak.) I think I can see the difference in myself particularly well in this picture. Less bulges than I'm used to seeing.




That's all for now, I guess. I'll definitely make a big post when I hit 50lbs for real.