Not finished yet

Last week I had a meeting with a co-worker I haven't seen in a while. She commented about my weight loss and for the first time, I heard myself respond "yes, I dropped quite a few pounds but I still have more to lose."

Huh. That's new.

It wasn't until I heard myself say it out loud that I realized I'm not satisfied with my current weight. Wait, that's not entirely true. It's not the number on the scale I dislike. I couldn't care less about the number. It's the belly bulge that I'm fed up with. (Pun intended.)

Sure I look better than I used to. My arms have thinned out. I have a collar bone again. My cheeks aren't as puffy. But that darn belly still sits there, in all it's jiggly glory, mocking me. It's the first place I gain weight and the last place I lose it. And I don't feel that my weight loss is finished until it's gone. (Okay, maybe not GONE but significantly reduced.) I've come this far, why not finish the race?

Add that revelation to an extended holiday weekend of gluttony and you have a recipe for change. It's one thing to splurge on Thanksgiving. It's another thing to splurge the day before, the day after, the day after that and the day after that. If there is a healthy eating wagon, I need to get back on it.

But December is a lousy time of year to consider trying to eat healthy! So here's my plan. I'd like to find some balance over the next month. Splurge on occasion and maintain my weight as it stands. Then get back to hard-core-weight-loss mode on Jan 1. This is NOT a New Year's Resolution. That seems too temporary and gimicky. My problem has been and will continue to be one of motivation. I need a goal. A deadline. And someone looking over my shoulder. So Jan 1 will be the start. April 19 will be the deadline (my birthday). 25lbs will be the goal. You will be my progress monitors. Mkay?

Hey, do you want to lose 25lbs in 2009? Join me! Misery loves company. It'll be fun! We can swap recipes, compare work out schedules, braid each other's hair, have a pillow fight. Wait, what was I talking about? Right, we can call it the Quarter Club (or something more catchy and less dorky). I won't even make you publish your weight. C'mon, you know you want to...all the cool kids are doing it. (That's peer pressure people, I hear it's all the rage these days.)