The Fall Equinox Challenge on 3fatchicks is now over, here is the log of how I did week to week.

Starting weight: 238 Goal weight: 220

9/21: 219.8 - I MADE MY GOAL!!!! YAY! I was down to 219.2 on Friday but had a heavier food day on Saturday that bloated me a bit. But even though it was only a .4 pound net loss this week, according to the random number generator, I still made it!

I made my goal, obviously, even with my weight logging higher today than what I actually burned in terms of calorie deficit. My loss speed was slow and varied with whatevrer was going on in my life, but it still trended downward and marched onward toward and then over my mini finish line! My sticking to my big changes for this period of time paid off, and I proved to myself that even with some life issues and fun food days with friends I can still keep up and succeed with the healthier habits I have adopted.

I'm not winning any biggest loser style competitions with my weight loss speed, but I have kept it off in real life with real challenges and no herculean amount of effort or unsustainable deprivation. I count that as a success equal or greater in measure than a loss twice as big that would not last. So for this challenge, and this greater weight management method, I must declare myself a wonderful success and am very pleased!

Now - the pictures. They were taken on Saturday, and though the shirt is a little baggy and the jeans need to be shrunk often to not sag off, I think the picture shows some of my progress. To my eye I am disappointed I do not see more change, but that is only because I am completely done with living in a puffy fat suit and wish my body more quickly reflected the changes I have undertaken. I AM getting there, though, and I know I look better for all the work put in!

What was that? Where are the pictures I am speaking of, you say? Well that's the rub, isn't it? I took them and they're sitting on my camera, but my computer has had a meltdown that my brilliant hubby and multiple hardware tests cannot identify the cause of, and keeps looping/freezing/not booting/etc etc. My husband is out of town with the other working laptop (the desktops aren't easily accesible or are running Unix and FreeBSD, so not useful to my iPhoto needs) so repair of my old computer or use of his new one is limited until Thursday. I am typing this ever so slowly on my iPod, but while I can access the Internet those pictures will have to wait to be posted until later. Bad blogger, no cookie!

Exercise is going pretty well, I will be dedicating a blog post to that soon enough!