2010 was NOT a disaster

Last year, over all, was a good year for the ol' bod.

And even the end of the year wasn't so bad... Who am I kidding? Of course it was bad. Very bad. I'm just convinced the effects will wear off quickly.

So how did I do last year?

The good news is I saw in the New Year exactly TWENTY-ONE and a HALF pounds lighter than the year before!!!!  How about them apples?  Wooo Hooo!!!!  Yay me!!!!

More good news? I can do ten real push-ups!  I couldn't do that ten years ago, much less one year ago.  I'm enjoying jogging on the treadmill, getting close to actually running. Who knew I could like pushing the intensity up like that? This is truly a first for me, perhaps in forever, certainly in my memory of the last many years.

And wait, there's more!  I'm wearing clothes that have been put away for more than five years!  I'm digging into the inaccessible depths of my closet (half worried I'll accidentally end up in Narnia by mistake) and finding good quality, classic clothes like my momma always told me to buy.  And my butt seems to have lifted up some from where it used to be, reversing some of the effects of gravity.

The bad news?

The first time I saw the weight I was this New Year's was in October.  If I only had a few datapoints to go on, I'd be thinking I've lost a whole three month's progress.  Luckily, I'm able to look at the weight in perspective, but it's still a very big deal.

OK, having sugar coated everything (what a Freudian slip just as I'm detoxing from all carbs in my new Atkins lifestyle), here is the picture:

Yikes, look at that spike up there at the end!

No, wait a minute, let's just savor the big drop for the year. This is the longest sustained loss since The Big Loss of 1998.  More than twenty pounds is a major accomplishment. Yay, me!

OK, let's get real now, and admit how bad it was last week. Look at this in a six month close-up:

Here, the grid lines are two pounds apart, so I shot up more than four pounds in weekly average weight, and have an eight pound jump over the course of two weeks.  But as I said at Thanksgiving (and it proved to be true), a rapid bump up is no more "real" than a rapid shot down. Homeostasis is already pulling me back to where I was stable before the holiday weeks.  And I'm very confidant that my new current discipline will carry me through and down to where I want to be.

Another twenty pounds this year? That would put me essentially at goal weight. The goal weight I've held in my mind for twenty years.  It could happen.  If it does, it won't be an accident. It will be the result of hard sustained work.

And here's the really cool thing. This blog, the "DIY" diet buddy, has led to some real-life diet buddies. Together, we're going to accomplish miracles, and have a lot of fun and eat plenty of good food along the way.