Week 4 Weigh-In

Week 4 down! It feels good to have made it 4 weeks into this journey and to have experienced consistent loss so far. I know that as I get further into this it will get tougher and I may see the scale budge some but I am excited to continue plugging along while it is headed in the right direction. I am feeling better, stronger, lighter, more energized and this is just the tip of the iceberg. Let's look at what this weeks results are and how they compare to where I started.

I started this journey weighing in at 318.6 lbs. Last week I weighed in at 302.8 and this week my weight was.....300.0 lbs. Oh, so close to getting under that super ugly number! I am beyond ecstatic to know I will be busting through that milestone next week and never looking back. In the meantime I am celebrating my 2.8 lb loss for this week and my overall loss of 18.6 lbs in this first month. I am on the right track and couldn't be prouder of myself. Here's my progress as I have been tracking it on weightchart.com:

The blue line shows my weight loss over the last 4 weeks. The orange line shows my first milestone (which I already met ahead of schedule). The purple line leads to my next milestone. Loving the downward trend of that weight loss line and the feeling of meeting my goals and staying on track! Progress is a beautiful thing.

Every 4 weeks I am going to not only show you what the scale is saying but also take pictures to document visible progress. I am going to try to stay in the same outfit for continuity which should help make differences more noticeable. Here is today's picture:

Here are side by sides of last month's pictures compared to today's pictures:

Not a whole lot of visible change which honestly is disappointing (and a little disgusting!) after losing 18 pounds. But I know that my body is changing and that with this much weight to lose it may take awhile to really see a difference. I know that I am putting healthier food in my body, eating appropriate portion sizes, increasing the water I drink, lessening my caffeine intake, trading processed foods for whole foods and making healthier choices each and everyday. I can't wait to look back months or years down the road and see a drastic difference from this starting point. But we all have to start somewhere and I know that with each month that passes I will move further away from what I used to be and closer to my goal.

Are you celebrating your milestones? It's so easy to get caught up in the end result and forget that it takes progress to get there and that progress deserves celebration. As I said, I will use both the scale and monthly pictures to celebrate the way my body is changing for the better. And when I add fitness to this journey I will be measuring and taking pictures focusing in on different body parts to further record the changes taking place. Seeing that scale go down is awesome but it is just one way to measure success and I don't plan on limiting myself solely based on those numbers. What are your favorite ways to evaluate how your body is changing that don't include the scale?