25 pounds, wow!

Well, I didn't update my blog until now, but many of you noticed that I hit the 25 pounds gone mark yesterday! Thanks for all your sweet comments and Spark Goodies!! I feel just awesome about it. :) I am only about 13 pounds from my first major goal which is under 300! Hitting the "twos" again will be very exciting for me--I can't wait!

So this afternoon I started cooking dinner. I'm making "Amish Beef Stew" which is quite a delicious SparkPeople recipe, should you want to search for it. And I've got my meat in the Dutch oven, peeling my potatoes, and all of a sudden it occurs to me. I stop and look at my bag of potatoes. 5 lbs. I have lost FIVE BAGS of potatoes! It's a crazy thought.

My husband keeps saying he notices a difference. I'm not quite seeing it yet--I'm feeling it in certain areas but when I look at myself I still feel like I look the same. I really need to get around to taking some pictures before I lose any more weight!

I posted about my weight loss to Facebook, and one of my friends commented "Great job! What's your method?" And I thought about it--and I guess she's expecting some big secret, but honestly...eating less and moving more, and that's pretty much IT! No crazy fad diets, no Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers, no ridiculous exercise machines purchased from infomercials....just using the Y membership we already had, and using my BRAIN to actually put healthy food into my body instead of junk.

This week I will also (on Saturday) hit my 2 month anniversary of going to the gym faithfully. I started on January 6th. At that time, the gym was packed with people, probably from the New Year's Resolutions crowd. Gradually, over the weeks, the volume has dwindled a bit--it's definitely still busy, but not so that you have to wait for machines most of the time! I'm still there and I'm still moving, and I KNOW that it's what's making the difference and making this weight loss effort more successful than those in the past. Currently, I try to get to the Y 6 days a week. I don't always make it--usually it's 5 or even 4 on some weeks--but the plan is to do cardio on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at the Y with the older weight machines (so I don't have to use them! and that's where my son takes his classes, which gives me the time to work out) and light cardio/strength training on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at the nicer, newer Y. The employees in the fitness center are starting to recognize me, which is a cool feeling.

Things I've noticed from becoming more physically fit, just in 2 months:

-My overall posture is better from strengthening my abs and back muscles.
-My back doesn't hurt nearly as often anymore! I used to not even be able to stand in the kitchen long enough to wash dishes without it hurting, and that's simply not the case anymore!
-I don't drag myself up the steps from the aerobic studio to the fitness center anymore, and I'm not out of breath when I get to the top!
-I have more energy all day long.
-I walk faster in places like the grocery store.

I have started working on the goal of doing chin-ups, as outlined in one of the SparkPeople articles. The first step is to be able to do 2-3 sets of 15 pulldowns of 25% of your body weight. I can do two now (and that is around 75 pounds, btw!) and I'm working my way up to three!

I can't wait to see what the next two months of exercising bring. :)