So, hi! I was really busy planning that party, which went well but I have no pictures of the food, then I went to Oregon, then I went to DC. Now I am home and settled back into my usual routine: buy vegetables, cook vegetables, eat vegetables, go lift weights.
Here's what's different: I am on the right side of 200 pounds for the first time in eight or nine years. I'm within five pounds of my original goal, but somehow I don't feel like I'm done, so I'm setting a new goal of 65 pounds. When I get there I'll re-evaluate. What I thought was that when you get close to the weight your body wants to be, it gets harder to lose much more without taking drastic measures. And I have not been especially rigorous lately- I have been eating lots of food, more than my recommended calories two or three days a week, and I just keep shrinking. So far so good.
The major difference that I see is that this is what my life is like now. I'm not on a diet, I just don't eat junk food. I'm not trying to lose weight, I just love to go to the gym all the time. This is not temporary, and I'm not thinking of it as such. When I want to quit losing weight, I'll probably cut back on the cardio and maybe have fries once in a while, but I want to keep feeling as energized and strong as I do every day. And smoking, wow. I'm so glad that's over! I see people smoking now and I feel so sorry for them. I remember quite clearly the lies that I used to tell myself every hour of every day, and how I was willing to believe anything but the truth: every single one was hurting me gravely. So far I've been able to restrain myself from overtly pitying my husband, who still smokes, but I think he's thinking about it (which really is all I can ask for).
I don't know how good I am going to be about updates, but how about you go look at my Flickr, where I post pictures of food: http://flickr.com/photos/batholmes/sets/72157602786801545/
