The past eight years have been quite eventful for me. Everything’s changed, from health to housing to jobs, and I feel like the trajectory is definitely upward. Across all these milestones, I’ve been slowly working on my weight, taking breaks when needed and celebrating at each mini-goal. Those mini-goals were necessary because I had so far to go at the start and losing 100 pounds felt like a pipe dream. In May of 2011, I weighed 230. When I stepped on the scale Sunday morning, it said 125. As of this point, I’ve lost the equivalent of a hellfire missile.
My ultimate goal was always 125, but I never expected to actually hit it, especially now that I’m in recomposition mode and eating like a mastodon. Seeing that number in my weight log felt so surreal. I couldn’t even say anything; just showed the phone to Brian, who also couldn’t say anything. Then he grabbed me for a victory dance, because holy crap, that happened. We danced for a bit and talked about how I got here.
The first milestone was to get below 200, which happened pretty quickly after I learned to stop drinking my calories. Most of the time I don’t miss them, though the occasional pining for a pure Dr. Pepper does happen. The next was to get below 180, where I got stuck for a while trying to balance protein intake and support weight lifting on a ridiculous calorie deficit. Doing so took me down to 160, which led to a catastrophic health issue requiring surgery, which led to a long break for recovery.
The next round number I was shooting for was 150, which I hit after returning to a corporate job from the freedom of consulting for a few years. Two years into that job I lost my mind, went back to proposal writing, and am still at it. Back in January I finally hit my next goal, which was 130, and figured it was time to start the big recomposition (muscles bigger, body fat percentage smaller).
That process has been going very well, which probably deserves a post in itself, but is not generally one in which you see the scale number go down. I was content to gain a bit of weight in pursuit of my extra ultimate goal, which is to look like Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2, yet here I am at 125. I’m thrilled and a little baffled.
So, to celebrate hitting my ultimate goal weight, I did the most logical thing possible: baked myself a cake.
Congratulations baby, so proud of you.
Mom