So, Maybe I Really am Successful at this Weight Loss Thing

I'm on Cloud 9. Have you ever thought about that strange phrase? I mean, why isn't it Cloud 9 or Cloud 10? Hmmm, I'll have to Google that. It probably has to do with the number of times a guy called a girl before she said yes to a date. Or the number of times a dog barked at midnight. Or someones locker number. Or their shoe size.

Anyway, I went to the doctor the other day and I'm still celebrating my visit with him. He said that I'm right on as far as weight loss for the time I've been on this journey. He said no more than 4 pounds a month. Between 2 and 4 pounds a month and I will keep it off. Any more than that and odds are, I won't be successful in the long run.

He told me that he was proud of me. And I took to that comment like a kindergartener on their first day of school.

I've been discouraged from time to time and keep reminding myself that it's not about that scale number, but in many ways it is. As many sizes as I've dropped, I still occasionally beat myself up about that damn number. As good as I feel, not getting winded going up one, two, three, even ten flights of stairs--but that number, THAT NUMBER can sometimes bring me to tears. Not long, wailing, woe is me tears, but just a smarting, passing, drop or two. Enough just to piss me off and resolve never to do it again and then I do. That number, though, is what we measure our success by, it's what we update our friends with, it often blinks repeatedly in neon in my mind.

So, basking in the words of my doctor, maybe I am getting this right. Slow and steady definitely does win the race and I just had somebody with MD next to his name state that as a true medical fact. It feels great. So what if I may not reach my goal for X number of weeks (and we all know we do that math equation periodically. If I've lost this much weight in this many weeks, how many weeks will it take me to get to goal?) Maybe I'm actually doing this right!