If it's Monday …

it must be time for the official check-in with the scale.

Previously when I've weighed myself daily I've gotten discouraged. Because previously when I've weighed myself EVER while restricting calories in order to lose weight, the scale has not exactly been my friend.

And previously when the number doesn't change, or goes up instead of down, or even stays the same for days/weeks/months on end … well, I would do what you or anyone else would do.

That would be QUIT!

If I wasn't getting results, why bother? If I could maintain a certain number by not eating pie AND I could maintain that same number eating pie? Well, you know which one I'm going to choose. The fact that the number was far too high for good health was irrelevant. My efforts to reduce that number and my waistline were futile. Thus the "why-bother" attitude.

If you've been here a while (and I know both of you have been), you know I did something completely different and waaaaaaaaay out of my comfort zone this year.

Quite possibly my favorite non-scale
victory is the one where my wedding
ring slips around easily on my finger.
Unlike a year ago, when I had to tug on it.

So zoom in to now.

Now when I weigh myself daily I'm not disappointed with the number. If it's the same as yesterday's, I'm fine with that. Even if it's slightly higher than yesterday's … no problem. Daily check-ins are part of my plan. They didn't used to be, at least not for long. Now, though, I mostly see numbers that please me and show me I'm on the right track.

Last Monday's was definitely one of those numbers.

Today's number is 1.5 pounds less than that, for a total of five for September and 51.5 for the year.

Nine months into my transformational year and I've achieved both of my initial goals: 1000 miles logged, 50 pounds lost. (I know there's a childbirth joke in there somewhere, but I can't come up with one on the fly.) I'm eager to drop the remaining 15 pounds to achieve my revised goal. And, astonishingly, I'm confident it will happen.

I've never been confident about losing weight in the past. NEVER. It's always been a surprise when the scale went down and an "oh-well-what-did-you-expect" moment (or worse) when it didn't. I will admit that I wondered, briefly, if I would hit minus-50 and be stuck there.

But I hit minus-51 this past Tuesday.

I knew then and I know now, there's no turning back.