WHOOSH!

Well, maybe whoosh. One and a half pounds isn't exactly all-caps worthy. Then again, after a month of staying the same, maybe it is.

According to LoseIt, I can still reach my goal by the end of this year. I really hope starting another strict Whole 30 today will be the catalyst I need to get the last 12 pounds off by Christmas.

But if it doesn't happen until January 1, I'll be okay with that.

Can you believe it? Neither can I! But going back and reading my posts from April of this year, when I did the first strict Whole 30, gives me so much hope.

Last month was the only month this year in which my weight didn't change at all. I've recorded losses every month except March, when I had a 1.5-pound gain. And that move in the wrong direction forced me to think outside the box, to take a look at another way of doing things, to step OUT of my comfort zone.

Seeing how a paleo plan had helped others near-and-dear to me wasn't enough to get me to try it. It took complete and utter dedication to creating a calorie deficit following the Standard American Diet (SAD) and not succeeding to get me to try something new.

Was I scared? You bet. What if it didn't work? Then what? I was pretty much out of options and considering making an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon. My right hip hurt constantly, and I couldn't reach my arms up without experiencing shoulder pain. From what I'd read, though, a paleo plan isn't all about weight loss. While I began that first Whole 30 with a diet mentality, I also wanted to be free of the discomfort I'd been experiencing, and I was willing to stick with it if I found improvement.

Which I did.

It's kind of funny … physically I feel SO much better – the weight loss is a bonus. It can, of course, be argued that carrying around 50-plus fewer pounds is bound to relieve some pain. But that pain was gone after losing the first nine or 10. I wouldn't have expected that small a loss to result in that much relief. I am completely convinced that grains, especially, caused a lot of the inflammation that led to the pain I'd been living with.

I've been able to eat dairy a couple of times with no ill effects. I haven't even tried eating legumes, and I'm not sure why. I really haven't wished for hummus or black bean soup or even peanut butter. (Roasted almond butter is so much better tasting!) Sugar (headaches) and grains (joint pain) are the two things that give me trouble, particularly when they're combined.

Anyhoo … here I go again. Meat, vegetables, fruit, nuts. No coconut flour or almond meal or dark chocolate or paleo-fied treats. Back to basics.

Onward and DOWNward.