To Those Who Have Reached Goal...

Just reached goal weight today. In some ways I wonder if too much? But this is weight I've been at before. Happy with my size (some 2s, 4s, 6s(from 10 years ago!)). Want to change composition a bit more. I'm at 28% body fat, down from 33.5. Not bad for a 51-year-old woman!

My self-image is so skewed. I'm 5'2". At 198 pounds, I didn't realize how big I was until I saw a full body photo. Ouch. Now at 132, I feel way bigger than I actually am!! It takes so long for the brain to catch up with the body.

This, I am also 5'2" and started at 244, now at 154, size 4/6 I still feel big and I have some areas that I intend to work on. I know that I feel better and am at a much healthier state but it really does take the mind way too long to catch up! I am still un-officially working on losing a few more pounds and building up my strength.

Bump to read later.

I loved it when I hit my goal, then I set new ones, and right now all I care about is getting stronger with the itty bitty tensey weensy condition of continuing to fit into my current clothes.

My original goal was 125. I really thought it was a complete pipe dream. I was 218.6 and I had never seen anyone I knew personally lose more than about 60lbs so anything above that must be a dream. I resisted the urge to set mini goals though. I decided success would be 125 and all else would be failure. Seems harsh but I am the type that needs harsh to get the job done. When I hit 125 I still had a few weeks left before my goal date and since that date had a pretty dress attached to it, I decided I needed a bit of cushion in case I ate one too many salty meals in the days right before. I dropped down to about 120ish by goal date, and thoroughly enjoyed my dress and surprising my family with my weight loss. In the months that followed I started adjusting to maintenance but at first I was so nervous about gaining anything back, that I actually managed to lose another 5lbs. I have actually decided that I like the lower weight range. I gained about 8lbs over the next year and I am currently trying to trim that back off. My goal weight range now is between 115-120ish. I am currently sitting on 118 and trying to get that down to 115 so that I go into the fall/winter (or better known as eating cookie seasons) with a little wiggle room. Really I don't need to lose anymore because I am a leaner 118 than I was at 115. All my measurements are the same or lower than when I was 115 the last time but I made a deal with myself and said I could stop trying to lose weight when I hit 115 or walked 500 miles and I would really really really like to stop walking 13 miles a day before it hits 120 degrees here in AZ. Stupid torture goals :grumble:

I hit my original goal well over a year ago, and I'm currently at it now, and no, I'm definitely not satisfied. I have a ways to go. But it was still incredibly satisfying to hit it. And it used to be a good weight. When I was younger.

My goal wasn't a weight amount. It was a dress size/measurement range so my experience seem to be different than others.

I just got to a point where I was very happy with my body and decided to move to maintenance. I never wanted to be tiny (fit and strong with some curves and no rolls anywhere) so I didn't have the issue of losing too much.

However, I still needed a little work on my triceps and inner thigh jiggle (main trouble spots), so I did targeted exercises everyday. A couple of months later those areas became tight and firm. At that point I became completely content. I still include those exercise with my workout routine several times a week.

My fear was when I hit maintenance I was becoming complacent and slowly put weight back on since I wasn't going to experience the high of losing weight/inches anymore. Making fitness goals, working towards them and achieving the goal has helped me overcome that fear. There is always a new fitness goal I can aim towards.

My self image is still a little skewed as well. At times I think I'm bigger than what I really am. Sometimes I will catch my reflection when I'm out and don't recognize my fit body at all. Or if I'm in a passenger side in a car and I see my face I just stare. I'm still wowed at how much smaller my face and neck is compared to before.

Other times such as last night, I caught this very attractive man staring and smiling a few of times trying to get my attention as if he wanted to chat. I'm still getting used to things like that.

I've been overweight or obese my entire adult life so I'm the smallest I've been since my early college days (20 years). I guess my head will eventually catch up...I hope!