Healthy is not a magic number

I see alot of people that set a goal with a specific number in mind and are disappointed that when they hit that "magic number" and they do not like what they see. Losing weight is easy. Being healthy is a whole other ball game. you can go to McDonalds and eat a small cheese burger and small fries twice a day and still lose weight, but you will look and feel like crap. Your skin will be grey and pasty, your hair will be clumped together, your muscles will cramp from dehydration, and you will still jiggle when you walk.
Losing weight is not the cure all answer to your problems. It is a stepping stone towards your goal of being healthy, and there is a whole flight of stairs in the path of being healthy. Being healthy is not a passing fad. its a life style. if you stop exercising if you stop eating healthy and you stop caring for your body i promise you will gain back ever pound you fought so hard and long to lose.
Stop concentrating on that "magic number" and start concentrating on how you feel. you should feel great after a work out. you may be tired, you may hurt and you may be shaking but you should feel great. both mentally and physically. and if you are not hurting after a work out then you need to step it up a bit. your body has gotten into rut and got used to what you are doing and it is not as beneficial as it could be. exercising goes alot further health wise then losing weight.
The best piece of advice i can give anybody is throw your scale away. unless its once of those fancy $3000 ones it will not tell you how much fat you have lost or how much muscle you have gained or how much your cholesterol has lowered. if you want encouragement then put on a pair of jeans. if they are looser and you can bend over and still breath then you are on the right track. if you want to do a week by week or month by month log of your body then go to a gym and get taped. it is much more accurate then anything your scale will ever tell you. if you have to have a magic number make it your BMI number, or how many miles you can walk in a week or how many push ups and sit ups you can do. but please don't set a static number that will not give you the results you work so hard to achieve.