199.8: No longer condemned to the boring fate of other random numbers

Whew, it has been quite a week! I AM NOW UNDER 200 LBS!!!! Caps locks are reserved for special occasions since it implies yelling, but I believe this is an appropriate time since if I saw you in person I would actually be yelling that sentence at you (and in the process, freaking you out and making you partially deaf). Let me tell you, if I had gotten on that scale this morning and seen a number that started with a 2, I totally believe I would have had a full-blown temper tantrum. The scale may have actually gone out the window. My cats and neighbors may have been scarred for life from all the screaming. Oh, I could be calm and mature, and go on about how I'm sure it would happen for me next week and how the number isn't the most important thing, but let's be real here: I would have been royally pissed off. I wanted it to happen for me this week, not next week. I worked so hard and it would have been crushing if it hadn't paid off. But it did! That scale read 199.8 this morning and it may have been the most beautiful number I've ever seen. So beautiful that I took a picture of it:

This picture is now currently the wallpaper on my phone (well, sometimes it's the wallpaper. My phone is still acting psycho and doing things on its own, so at times my wallpaper randomly becomes a Bee Gees album cover). It may seem silly, but I've worked so hard to see this number. I'll do whatever I want to celebrate it (well, except maybe pig out at Outback or somewhere equally calorie-laden). I don't know if it's because I was so sick with my kidney stone when I lost 100 lbs or what, but getting below 200 lbs is more emotional for me than losing 100 lbs. I seriously cried for like 10 minutes when I saw the number today. Maybe it's just seeing a 1 in front of my weight instead of a 3. I have a very clear memory of me thinking about getting below 200 at the very start of me losing weight, and it seemed like an impossible task. So far away that I could never get there. When I got under 300 lbs, I wasn't too excited really. Mainly because I was still in shock that I had ever gotten to that crazy point. I just wanted to forget I had ever been there. So there was little celebration for the milestone. Also, when I got under 200 lbs during my crazy college weight loss competition days, there was little celebration as well. That's mainly because I was acting like an obsessed nut job. I was so busy eating my lettuce and canned crab and getting my 15 miles a day in on the elliptical, that I barely even registered the milestone at all. I saw under 200 and just thought that that wasn't enough to win the contest and I needed to lose more! I believe that that little instance is a prime example of why that weight loss attempt ultimately failed. It was crazy and made me crazy (of course, this period was during the last semester of nursing school, so that by itself was enough to make me crazy even without the insane diet). So yes, I am fully celebrating this milestone now. 128 lbs looks a lot closer this side of 200.

In other news, I am kicking my work-outs up a notch. I wouldn't really say that I am plateauing, but my weight loss has steadily declined as I get smaller. I know this is completely normal, and I'm not being crazy thinking I'm going to lose 6 or 7 lbs a week like I did in the beginning. Although wouldn't that be awesome? No, I am just hoping that by upping the intensity and frequency of my workouts, I can average around 3 lbs a week again instead of 2-2.5 lbs a week like I am currently losing. Hence, I am going to the gym at the ungodly hour of 5 am and also again later when I get off of work. I have assured people that I am not being crazy like when I lost weight before. I just recognize that the weight is not going to come off as easily as it did before, and I need to work harder for every pound. Hopefully, the hard work pays off next week. Otherwise, we may still see that afore-mentioned temper tantrum.