Halfway There!

Yesterday was a teaser, but today confirmed it - 

I'm halfway to goal!!

I've been intentionally vague with the numbers, because I didn't like them. So let me get more exact now.

I'm 5'8". At my tallest, I was 5'9", but I've slowly been developing a case of scoliosis, so I'm shrinking a bit. 

When I was a sophomore in high school, we did the musical "Oklahoma!" I played Ado Annie, and at one point Will tells Ado Annie she's the "sweetest little 110 pounds of sugar in the territory." I thought that was pretty cool since I was exactly 110 at that point.

By the time I got married at age 20, I was up to 120. Still quite thin, and I'd managed to avoid as much weight as you typically hear of people gaining when they go to college.

When I became pregnant at age 25, I was around 130. (Please note: 10 years -> 20 pounds. This is important later.) And when I gave birth, I was right around 150, give or take a couple pounds. But that was temporary, and I was back down to 130ish pretty quickly.

If you'll remember, when I started this blog, I said that the weight gain really started the summer that Jim had all of his eye trouble and I mostly sat around hospitals. That was 20 years ago, in 1992.

Jump forward to when Kim was in 3rd grade...so another 9 or 10 years. I distinctly remember edging closer and closer to 170 and swearing I would NOT let myself get over that mark. 

I swore the same thing with 180...and with 190.

Then I got out of my sedentary jobs and started working at the hospital starting in early summer of 2008. The physical work along with typically eating only twice a day (because I'd come home after a night at work and fall straight into bed and sleep through breakfast) dropped my weight down a bit so that by the time I left the hospital in January of 2010, I was around 185.

Then I went back to a sedentary job, bolstered by lunchtime runs to McDonald's just to get out of the house for a few minutes. And in just over two years, my weight bounced up nearly 20 pounds. (I told you it would be important.)

So when I started this journey in July, the scale said 203. Ugh.

The goal was set: lose 40 pounds, hopefully before my birthday in February. 

Now, mind you, I got a new scale last week that will measure not only weight, but also body fat percentage as well as water and bone mass. (Mostly I wanted it so when the weight starts to stay the same, I can see whether I'm trading muscle for fat.) This new scale reads three pounds lighter than my old one did, so I have to make adjustments for that.

So, let's say I started at 200, according to the new scale.

Monday I hit 180.2 before I ate breakfast. Today it was 179.4. So now I feel comfortable in saying that yes, I've made it halfway!

More than being halfway, I seriously can't remember the last time my weight was below 180. It has been at least five years. And yes, I cried a little this morning. Happy tears.

So my Facebook status yesterday wasn't quite complete. It should have read:

It's a Milestone Monday:
*Coldest start to a walk: 35* when I got up this morning.
*Lowest weight so far: 180.2 (now updated to 179.4 and officially claiming it to be 20 pounds lost and halfway to goal!!)
*Fastest single mile: 13:50 (previous best had been 14:33)
*Fastest overall pace: 14:18/mile for 5 miles (had never made it under 15:00 before)