I WON!

I lost 1.4 lbs this week and managed to pull out first place in the Biggest Loser competition!! Not only that but I hit my second goal on the nose for my final weigh-in. That felt amazing! I got to the pot of gold! :) To be a person who often stops myself from accomplishing something because it's too hard, I have to say that hitting TWO weight loss goals really feels good.

I have lost 54 lbs total. And I feel like I'm at a good "stopping" point. I will now work hard on maintaining where I'm at. I'll keep exercising to try to tone up a bit more, but I won't be trying to lose anymore. Such a strange feeling after such a time of doing it.

Here are the final results pics from the beginning of the BL competition to the end. I lost about 22 lbs from June to August. Over the summer, I'd occasionally look back at the "before" June pics, and I wondered if I'd be able to really see a difference by the end cause I didn't think 20 lbs would be as obvious as the 30 I had lost previously. I am so happy I took the pictures -- because I see a big difference. And that is motivating -- I don't want to float back up 20 lbs to a "comfortable" weight. I feel great where I'm at now.

These are embarrassing, but here they are --

 Please don't look too closely at these...eek. Wishing I had worn exercise pants instead...but then I wouldn't have been able to see the difference as easily. I lost 6 inches off my waist this go around and something like 4 inches off my hips -- the exact measurements are packed in a box somewhere. :) Lost a good chunk off my thighs, too, but I can't remember how many inches off the top of my head. All I know is is that my legs don't touch and rub together in the middle when I walk anymore. I often wondered if I'd ever lose enough for that to be the case, and I finally got there.

That's a total of ELEVEN inches just off my waist from the beginning of March. That is crazy!