I passed the 5 month mark and didn't have a chance to get a blog done until today.. so I'm at 5 months and 6 days! Hmmm what's that.. around 21 weeks? I don't know.. I kind of lost count, but what I do know is this:

I'm down 73 pounds, and I'm down more than 10 numbers in sizes! TEN NUMBERS... well, more than ten numbers actually, if you count the last pair of jeans I bought! (insert big ol grin here!) I guess honestly, that's only 5 to 6 sizes since sizes tend to jump by 2 numbers, but I think it's absolutely amazing!!

I've been enjoying this journey so much lately, even though Ive come to the sad realization this week that eating isn't really a very pleasant experience for me anymore. This kind of makes me sad, and extremely grateful at the very same time. Weird, I know. My last fill was last week, and boy is it tight right now. But I loosen up quite a bit as I drop inches, and I know it won't last forever. I've had to adopt some little tips and tricks to make eating easier these past few days. My band is way tighter in the morning than in the evening. I have to drink something hot to even be able to eat anything at all, and even liquids are a tight squeeze when I first drink them each day. But eventually things loosen up a little, and I can eat... sort of. I now know what it means to have to eat verrrry slowly! I'm talking super small bites, and 5-10 minutes in between each bite right now... thus, not such a pleasant eating experience. Everyone in my family is done WAY before I am, and it's about impossible to go out to eat anywhere and actually enjoy a meal, unless I just sit there and talk, not eat. BUT, I still have the best luck with meat. I can still eat steak.. not very much, but I can eat it. Hamburger doesn't like me as much for whatever reason, and forget chicken. I don't care how moist and tender it is, it hates me... or my band hates it, whichever way that goes. And another surprising thing.. I absolutely can NOT eat mashed potatoes. They get stuck every stinkin time, even if they have lots of gravy on them. (Insert big ol sad face here!!) I LOVE mashed potatoes.. and you would think that would be something I'd have to be leery of, since for most people mashed taters are sliders.. (they slide right on through) but not me. Ahh well, it's a good thing probably.. if they slid right on through I'd probably eat them three times a day.

I can't do any carbonation at all.. it feels weird and unpleasant. I haven't drank a soda in almost 6 months, and don't miss it, however I attempted to drink an AMP energy drink today and it about choked me. It's surely a good thing that I love water and iced tea! I've been having issues with lemonade lately too.. not sure what's up with that.. the weirdest things seem to get "stuck" for me.

I've reached ONEDERLAND and I couldn't be more thrilled about it! That's my "Scale Victory"

and now for some "Non Scale Victories" for the week::

The "girls" are shrinking slowly, but surely.. my tank bras are getting too big, and that's awesome!

I can easily wear a size XL top down from a 3X and sometimes 4X. That's progress! If my top half would catch up with my bottom half in the downward spiral I'd be in good shape, but I'm not complaining, it's happening and I can see it.

My shoulders are so pretty! LOL I used to HATE my shoulders. They looked so fat and ugly to me, and now I just love them.

I have tons more energy than I remember having in years. I jog up and down my stairs several times a day and don't end up laying on my bed or the floor as my lungs beg for mercy! I take up so much less space these days too.. weird... in my clothes.. in my car... on my furniture... My daughter in law pulls my pants out of the dryer now and just says "wow" every time. There really is a huge difference. Yeah.. things are diminishing and I just love it! I've lost close to 40 inches over my entire body.

My other butt is emerging too~ it's taking shape a little better. I was thinking it was going to be on the flat side after all of this, but now I'm not so sure. I'm seeing differences there almost daily. Exercise is helping I think.

So that's my report for now.. I'm hoping that by the time Christmas gets here I need a lot of new clothes!! I already do, actually, but I'm hoping a lot of new smalllllller clothes! I'm getting greedy now aren't I? I can't help it, I'm seeing this weight melt away, and I have so much hope now that it's not going to take forever to get to my ideal weight. I was willing to settle for 20 or 30 pounds over the "ideal" when I first started... but not anymore! I now know I can do this! And that's such a great feeling!

Thanks for stopping by!

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