SEVEN!!!!

Yes, seven pounds gone during the trip!

Wow!

My goal was to stay the same.  Then I hoped for a pound or two.  Never expected to see a whopping SEVEN pounds gone when I got on the scale this morning.  Seven pounds in a month is an excellent month.

I left on July 31 at 254.8, and this morning I am 247.8.

Happy, Happy DAY!

Another exciting bit of news is that inches finally left!  I lost TWO inches off my waist and off my hips.  Haha!  That one pair of white shorts that I took always felt tight, so I had not realized that I had lost inches.  That was a pleasant surprise this morning, too.

How did I do it?  Two basic things: 
1.  I logged in my calories every day, every meal into the Lose It! program, even if I had to make guesses about the calories.  (Yeah, Navajo vegetarian taco on Navajo fry bread is NOT in that program!)  By logging them in every day, I never let the bad days outnumber the good days.

2.  WALKING!  There was a LOT of walking.

Of course, the Lose It! program rewards you for losing weight by taking away more calories!  I'm pretty sure Weight Watchers does the same thing with its points.  The less you weigh, the less you can eat to lose weight.  This morning when I logged in my new weight, it gave me 50 points less per day to eat.  Thank you, Lose It!

My new caloric amount is 1398 calories.  I can do it.  I have already planned and logged all my food for today.  My calories today will total 1179.  Here's what I'm eating today:
Breakfast:  4 Morningstar Links (160) and Light Greek Yogurt (80)    total B'fast 240
Lunch: can of low sodium tuna ((120),  tossed salad (66),  cup of fresh cherries (97)   total Lunch 283
Dinner:  Deli Flat (100), Griller (130), salad (66), low sodium green beans (80)  total Dinner 376
Snacks:  banana (135) and Arctic Zero ice cream (144)   total Snacks 279

I also plan to go to the gym and do a weight routine, burning 79 calories and go to the indoor track and walk 25 minutes, burning 98 calories.  Other than that, Mark and I both plan to spend a lot of the day dozing in front of the TV.  Jet Leg is a bitch!

Here are some "before" and "after" photo.  The first one is from June when I was reaching the upper 270s again.  The middle one is the day after we flew out west. I had worked for six weeks to lose weight before we left, so I was 254.8 the day before that middle picture.  The final two are from just three days ago in the Flagstaff, AZ area.  I expect I weighed about what I weighed this morning.  I hope you can see a difference in my size. I sure can!  I am very happy about this.  The last time I was in the 240s was last July when Reuben visited us.  I went under 250 while he was here because we walked six straight days around WDW, but I gained it right back plus a whole lot more as soon as he left.  I spent an entire year in the 260s mostly.  Those times are gone!

In Buffalo on June 2, at 275.

And a day later with my stepmother, Jackie, at 276.

At the De Young Museum in SF the second day of the trip, at about 254.  I had worked hard for six weeks to go from 276 to 254 before leaving for the trip.

At the Meteor Crater three days ago.

Same day as above, probably about 248, like this morning.