Weight Loss by Month: March 2021

August – November 2020: 30 pounds 

January 2021: 7 pounds
February 2021: 5 pounds
March 2021: 4 pounds

This month was like December. I lost 3 pounds right away in the first two weeks and at one point looked like I might lose 6-7. Then we had some staycation stuff, pizza and barbecue and with a week left in the month the scale was showing my starting weight for the month. But just like December, it's easier to lose weight that you've recently gained so I was able to get down 4 by today. 

Taking a look at my 2021 numbers, that January was deceiving as that 7 included weight originally lost in December. So, pretty consistent that in 2021, I'm losing about 4-5 pounds a month, or a pound a week. 

I'm at 46 down right now, so that means I'm on track to hit my college weight (60 pounds lost) at the end of June. 

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I get vacations now. I get birthdays and holidays now. 

These are the few times per year that you get to eat what you want. You can let loose. It's supposed to be a break from your normal life which is supposed to be healthy. 

I basically lived most of my 20's/30's like I was on vacation all the time. Want a pizza on a Tuesday? Cannoli on Thursday? Why not? I'm surprised I wasn't more overweight, in light of this. 

(A quick aside on pizza. It's not that you can't eat pizza and stick to your calories goals. It's just that's a lot easier in theory than in practice. It's virtually impossible for me to order a pizza and just have two slices and say, ok that's 700 calories. I'm going to go back for two more slices. And then once I'm way over, I might as well eat a few more slices.)

But now it all clicks. Eat well, take care of your body most of the time. Then when you go on vacation or have a special occasion, sure treat yourself to some indulgent foods. 

I'm almost 40 and just now figuring out how life and health works. Better late than never.

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Another thing I'm realizing is what maintenance is going to look like for me. It's unlikely that it's going to be every day at 2000 calories. There might be some of those, but I've never been able to stick to that in my life. What is more realistic for me is that for most days I might be at 1750ish, with some days where I get to go over by eating my favorite foods like barbecue or pizza. Which is what I'm doing now, but instead of 2 days over per month, maybe it will be like once a week. 

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46 pounds down. I started this on August 1. Eight good months in a row. Soon I'll be at one year. Pretty wild. 

My previous best stretches based on time were 4 months straight in Chicago, 4 months in Colorado, 5 months back in 2018 in KC. So 8 months blows that out of the water. That's just as exciting as the number of pounds down. All it took was a pandemic.