6-week 6-pack: conclusion

Some of you may be very curious as to my weigh-in results from the past 6 weeks. So without further ado, here's the info on how it all went down over the past six weeks.

Week #1: I killed it this week by sticking very firmly to all of my rules (with very few exceptions) and it showed on the scale. My weight when I started this challenge was 145 pounds -- a full 2 pounds over the highest end of my 5 pound window (eek!!) but by the end of the first week, I was down to 142.4 lbs! It was a lot of hard work, but man did it feel good when I saw that number on Friday morning!

Week #2: This was a bit of a tougher week as some out-of-the-ordinary things were tossed my way (in the form of Mother's Day and a movie night with a girlfriend) that aren't usually on the schedule. Exceptions were made this week (probably more than what was really necessary) and I ended the week off with a small gain, bringing my weight back up to an even 143 pounds -- but still within my 5 pound window. Phew!

Week #3: After a weekend away visiting family -- which consisted of a lot of eating and very minimal movement to counteract it all -- I was terribly nervous about what my Monday morning weight would be. But much to my surprise, it only was up 1.4 pounds from Friday. This happens on a regular weekend (and then some), nevermind a weekend with 2 trips to McDonald's and lots of afternoon and evening snacking (and desserts!) thrown into the mix. I was very fortunate. I didn't take that for granted though...I kicked off the week with good strong work-outs and back-to-back evening runs. Afterall, I had to do what I could to fight off the "time of the month" that hit as soon as we returned home. But, much to my disappointment, the 144.4 pound weight that I started off with on Monday didn't decrease as I was expecting...rather it increased slightly to 144.6.

Week #4: This was a challenging week for me, mentally. With all of the working out I have been doing these last several weeks (way more than what I ever have been doing throughout the rest of my weight loss journey) and doing fairly decently with my food choices on top of it all, to only be down 0.4 pounds half-way through this challenge was very disheartening to me - especially after the killer start I had. I started to tell myself that what mattered most was that I was giving it my all and that the number on the scale didn't necessarily reflect the work I was putting in. Surely I'm gaining muscle and not fat with how much I've been working out and running. I'm certainly feeling stronger than ever. But with that sense of confidence comes the concern that I'm going to start letting things slide. It's a slippery slope, afterall. But after a week of more Pepsi indulgences than I should've allowed myself, not to mention too much evening sancking -- and my week of the least working out in all 4 weeks so far -- I lost 1.6 pounds, bringing me back down to within my window at 142.8 pounds.

Week #5: This was a bit of a hot & cold week for me as far as following my rules. A couple of days were near perfect, and there was one particular day (my evening outing with my Mom & sisters) that was a total write-off. I started off with a pretty decent weight after the weekend, so I was sure that I would have a loss at the end of the week. But with that one BAD day on the Wednesday, it sort of ruined all chances of that possibility. I gained a small 0.2 pounds to bring me back to 143 pounds. I didn't let myself get disappointed about that though. I need to be able to have special outings like that and let myself enjoy it. Still in moderation though, of course. And I think I did that. I had a chicken ceasar salad & water for supper at the restaurant, and a fairly limited amount of popcorn & Pepsi at the movie theatre, and only 1/2 of my already mini-sized blizzard. But with that all added up -- and being gone from morning to night to not be able to fit a work-out in to counteract all of the eating -- it didn't help my weight. But I can't go through life not being able to enjoy these special outings. And yes, for the most part, special outings include food.

Week #6: With my goal of being in the 130's at the end of this week still 3.2 pounds away, I did not start the week very hopeful. That being said, I wasn't discouraged about it either. I had decided probably half-way through this challenge already that the end weight result wasn't going to be the most important thing. Sure, I still wanted to strive to achieve it, but it wasn't going to be the end of the world if it didn't happen. I was not going to let the scale be the reflection of how hard I have worked over this last month and a half. The important thing was to stick to my challenge as best as I could. I was not going to give up on completing the challenge, even if it didn't give me the numbers I had originally set out to achieve. So by Tuesday morning -- when I am usually still fighting off the weekend's gain, but was instead already showing a 1.6 pound LOSS -- needless to say, I was re-inspired that reaching my goal weight was actually a possibility. But something happened between Tuesday morning and Tuesday evening (still not sure what exactly it was), and by the next morning I was back UP to 143.8 pounds. This meant that I had Wednesday and Thursday left for me to lost a total of 4 pounds to get me to 139.8 pounds. I-M-P-O-S-S-I-B-L-E. At first, when I realized that reaching my goal really was completely out of reach, I wanted to just relax then for the last couple of days. But I didn't take on that attitude for very long and I figured that just because I wouldn't finish the challenge reaching my target weight (as I had figured already half-way through the challenge), I still wanted to finish it strong and know that no matter what, I didn't give up. So I pushed myself and was determined to be happy with my effort if nothing else.

So my final weigh-in result at the very end of the 6 week challenge was...............................





























































141.2 pounds!!

Yes, I was still 1.4 pounds short -- but this 141.2 pound number actually means just as much to me as a 139.8 pound number would have. And that's because I finally got back to my 70 pound loss again. For quite some time, I have been hovering between 142-145 pounds which means that I could no longer say that I had lost an even 70 pounds. But now I can again!!

So where do I go from here? Well, that's an entirely different post for another day....