Week 41, 172 lbs.

One of the two bikes I use to commute to work.

My weigh-in was on Tuesday instead of Monday again this week so I am late in posting.... but I have amazing news!

For the first time in what feels like a gazillion years I am no longer considered obese!  When my body fat ratio was measured yesterday the number that came up on the computer was yellow instead of the orange I am used to seeing.  When I saw that glowing yellow 31% number I realized that my fat ratio is just inside the "acceptable" range! 

I wanted to dance, jump up and down, pirouette like a mad ballerina - my fat ratio is in the healthy range and I am getting very close to my goal!!  I will be off phase I of Ideal Protein in the very near future!!  I would like to get a few more points down on the fat ratio, somewhere around 25-26% - but we'll see what happens in the coming weeks.

I've been getting a lot of questions lately about whether I am tired of the diet, now that I've been on it for 10 months. My answer is that I don't allow myself to think that way.

I have a job to do.  The Ideal Protein diet is the tool I've chosen to get the job done.  I feel I've been extremely successful in accomplishing this task.  If I felt the diet was a chore, some kind of deprivation or something unpleasant, I would have quit a long time ago (like I did with other diets).

The diet is a means to an end and it hasn't been that hard to follow.  I like a lot of the foods involved in the program and have experienced improved health and attitude since I started.

My life has changed in so many amazing ways, and all I did was change the way I perceived myself and the world around me. It amazes me when I notice in the course of my everyday life how much my perceptions have changed over the past couple of years.

For example.  I hopped on my bike this morning for my commute to work.  I had a great ride about halfway there.  The morning air was crisp, I had a good cadence going and I felt like I was flying.... until the chain came off the bike.

I ended up walking my bike the rest of the way into work.  In the past I would have complained, "Oh, this is just typical!" and let it set the tone for the rest of my day.

This morning I took it in stride, not exactly happy about the chain coming off my bike, but not upset, either.  I enjoyed a brisk walk instead of a brisk ride and thought to myself that a breakdown on a bike is a lot more convenient than a breakdown with a car.

I could take the bike with me the rest of the way - I would have had to find a tow truck or a safe place to park if I were in a car. A slipped chain is something I can fix myself, too! 

Life is what you make of it, isn't it?