I saw my Primary Care this week, she was very excited about my progress. I got the feeling that it's not often that she'll tell someone that they need to prioritize weight loss and actually have them do it. I'm down 16 lbs since January, and I've lost 6 lbs in the last month. Only 4 lbs to go until I hit my first goal (10% loss). In the past month I've been averaging a little over 1 lb lost each week which is high, but maintainable. It was very affirming to hear her say that I was doing this in a way that I'll be able to maintain the lifestyle long term.

She was very happy with my cholesterol levels which have really improved, and she even took me off of one of my blood pressure medicines! The goal is to get me off of them completely, since most likely my high blood pressure is weight related. Hearing that affirmation from my doctor really helped to give me the boost to stay focused on my path despite how tired and bored I've become with my current diet regime.

Now that I'm so close to my first goal, I need to start thinking about where I want to end up long term. I'd love to get my weight down to 140-130 mark but that's nearly 30% weight loss which is HUGE and possibly not something that I'd be able to maintain in the long term. I think after getting to 10% my next goal will be another 5%. That would have me down at 160, 30 lbs from where I started. I'm afraid of setting a goal too large and getting discouraged when I'm not able to achieve it or see real progress in a time frame that will satisfy my impatience. Goals are good, but that have to be attainable to be worth anything.