But it hurts so good ...

Well yesterday was a very good day. I achieved my goal of trying to see if 2 shakes and one meal a day would keep me full - and it did. I think that I have figured out the secret that works for me. Most people who do this Herbalife shake thing drink one shake for breakfast, one for lunch and then eat a sensible dinner. This didn't work for me. At lunch time I am usually so starved that I used to just shove things into my mouth until I felt sick. So, I have figured out that if I drink a shake for breakfast, eat my "sensible meal" at lunch (which usually consists of either salmon or chicken breast with spinach salad and some fruit), I then really do feel full when I drink my last shake for dinner. And I don't feel sick and full when I try to work out after dinner. Working out also went really good last night. I replaced the batteries in the elliptical so last night I was able to tell how many calories I was burning, plus I was able to up the resistance - which coincidentally you cannot do if the batteries are dead. So I cranked the resistance up to about 7 and was able to go at a fairly good pace for about 12 minutes. And believe me, I was definitely sweating when I jumped off of that and got on the bike. Then I turned the resistance up on the bike to 10 and went another 9 minutes. All in all I burned a total of 250 calories in 21 minutes. It doesn't seem like much but it is the equivalent of one shake - so it's like I didn't eat it at all! And let me tell you, my butt and legs are sore today so I know I did some good. Plus, I am feeling so much better during the days at work. I have so much more energy! It's still sucks getting out of bed every morning to do my newspaper route, but what person in their right mind would be perky at 4:45 a.m.? By the time I get home and start getting ready for work at Haechten's I'm feeling pretty good and by the time I get to work and get settled in about 9:00 I feel great! I don't know if all of this feel good energy is from the supplements I'm taking or the exercise or the good food, or all of it but whatever it is is working. It would almost be worth it just to feel like this and not lose weight. Almost ..... But nothing will ever feel as good as hitting my target weight loss (and winning this competition!). I know that there is no way I will lose all the weight I want to lose in 6 weeks, but I am aiming for a good 30-40 pound loss. And this will certainly get me jump started towards my ultimate goal of about 100 pounds. This sounds crazy to me, but I know that I can do it and I need to do it. I don't know if I've said this yet, but my start weight was 258 pounds (yikes!), so a 100 pound loss would put me at 158, which I think would be an extremely healthy weight for my 5'7" height. But hell, let's be honest, I would be thrilled to weigh anywhere south of 200. Which still would be a 60 lb. loss, but I ultimately want to lose more. Anyway, I'll check back in later ... if anyone is reading that I haven't bored to death. :)