New weight loss! Can I just say (again) how much I love being able to report that I’m making progress? Because I do. I’ve now lost 84.4 pounds.

Kale Chips, when he weighed 84 pounds. He’s since lost weight and was put up for adoption. Yay, Kale Chips! (I hope they changed your name, you poor thing.)

It’s struck me how much my life has changed, just in the past few months, since kicking into more progressive weight loss mode. It used to be that I was thrilled to show any progress at all, and now, I expect it. While I understand that mindset is fraught with dangers, and I must constantly keep myself in the mindset that the occasional setback is not failure, this shift in thought is also a truly surreal thing.

I hope to be 100 pounds down by the end of the year; a scant 9 weeks away! I hoped for this very thing last year, but right at this moment, I’m only 15.6 pounds away from that goal, and at my recent rate of loss, it’s totally possible that I’ll be able to claim this goal. I am truly amazed and incredibly thankful to be this close.

Perhaps the best part of this shift in mindset is that I am no longer daunted by the big numbers. While I had high hopes when I started this particular journey, I seriously doubted that I’d be able to match, let alone surpass, my previous weight loss goals. I was in my early 40’s when I lost 140 pounds, and I exercised (hard!) for nearly all of my loss. I fought hard for it, and I remember that fight. Yet, here I sit, less than 60 pounds away from meeting (and passing!) that number — with the odds stacked against me. Yet, I have no doubts I can do it.

I’m entering a stage where I can see and feel my body changing as I lose; it wasn’t as evident to me, before. I think this helps me a lot because numbers on the scale can be intangible, but actual changes in physique, as well as health-related changes, are the fuel to my fire. Yes, being able to come here and tell you I’ve lost a certain amount of weight is nice, but to be able to say that I’m walking differently, that my knees don’t hurt as much, that my stamina is higher, that I can stand and walk for longer, that I don’t rely on my cane like I’ve had to in the past? These are the things that truly excite me and keep me going.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know I pick a song title as a title for my blogs, and you just might have thought where I was going with today’s title Sugar — but if you thought I chose it because of the food connotations, you’re wrong. I chose it because the constant surprises in life are truly sweet ones.