Weight Watchers: GOAL!!!

I officially weighed in at 9st 0lbs on Wednesday evening (had meetings all day Thursday and wasn't going to be able to get to Boots to weigh myself).  The picture of my computer screen is from the first time I weighed in at 9st 0lbs, which I decided was an anomalous reading, but the print-out is from the day I officially reached goal.  Hee hee!

So, what's next?  Well, unfortunately I can't now eat whatever I want whenever I want - well, I could, but I would put all the weight back on!  It's onto Maintenance now, which is where you count and record your points in exactly the same way, you just get more to eat each week.  Weight Watchers gives you six extra points a day, and the first couple of weeks of Maintenance are basically you working out if you can eat that much and not put on any weight (or, alternatively, if you need to eat more not to lose weight).  Otherwise known as "how much can I eat and not put on weight?!".  I am looking forward to this phase! 

In terms of how I feel about my body now I've lost the weight I wanted, the funny thing is, I've lost weight so gradually that I can't actually see any difference when I look in the mirror - it seems strange when I put my clothes on and they're really loose!  What I see when I look in the mirror is the same body shape I've always had, which I don't particularly like.  I'm pear-shaped, with a pot belly which is the bane of my life (although a friend, who has a perfect hour-glass figure, once said that she wished she had an "athletic" figure like mine which amazed me!).  A healthy living blog I follow, whose author lost 50lbs, said that one of the side-effects of weight loss that no-one talks about is that when you're overweight you just see yourself as overweight, but when you lose the weight you see yourself in terms of the problem areas, and, for some reason I felt much better after reading that.  She - Erica is her name - worked really hard after losing her 50lbs to achieve a fantastic figure, and I found reading about it absolutely inspirational (particularly this post, which is fantastic).  I reckon that if someone who looks that amazing can have insecurities about her body, then mine might actually look pretty good (not sure if that's logical, but it works for me!).  I'll have to post some "after" pics so you can see for yourself what I look like - at the moment it's so cold I'm seldom seen without at least three layers of clothing, at least one of which is usually furry, so it's not a good time at the moment, but I'm going to Tunisia soon so should have some snaps to post where I'm not hidden under several layers of clothing!

All of this leads me on to my health and fitness goals.  Like I said, I found it really inspiring that when Erica lost her weight it was the start of achieving a fantastic figure, not the end, so I'm going to keep up all my exercise activities (apart from anything else, I really enjoy them).  I want to keep eating really really well, with tons of fruit and vegetables, lean meat, low-fat dairy and nuts and seeds and dried fruit treats with the odd bit of chocolate here and there (have become obsessed with chocolate-covered raisins).  As well as being slim I want to be as healthy and fit and strong as possible - so I'm going to keep cycling, keep running and keep Body Toning and Circuit Training (knees permitting, as Body Tone and Circuit Training kill them).  I want to be able to run 10k by the end of the summer, and I want to cycle 100 miles in one day (I've done 80 in a day before), and I want to have a body fat index of less than 25%, a small waist and a flat tummy.  Wish me luck, and I'll let you know how it goes!