As of Thanksgiving, yes I weighed myself on Thanksgiving, I am down another nine pounds which, for those of us paying attention, means I am down fifty pounds in total. From 276 to 226 in five months. I feel pretty good about it.

I have been watching weight loss reality TV shows, mostly because it motivates me to do it the right way, and because I exercise while watching them. They make me glad that I am doing this slowly because the chances of gaining it all back in a year are so much lower this way. As it is I keep being weirded right out by pictures of me. It doesn't look like me sometimes and I am not even halfway through it yet. If I had lost this much weight, just a little over a third of my intended goal, in five weeks instead of five months, I imagine the psychological impact would be even more severe. After an entire lifetime of thinking of myself as a great big, fat guy...yeah, it is going to be years before I think of myself as someone who is only overweight (a milestone that I will actually hit at 204 pounds, so, right around the corner). And yet again years beyond that to think of myself as "normal."
The last time I was under two hundred, I was probably in middle school. I have been overweight or obese my entire memorable life. How in the world am I supposed to acclimate to not being something I have always been? How do you get used to "normal" when normal for you is something so much different?

These days I am approaching the upper end of American average size, about a 14 in ladies' sizes. Around a Large. And though a series of Xes no longer precedes my size, I still feel like someone who would be more suited to a 3X than an L. I like to think that I am not at all defined by my clothing size but when I pulled a sweater dress off the rack and I held it out, looking at the label "Large"...I thought, there's no way I am just a large, this looks way too small. Trying it on, it fit, I then thought, I'm a Large? That's nuts! I'm a large! The thought pattern sort of upset and amused me at the same time. I am not my clothing size. I know this, but when a great deal of my time involves working out, researching diet and weight-loss science...of course my focus is a little skewed at the moment. I often gauge time passed in cardio blocks. The two or three hours on my bike are broken up into interval and moderate phases. My life is a strange place right now. I am focused. I have a goal. I am Losing Weight, practically a full-time occupation. So it makes sense that measures of my success toward that goal will feel rather personally defining but that doesn't mean I have to like it. I am used to feeling like so much more than an L. Or whatever.

In two more months, or I hope by New Year, I will be at my halfway mark. I have about one hundred thirty pounds to lose overall to get to my personal ideal weight. But the name of this blog is Century Ride, so, 100 (106 exactly to no longer be classed as "overweight" according to the BMI calculators). And as of Thanksgiving I am halfway there. I had a little celebration on the scale at my friend's house where I had snuck a little weigh-in, still not having a scale of my own.

It is something to celebrate.

Even greater a milestone to celebrate?
My arms are strong enough and I am lighter enough that I can bike out of the saddle for a minute at a time at full resistance. Hills, I'mma eff you up come Spring.

Also in the great news category? I interval-ran 4.2 miles on Thanksgiving. It felt great. I run now. I am a runner.

Life is good.