Here's the deal: Since my boyfriend and I started living together two years ago I have gained 20 lbs. I have always been somewhere in the overweight-but-fit range, generally strong and average looking. But living with (and eating with and drinking with) a man who is almost a foot taller and much heavier than me made the scale climb steadily upwards.
See, I am a social eater. I value community and friendships, so I'll eat your birthday cake even if I don't really like cake, because it's part of the social event. I go to happy hours to keep up my professional connections, I taste the cheese dips at the church potluck because I value my church friends. Unfortunately, while I have a wide range of meaningful professional and personal friendships, this pattern puts my own healthy eating needs after the perceived needs of others. And living with my partner seemed to mean we doubled our daily bad food choices. He's upset after work? Let's have a drink or two! He's happy after work? Let's eat out! I'm upset after work? Same thing...it's like emotional eating for two. I only recently really grasped how these responses add up to undeniably unsustainable consumption patterns, but now that I see it clearly, I'm ready to change.
Here's the goal: Lose 10% of my starting weight (and win this Transformer) by October 28, 2015 and maintain whatever that weight is through February 10, 2016, the end of the Mardi Gras season. That's 180 days to lose the weight and 105 days to keep it off.
This is a big goal for me, and the maintenance is as important to me as the weight loss (and possibly significantly harder). For those who don't know New Orleans culture, Mardi Gras is not just a day -- it is an entire extra holiday season. Most people around the country indulge Thanksgiving through New Year's and then get back to their normal lives (and start their New Year's resolutions). Down here, Carnival starts on January 6 and that starts an additional 6-8 weeks of king cakes in the office, house parties every weekend, parades every weekend, formal balls and other cocktail-infused festivities.
Losing 10% will not put me at my long-term goal weight. But losing (at least) 10% and keeping it off through Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's and Mardi Gras will prove that I have made healthy, sustainable lifestyle changes that are compatible with both my social life and local culture. And in the end, that is the real goal.