There have been a few times this week when I've had the opportunity to overeat, and I stopped myself because I know my money is on the line. This appears to be working better than any other weightloss program I've used in the past. I know it's mostly water weight at this point, but I'm down about 3lbs, give or take. Going on a low-carb diet always makes the first lbs lost easy and then it gets back to being super hard - but whatever, I'm going to celebrate that I got through the week, worked out a few times, and made 90% healthy choices when it came to my diet.

Next week I'll be traveling home to New Jersey to look at both wedding venues and wedding dresses with my family. My parents - esp my mom - are super critical of how I look in clothes (well, I'm super critical of my entire body, my mom seems to only repeatedly focus on my apple-shaped stomach) - so I know that the shopping part of trip won't be the most pleasant. I'm kind of a nut when it comes to planning events, so I've already been to (cough)five(/cough) different dress shops and have another (cough)six(/cough) appointments booked. (If you're interested in checking out my potentials here is a link to the gallery: https://picasaweb.google.com/110762362715444314509/SayMaybeToTheDress?authkey=Gv1sRgCNHd4Iatjf3FxQE)

It's just -- if I were a twig shopping for a dress would be relatively easy, but as a curvy girl it takes time to find "the one." And - I know the entire thing is ridiculous - but wanting to look good in my dress is inspiring me to finally get healthy. And I want to have a family soon after I'm married, so health is of utmost importance for everything from being able to have kids to being able to enjoy having them for a long time. I plan to put any/all winnings for my dietbets to my dress budget! Weddings dresses are ridiculously expensive to begin with - even the "cheap" mass-manufactured ones (what a dress is white so it should cost 6x more than a normal dress?) Anyway, I feel like it's a good trade off to win some cash for losing weight and to spend that on a dress that looks decent on me. It will be a huge reward for losing the weight.

In those pictures I'm about 170lbs. My goal for my wedding is to be 120lbs (I was 120lbs 9 years ago and still had tummy fat, but I'm assuming 120 with muscle if I actually lose the weight correctly will look good.) It's so hard to shop for a wedding dress when you're 50lbs heavier than what you expect you'll be in 10 months! And you have to buy your dress nine months in advance (crazy) in order to allow time for it to come in and the fittings and everything.

One thing I do want to work on is my arms. I can't stand my arms and upper back area and since 80% of wedding dresses these days are strapless and sleeveless, I am determined to have some fierce Michelle Obama arms on my wedding day. I don't know if that's possible because I've never had said lady Obama arms and I can't even do one fully push up today. But, you know, baby steps.

So this week I'm going to call a success. I managed to eat out a few times and make healthy, paleo-ish choices. I think saying "when I eat out I eat PALEO" helps A LOT. It's a great rule to have. It makes it impossible to binge on chips, bread, diet sodas or alchohol. It also narrows down a menu choices significantly. And if I'm at a sandwich shop either I order the sandwich and toss the bread or get a salad, whichever seems like the better option. I'm getting the hang of this, I think...

I just wonder at what point it will start getting really hard to lose weight. My goal for the transformer challenge here is 152lbs by January. That's still a looonnnnnggggg way to go. I had gotten myself healthy for a few months last year and got down to 155 and then ballooned up again to 180lbs due to stress. Oy. That was bad. I can't believe that I was 180! Anyway, I think the 152lbs by January is doable, but it will get harder - much harder. I just need the will power (and fear of losing money) to keep me in check. Oh, and the great community here. Reallly enjoying getting to know the folks in my groups. Really rooting for everyone on here. It's inspiring to see so many people working together - even though we all know if someone else fails it's "good" for us as we can win more money - but ultimately I can tell we all really just want everyone to win (or at least everyone who puts in a valiant effort) and I love that!