30 by 30 (Part Deux)

I'm now less than five days away from my 30th birthday, and so I figured I might as well get this end of the "30 by 30" challenge report out of the way.

Short of a miracle and liposuction, coupled with a full-limb amputation, I will not meet my goal. Since July, I have lost approximately 10 pounds (give or take a few ounces, depending on whether or not I had pizza the night before), not the 30 I would have hoped for. Bummer.

What happened?

Holidays. Birthdays. Tuesdays. Taco Bell. I have no good excuse, I just didn't pull it off.

BUT, as mentioned in a previous blog, I'm focusing on the lovely. And you know what? I think I look lovelier than I did 10 pounds ago.

Furthermore, that 10 pounds is on top of the 30 pounds I had already lost when I began this challenge. And 40-some pounds was enough to prompt a genuine "I'm proud of you" from my doctor at my last annual appointment. That felt pretty darn good.

I'm also coming to grips with the fact that 30 is not a magical age where I immediately begin the transition toward death. Sure, I've sprouted a crazy amount of gray hairs over the past couple of weeks, but I think that's more related to stress than impending elderly-ness.

30 is not the end of me being young, and it's certainly not the end of my quest to achieving a healthier weight. I'm still hoping to rock (maybe easy listening is a better analogy?) a new, smaller-but-still-one-piece swimsuit this summer as I float around whatever lazy river I can find.

There's really no change at 30 -- except that I can FINALLY remove that ridicules countdown calculator from the sidebar that's been haunting me for the past six months.

That, my friends, is something worth celebrating.