Week 4 was great! I met my goal and lost 3 pounds last week! After the first four weeks (a third of the way through), I have lost a total of 18 pounds! I’m halfway to meeting my contest goal of losing 36 pounds!

My parents were in town last week for Annie’s sixth birthday, so I was a little worried that this was going to be a hard/bad week for me eating-wise. But, my parents were very supportive and encouraging of me and my taking part in the contest – that made things a whole lot easier. I managed to survive a week with a trip to Chuck E. Cheese for a birthday dinner, a birthday party with my favorite Baskin-Robbins ice cream cake, and several outings out to restaurants, especially the Old Ebbitt Grill in D.C. I ate well and was able to exercise plenty this last week. In fact, I think last week was my best week eating and exercising together that I have had thus far. I tried to run some, but my body is not ready for the pounding yet, so I upped my walking distances/times instead. Randa has been very encouraging and that helps A LOT!

Week 5 has its challenges. First, Randa celebrates her birthday on Wednesday! The girls and I will bake her a birthday cake again this year (very tempting), so that will be an obstacle. We’ll also go out to celebrate! Second, I am deciding not to eat the church Wednesday night dinners. They are good, but not for my diet! Finally, I travel again with the youth to the PlanetWisdom Student Conference this weekend. As always, I have to plan ahead so that I can choose meals that will be good for me – not too hard, but time-consuming. And I won’t get to exercise as much as I would like during the conference weekend. But, I’m going to do the best I can! My goal for this week is to lose another 3 pounds.