Week 10 Weigh-in

Whew! I am so glad that I made it through this whole week without letting it phase me (or make me stop calorie counting or get back into old habits). Thomas was in town from Thursday until Monday, so Jerry and I wanted him to try some of our favorite foods. Unfortunately, my favorite foods are not things like grilled fish and vegetables ;)

My main focus was on portion control. I knew I could eat whatever I wanted, but I would have to be careful of my portions and make my best estimate as to the calories I was eating. I wasn't too concerned about going over my typical number of calories--one week of going over wasn't going to cause TOO much damage--but I didn't want to turn the whole week into a big food fest, either.

I did end up going over on most days, and my average calorie intake was 1721 (rather than the 1500-ish that it usually is). I was really hoping not to gain weight, but I wouldn't have minded just maintaining this week, either. Anyway, I was very happy to see a loss on the scale this morning!

I was 138.5, so that means I lost a pound from last week. My body fat percentage was 24.3, so it was down by 0.7% from last week. Waist measurement was 26, which was down by 0.25 inches. Woot!

I'm thrilled with that. I was able to indulge in food and drinks while a friend was visiting, but not go completely overboard and gain 10 pounds. It wasn't easy, because there were several times where I just wanted to eat more than necessary, but I knew that eating half of a huge sandwich was just as satisfying to my tastebuds as eating the whole thing ;)

Yesterday, Jerry and I went to Catherine Kellie Studios to look at my boudoir photos. I was actually more nervous about viewing the photos than I was for the photo shoot itself! I think it was kind of like walking into your own surprise party--everyone is waiting for your reaction, and you don't want to give the wrong one. Does that make sense? I had no idea what to expect, so I just hoped that I liked the pictures.

Catherine set up a slideshow of all 70 photos, and then told us we could go through and rate them. I was stunned when I saw the slideshow! The pictures looked absolutely amazing. Catherine said she didn't do much editing (as far as my "imperfections" go) because she didn't think I needed much. It made me a little nervous when she said that, because I was expecting to see glaring stretch marks and loose skin; but she did a lot with positioning my body and angling the camera in a way to hide the areas that make me self-conscious.

In looking through the photos, I could see a hint of my stretch marks on some, and while Catherine would have edited them out had I asked her to, I decided to leave them as they were. The stretch marks are a part of ME, and without them, it wouldn't really feel like me in the photos. I'm glad they aren't glaringly obvious, but I'm also glad that I chose not to eliminate them completely.

I would love to be able to share all my photos here, but I don't feel comfortable with them being online for the world to see, so I'll just share a couple of the modest ones. Jerry LOVES Star Wars, and I found this R2D2 corset at a Halloween store, so I thought it would be fun to do a couple of pictures with it as a surprise for Jerry. Dressing as R2D2 isn't exactly "sexy", but somehow, it looks very cute ;)

Here is another "cute" picture that isn't too revealing (this was actually one of my very favorite pictures):

And finally, here is a picture that I thought was just gorgeous:

Those are the only ones I feel comfortable sharing online--hope you understand! Jerry was THRILLED with the pictures, of course; but more than anything, I am so glad that I did this photo shoot because it made me feel really good about myself. I'd never actually felt "sexy" in my life (Jerry always says I am, but I feel silly when I try to be sexy).

When I was obese, I never felt feminine, either. I wanted to be girly, but being heavier than my husband, I just didn't feel it. When I lost the weight, I vowed to be more girly by painting my toenails, wearing form-fitting clothes instead of boxy ones, and things like that. This boudoir photo shoot, however, made me feel beautiful, sexy, girly, and powerful. Looking at my photos, I am very proud of my body, and I'm so glad that I have pictures to remind me of that feeling, should I ever forget it!