Finished but not done.

I finished the Whole 30 program almost a week ago...but I am far from done.

Hitting Day 31 was very...anticlimactic. My friend, who started this program before me and encouraged me every step of the way, had told me that her Day 31 was very anticlimactic for her. This made me sad to hear. You work so hard to make it through those 30 days and finally crossing that finish line is a big deal.

Except it wasn't.

I woke up on Day 31 like it was any other day. There was no presents to wake up to. No surprise party. No parade outside. It was a very ordinary, hurry and get the kids up and out to school, eat some scrambled eggs and get on with it kind of a day.

Inside, though, I was celebrating. I had weighed myself and found that I had lost 11 pounds. Not gonna lie. At first I was disappointed. Honestly, I wanted to get on that scale and see that I had lost all of the 30 pounds that I NEED to lose. Clearly that wasn't going to happen, so having an expectation that it might was ridiculous. But then...I really started to think about it. 11 pounds. 11 pounds in 30 days. That's a lot! That's a lot, people!

This is what one pound of human fat looks like:

thanks, internet

I lost 11 of those. I'll say it again: That's a lot! And certainly NOTHING to be ashamed of. I am proud of myself. I did it! I accomplished what I set out to do: get healthier and lose weight.

Somebody should seriously be throwing me a parade.

So what next? I keep going. I'm finished but I'm far from done. I still have weight to lose. I have already enjoyed some red wine, some pizza, and a few Hot Tamales. I never intended to ban these things from my life permanently. I allowed myself to have a little indulgent moment and now I'm over it. I loved the way that I felt on the Whole 30 program and I want that feeling to continue.

My next Whole 30? To exercise every day. Maybe not a major workout every single day, but some kind of get-your-heart-rate-up movement every day. My new Day 1 started yesterday with a 40 minute run on the treadmill. Today? More of the same.

And that's a good thing.