The first thing I do...

Every morning when I wake up, the first thing I do is step on weight scale.  It's less of an obsession and more of a mental check, a pre-game ritual designed to keep my wellness journey in the forefront of my busy life.

"You should only step on the scale once a week," several have said as I went through this weight loss adventure several times before.

The last time around, I truly checked out and stopped doing my weight check-ins entirely.  Eventually, as the cheats increased as did the size of my portions, my fear of stepping back on that scale grew.  After we got back from our trip to Arizona in January, I knew the time had come to face the music, and the number.  I stepped on the scale for the first time in months and stepped forward.

Three months later I have arrived at a comfortable place in terms of my weight and I am bound and determined to stay here, floating between 172 and 175 pounds.

I don't feel any sense of sacrifice in how I eat today.  I love the relationship I have with foods and look forward to my healthy salad at lunch ("My rabbit food," I say to the ladies at work), low-carb meal for dinner, and crunchy/nutty snack before bed.

Even though I'm formally finished with my Ideal Protein phases, I still appreciate the crunchy bbq snacks at night and a good cappuccino shake in the morning once in awhile.  I've moved on to my Atkins chocolate chip bar for those times when I need an injection of energy.

And I've discovered Moon Cheese, a low-carb crunchy treat comprised of dehydrated cheese, though my brain is still not convinced they are as sin-free as they might appear.

A line from a song by Ron Sexsmith goes through my head on days when I know I need to be extra good, when I avoid all cheats, large and small, and I drink lots and lots of water.

Maybe it's a perfect day...is my admonition from "Gold in them Hills", my rallying cry to wellness. Perfect days feel so much better than the alternative.