Finished with Phase 3, Now What?

I officially finished Phase 3 of the PINK Method on Saturday but the busy weekend got in the way and I didn't get around to taking pictures until yesterday which marks officially following the plan for 90 days. Over all I did very well the last 90 days, in total I have lost 36 pounds and 25 inches. I really wanted to hit that 40 pound mark but Phase 3 proved to be a difficult time for me. No, not because of the eating plan or the workout routines, but because of life. Yes, life got to be very stressful the last few weeks, not to throw a pity party for myself but my son got very ill and we spend days upon days going from hospital to hospital and doctor's appointment to doctor's appointment. In the mix of it all I also injured myself which really limited the amount of exercising I could do. We also are in the process of buying an investment property and let's just say  it has been a process which equals stress. 

	Before Reset	After Reset	After Phase 1	After Phase 2	After Phase 3	Total loss
Waist	48 inches	45 inches	41.5 inches	40 inches	38 inches	10 inches
Bust	47 inches	45 inches	42 inches	41 inches	40 inches	7 inches
Hips	45 inches	44 inches	41.5 inches	41 inches	41 inches	4 inches
Thigh	27 inches	26 inches	25 inches	23 inches	23 inches	4 inches
Totals	167 inches	160 inches	150 inches	145 inches	142 inches	25 inches

While I was quite disappointed that I didn't hit that goal of losing 40 pounds I came to the realization that not meeting that goal should not be something I beat myself up about. Why? I realized that my old self, my prior to PINK self would have buried the stress of the last 3 weeks with food. Instead I dealt with the stress, asked for help when I needed it and stuck to the plan. While my weight loss wasn't what I had hoped for, it was still a loss. So while I may not be able to celebrate losing a full 40 pounds in 90 days, I got darn close so not only am I going to celebrate that, I am going to celebrate that I have turned a corner and no longer need to turn to food to cope with life's ups and downs. 

My husband took this picture a few weeks ago without me knowing, I look at it and am amazed at the transformation, I look forward to what I will look like when I finish the next 90 days on PINK.

So what's next? I am not done with PINK...I am still considered obese. When I started I set an ultimate goal of getting back to my weight prior to having kids so I still have about 24 pounds to go but even then I will still be considered overweight. In order to get into a healthy weight range and have my BMI considered normal or "healthy" I need to lose approximately 43 more pounds. I will get there eventually but first I will strive to reach my first goal which was to lose 60 pounds.  I am going to continue the eating plan, going through the phases again but I plan on upping the weights I use when I workout. I went through the first 90 days using 5 lb. weights I plan to go up to 8 pound weights and do the whole workout cycle again. I hopefully will be subbing in some running instead of some of the Kardio workouts because I am supposed to run a 12K race in May if I can get my injury to heal enough to start running the distances and hills required for training but that is the only change I may make to the program.

The PINK program has allowed me to find myself again and for that I will be eternally thankful.