A New Year, A New Me: Week Nine

I can see the finish line - or maybe not. What I have learned more than anything during this 10-week program at is that health, fitness and weight loss has to be a lifelong process. Think marathon, not sprint.

It's not easy. In the past two weeks, I got up at 4:15 a.m. so I could join others from TFP programs for four mile walks at 5 a.m. I wear my BodyBugg all the time to track daily calories burned, steps taken and hours of workout. I log all my food.

It still is frustrating that the scale doesn't seem to realize how hard I am working. Progress is excruciatingly slow. But my body fat dropped another four percent, my water intake is up, and the log of calories in versus calories out show efforts in right direction. My jeans are looser now and certain tops fit better. My diabetes, hormones and stress levels, however, can all get in the way of weight loss. Apparently, I needed to eat more during the week to boost my metabolism.

So I'll keep going and going...While I realize that Week Nine was last week and tonight will be my final session in The Fitness Pursuit 10-week program, I didn't want to miss a week. Life got in the way, but I'm still here.

The important thing is...I'm not giving up. I have signed up for another 10-week session, as did many of my classmates, but I am going to do so without the blog updates. I just want to keep going and keep getting healthier. And I wish you all the same.