MERRY CHRISTMAS! Apologies for this going up so late – I’ve been traveling! Wow – it’s hard to believe that the 20 weeks in my 20-in-20 challenge is totally over.

I started this August 1 and ended December 10th. During this time I set out to lose 20 lbs in 20 weeks. Let’s see how I did.

For the next 20 weeks I am committing to:

• Posting a picture per week. Yes! I did this except for 1 or 2 weeks. I’m very happy that this was successful.
• Posting my weight every week (including high, low, and average). Yes, also did this every week.
• Posting weekly about my successes and challenges. Done!
• Set weekly goals for myself, and discuss them. Done!
• Doing a minimum of 3o minutes of physical activity per day. Ummm yeah. Not so much.

My Results

Weight
Went from 160 down to 145. Not freaking bad – 15 lbs. You know what things weigh 15 lbs? 3 five-pound sacks of sugar. 2 gallons of water (okay that’s a bit heavier). A bowling ball. A 15 pound weight! ^_^ I am absolutely thrilled about this.

Size
My starting and ending numbers:

• Thigh  was 24″ now 22.5″ ~ 1.5″ loss!
• Calf  was 16.75″ now 16″ ~ .75″ loss!
• Belly was 36.5″ now 34″ ~ 2.5″ loss!
• Butt was 40″ now 38″ ~ 2″ loss!
• Biceps were 13″ now 11.5″ ~ 1.5″ loss!
• Waist was 31.5″ now 30″ ~ 1.5″ loss!

Seriously holy cow! So although I didn’t quite make my weight goal, I lost an impressive amount of size. One of the coolest things was my arms shrinking. They’d been 13″ since December of last year.

What I Learned

Holy crap weight loss is hard! I am NOT a fan of focusing on short term. I MUCH prefer the long term approach. For me, I wasn’t at all discouraged by not keeping on track or by not meeting my numbers, but I can understand how some people would be. It was much more difficult thinking about the daily and weekly goals than to just live, eating healthier and doing healthy things. But I think it was a good willpower exercise.

I am much happier with less sugar in my diet, and I am so thrilled with how little sugar is in my diet. My stomach is much happier as well. I found the high protein-low carb change to be filling and nourishing. Also, I learned to use some spices and how to cook a whole chicken – go me!

A new relationship is NOT the time to focus on losing weight. Or at least – it’s super effing difficult! Argh! That’s my main reason for losing all will to lose weight at the end of this challenge – my wonderful new boyfriend. He loves feeding me rich, delicious food and fancy wines, and loves to tell me how awesome I look. So for all the RPG nerds out there: I have a -10 to my will save vs boyfriend.

And finally, I learned that the process is MUCH happier and better when you go through it with someone else. Both readers, to keep my goals accountable, and with a friend, to keep my daily eating accountable.

Okay – now back to my regular, slower loss diet. Except – when I go back to America tomorrow I’m going to try to hit the gym a LOT and try to gain some freaking muscle. I have a date set with a BodPod to figure out my exact body fat percentage, and I am thrilled to focus on weights for a bit.

But to all of you, this is my final thought on the matter:

What about you? What did you learn throughout this process? What were your losses?