And the Verdict is...

...I made it! With .3 pounds to spare. I was actually more than a pound under on Friday and Saturday, so I was really excited. BUT, I also ate some tortilla chips on Friday evening and I could suddenly feel I was a little puffier.

I was worried.

With good reason.

Keep in mind I hadn't eaten anything salty except for a little bit of microwave popcorn in the last 3 weeks or so. That's kind of like torture for me. So my little tortilla chip binge (and we're actually talking about one serving of tortilla chips here) really made a difference.

So I wasn't overly surprised on Sunday morning, the day I was supposed to weigh, when I jumped on the scale at 6am, that I was up not one, but two pounds. I was over!

GAH!

I did remember that Gillian's scale, the official one we were using for the contest, was lighter than mine. So I trekked over to her house at 8am on Sunday and...I was .8 of a pound OVER! I didn't panic because I didn't officially have to weigh until Monday, so I had another day. However, Gillian asked me if I wanted to take off my clothes. Not in a creepy way, but in a "I bet your clothes are adding to that weight" way.

So given that her husband and kids were in the house and I didn't want to traumatize anyone in my underwear (except Gillian apparently), we headed down to her basement, I stripped to my skivvies and...VOILA! I was .3 under.

Whew is all I can say.

So I was all ready to report my results by 8:05am Sunday morning, BUT I didn't know how everyone else had done or if I'd won any money. In total, 13 people took part, so there was $1300 in the pot! Each person who made it could pull their original $100 back out. Then, the people who did make the goal would share the money from the people who didn't make it.

I was hoping I'd win the remaining $1200. But I did not. In all, four people made the goal, so we split the $900 four ways for $225 each. I'll still take it.

So what's next? I'm going to keep pushing on. I have a new number in my head, one that I never planned on shooting for, but I think it's realistic given my height and the time I have remaining to my 25th (ACK!) high school reunion this summer. I think I can get there without driving myself into an eating disorder, although I will confess to becoming a little obsessive.

What did I do to get here? At first, 6x a week workouts and somewhat careful eating. But as we got down to the last month and I hit a plateau, I got really serious. I was doing workouts 2x a day several times a week and I cut out all of the extras: no popcorn (except for a little microwave the kids made), no popcorn, basically no grains (I'll write more about why I'm doing that later because I'm going to eliminate those for the long term), no wheat, very little dairy, no chocolate. Occasionally I drank two Shakeology shakes a day and I ate my "big" meal at noon. And other than the popcorn, I really didn't feel deprived. I could see and feel the results and that was very rewarding and motivated me to keep going.

Something that surprised me--I began to crave exercise. Weird, I know. And I never thought I'd say that.

Because I wear the BodyBugg, I could easily control what was happening. I knew in these last weeks that I had to create a deficit of 900 calories a day to meet my goal. But I also had to remind myself that the quality of what I was eating played a huge role. Hence, the elimination of sodium, and I will tell you that I haven't been at all careful about sodium since the weigh in and I can feel it in my hands and feet. So, more reminders to watch that overall (except on popcorn days, which I will resume).

The upside: I feel great! I think I look pretty good, and since I'm totally vain and my own harshest critic, that's nice to feel about myself.

The downside: Some of my favorite summer clothes that I was working to have fit again are now too big--I shot right past that size. I'm going to wear them anyway, but one of Eamonn's pet peeves is that I wear my clothes too big and that's only gotten worse. So I'm wondering if that's a free rein to go shopping?

Somehow I doubt it.

Anyway, I made it and I'm really proud about that! The $250 is just a little gravy. Or a little Shakeology if we're still cutting calories.