My beach chair/umbrella charm arrived on Saturday and it's soooooo cute. It's TINY but I held it up to my bracelet and it's going to look adorable. I'm going to wait until November 1 and my monthly weigh-in before I see if I have reached the goal to put the charm on. I have a couple other charms (that were lying in my jewelry box from old gold necklaces) that might also have put onto my bracelet - might as well use them! But the new charms I buy are only going to be as rewards for 5 pound weight losses.

I was talking to a co-worker and about my program and about how much I have lost so far and she asked me how much more I want to lose. I told her about 45 pounds and she almost fell over. She thinks that is too much. Well, 45 pounds would take me to my wedding weight, so I know it's not too much (I was a very healthy and reasonable size when I got married), but I took it as a compliment that she thought it was WAY too much (i.e. I must already look reasonably thin if losing 45 pounds is shocking to someone). But at any rate, I will say it again, that 45 pounds is just a rough estimate based on my wedding weight. If I get down to a size 8-10 (closer to an 8) and I am heavier (weight-wise), I really don't care. My goal is more the SIZE and fitness level (i.e. really tight and toned) than the number on the scale. But for now, I am using the weight too as a way to measure my progress since it's easy and motivating to track progress this way (as long as I stay restrained with weighing too frequently).