Thirty-nine and [hopefully not] holding

Mondays are my official weigh-in days, but today wraps up the month of July, so I weighed myself this morning to see if I made my July goal of losing a total of 40 pounds. I was down one pound from yesterday – totally a fluke, I'm sure – which puts me at a grand total of 39 for the year. For you non-math wizards, that's 5.57 pounds per month.

What? You came here for a comparison photo? Well, here you go. Not much different from last month, but I've started this monthly deal and I feel like I have to keep it up. PastaQueen does her amazing photos at every 20-pound loss – a better idea and more dramatic images, but I didn't think about that.

I'm a little reluctant to post any kind of total weight-loss goal for August. This is the first month since I started setting monthly goals that I've missed it. I realize that setting small goals along the way is recommended as a Good Thing to Do, but I'm not sure how helpful it's been.

It just soooo stresses me out. [Snort!] [If you don't catch the sarcasm in that, reread Sunday's post, which should have had more sarcasm in it, but hey, I was too busy to be cutting-edge!]

Setting a small "number" goal doesn't make me stay on course with my food plan, or work out consistently. For the most part, I do that anyway. Surprisingly, I'm more faithful to regular exercise than I am to sticking to the food plan. And the way I miss the mark with food is mostly with portion control. The new food scale has been a big help there.

I'll be gone for a few days this month [Warning! Blog Break coming up!], and will be eating every meal in restaurants, which is another reason not to set a small goal for this month. I have no idea how working out will happen, or how healthy the food choices will be. I don't want the emotional struggle, but it sounds like I have it anyway.

Before I wrap it up, I have to point to Diet-Blog again today. [They sure do give me a lot of blog fodder, don't they?] In a world where private individuals have set up foundations in order to vaccinate Third World countries, the fact that someone is trying to create a fat vaccine is, to me, ludicrous.

In the first place, vaccines don't make any money. What pharmaceutical company is going to get on board for something that eliminates the problem – if it ever will – rather than treats it? There's a lot more profit in providing a lifetime supply of daily treatment than there is in a one-time cure.

And in the second place, blocking the appetite doesn't necessarily make you eat less. Take an honest moment with yourself and think about how many times you've rummaged around for the next thing to eat, even though you've just gone through the refrigerated leftovers and what remains in the kids' lunchbox. [Do kids still take their lunches to school?] Were you hungry? Probably not. I've said before I probably haven't been hungry since I was 11 years old. Or maybe 12.

I could say a lot more about this, but I don't have time this morning. Moving on!

I get many comments and private e-mails from people who tell me I've inspired them. I thank you very much. I'm glad 5.57 pounds a month is inspiring somebody besides me. If nothing else, I'm learning to stick with something.

For a love-'em-and-leave-'em kind of gal like me, that's a very Good Thing.