I weighed 150 yesterday, down a pound and a half from last week. There’s a lot of good in that number. It means I’m moving in the right direction again after last week’s pause (as Angelika wisely pointed out to me after I wrote that entry, one week of holding steady does not a real plateau make). It also means I have only ten pounds to go to reach my goal. Ten pounds. I haven’t been this close to what I want to weigh for years. My size 16’s are falling off of me (well, some of them, anyway; women’s clothing sizing being what is, I have some 16’s that make me look like a little kid dressed in mama’s clothes and some that only look a tiny bit baggy).

The one bit of bad that comes with this loss is now I fall into the lowest category of points ranges at Weight Watchers, which means my maximum drops by 14 points a week. Instead of 20 to 25 points a day, I’ll need to be at 18 to 23. One point is about 50 to 60 calories, depending on the fat and fiber content of the food in question. That’s not a huge amount to cut back, but still I worry it’ll be hard, that I’ll feel deprived. Two points a day. That’s a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich, or seven Triscuits, or some other little treat that I can no longer have. I guess I’ll have to start eating more fruit. For months now, I’ve been encouraging myself to eat fruits and veggies by letting myself have them as free foods, no points attached. That’s not such a cheat, really, since most vegetables officially have zero points, and most fruits are low in points. I figure as long as I’m still losing weight, I’ll stick with this plan.

I was very tempted to get on the scale this morning and see what damage last night’s late dinner did—Mr. Karen and I went to his sister’s, and I’d saved points, but not enough to cover all of the pizza, cheese bread, and Godiva ice cream I decided I needed to eat—but I stayed strong and let the scale alone. Now I need to do the same thing tomorrow, and the day after, and so on, until it’s Saturday again. I can bask in being only ten pounds from goal all week, instead of being bummed because I was only ten pounds from goal for one day and spent all week getting back there.