Ladiiiiieees and Gentleman ..... by popular demand, no-holds barred, you asked for it, you screamed for it ... and now here it is .... the GOAL PHOTO!!!!!

So, I was sitting at work in a meeting the other day, reflecting on what has happened with my weight loss. My last couple of journal entries have been fairly brief, and I thought I owed it to myself and my readership to give a little more thought to my journey so far, given that I made it to goal this week.

I've been sent a lot of emails and messages lately, asking me about my thoughts and plans when I reched goal, and this seems like a good time and place to answer them.

Firstly, I've been asked whether I am going to stick with the WW goal of 65, or if I plan to go under it. The WW range for my height of 161cm is 52-65kgs. I think it's important to remember that this range is broad to account for differences in build - it's not to say that everyone who is 161cm can fluctuate between 52 and 65 and be healthy. If I weighed 52 kgs I would be unhealthily underweight, BMI of 20 or not. On the other hand, my sister who is a similar height to me would be pretty overweight at 65kgs. She is a slim athletic build, whereas I am far more curvaceous and broad in the hips and back. If you look at my measurements you'll notice that there's a pretty big difference between my waist measurement and the measurements for my hips and bust.

What does all this mean? In looking at my current size and shape, I believe I'm pretty close to an ideal weight for me, even though I'm at the top of the WW range (I guess you can look at my photo to decide what you think). Before I put the extra weight on, my weight sat fairly steadily at about 61-65kgs and I was happy with that. To be safe, I will probably try to lose a couple more kilograms during maintenance to give me a little breathing space. So I'd say around 63-64kgs is where I hope to end up.

The second question I've been asked is about chocolate and whether I plan to start eating it again now that I am at goal. In a word - no. My plan was to have a chocolate free year, and I'll stick with it. It's working for me, and as they say "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". At the beginning of next year I will re-evaluate and I will probably re-introduce it as an occasional treat.

Third question is the possibility that I might train as a WW leader, which I will give some very serious thought to. I think it could help me stay on track, and I also believe I could have something to offer other people. However, I need to get to Life Time Membership first, and then think about it. Let's not get ahead of myself.

The last question I've been asked is about rewarding myself for reaching goal. Yes, I think I deserve some reward for the effort and I've got a couple planned. This weekend I will get my hair trimmed, and I also plan on getting my nails done. I think I have quite nice hands, but my nails are atrocious.

The other reward I have planned, and have now decided to wait until I get to Life Time, is a full length mirror. I figure it's a double reward - not only do I get the mirror, but I've now got a great new reflection to go in it!

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Now, onto the second part of today's thoughts - looking back over the changes I've made. I know I've done this periodically so some of it will be repetitive, but hey, you can never over-remind yourself of the good stuff I think.

One thing I notice is that I really seem to have gotten the hang of moderating my eating impulses. I certainly haven't gotten rid of them altogether, but I don't expect to. Example from the other night after my meeting - I got home pretty late and I was very hungry (I don't eat dinner before weigh in, are you crazy??). My initial thought was that I needed to eat straight away because I was so hungry. Then I reminded myself that I had felt hungry now for about an hour, and I could manage another 20 minutes while I cooked myself a nutritious dinner instead of having a sandwich or something else simple.

Something I mentioned briefly in my previous journal entry has echoed in my head since then. I do put effort into managing my work, my money, my relationships and it is not unreasonable to expect to do the same about food. I don't know why I previously had it in my head that I should just be able to eat whatever I want whenever I want, but this was pretty much the attitude I had before I changed my eating habits. After all, I manage to curb the impulse to pick my nose or scratch my arse in meetings, I don't tell people what I really think of them when I'm annoyed at work, I don't go spending my money on the first thing that catches my eye if I haven't paid my rent. Now, I'm learning that I need to have the same moderated beliefs and behaviours around food - and it makes sense.

So now, I view it as my responsibility to care for myself in the long term, including the way I eat and exercise. At the risk of sounding a little patronising (and I want to be clear I am only reflecting on my own experience here), I feel that I have developed more mature attitudes to my health, well being and eating habits.

Now the big trick is whether I can maintain this over a period of time. I'm certainly hoping so, and believe that having done this for more than four months, there's no reason why I can't extend it beyond. However the proof is in the low-point pudding, and I will be interested to see how I go during maintenance and beyond. Stay tuned.....