Mind-blowing weight loss

Today I weigh 25 pounds less than I did a year ago. I've lost the weight I regained after my band slip and port flip. I know I worked hard to re-lose that weight, but in another way, I don't remember a single moment of struggle during that time. I never felt deprived, most of the time I didn't have to fight with any bad habits, I didn't have to give weight loss 99% of my attention...the weight just went away once my band was refilled and working again. When I look at myself in the mirror (which is hard to avoid when you work in a retail store), it blows my mind to see how small I am now. It just doesn't seem possible for me to look, and feel, this light now.

It was only 3 years ago that I lost my excess weight the first time, after my band surgery. I lost 90 pounds in a year, 3.6 times more than I lost in the past year. How on earth did my teeny tiny mind survive and accommodate that quick a change?!

And why was losing the weight the 2nd time easier (although slower) than the first time? My theory:

1. my band was doing its job, and it gets better at doing its job as time goes on
2. my band eating skills were a well-ingrained habit this time, so fewer eating problems and
    discomfort occurred
3. my brain had already adjusted from me being a size 22 to me being a size 10, so the brief
    return to size 14, and the subsequent return to size 10, wasn't as dramatic a change

At work yesterday I was straightening a table of plus size women's capris. We always put the smallest size in the range on the top of each stack, with the largest size on the bottom (JCP company rule). When I arrived at the table, I found a size 22 on top of a stack that I knew should start with a 16, so I picked it up to refold it and put it back where it belonged toward the bottom of the stack. It was close to closing time, no customers or associates around, so I shook the pants out and held them up to my body, which could probably fit into one leg of those pants now. I wanted to shout, "I used to wear size 22! Where did all those sizes go?!"

In my hippie youth, we used to talk about mind-blowing drugs or sex or music. So far, mind-blowing weight loss is the highlight of my life! What about you?

Jean