One more week before our next weigh-in.  I am sitting here feeling frustrated with the scale, since the pounds are coming off VERY slowly. I am still about 6 lbs away and i know there is a pretty good chance i won't hit this month's goal.  But I am losing-and that is all that matters!  I know I will reach my 6 month goal in plenty of time, if I can just be patient and stay the course.  In my many previous attempts to lose weight, I would see a healthy and motivating drop, and then I'd hit a plateau.   I would try to stay focused, but would get discouraged and start to slip. Sometimes I would hang in there long enough to see another healthy drop, but then another plateau. This is how it has been my entire life.  Unfortunately, at some point those pauses in my weight loss would cause me to give up hope and start to revert back to old habits.  I could hear myself thinking, " Why deny myself when am not getting anywhere losing weight?"  I would give myself permission to indulge and then slowly would return to old, bad habits.  NOT THIS TIME!  I know that the challenge of winning some money is a motivating one, but for me, this is less about winning money, but more about winning me! Even if I do not hit the next goal, I am going to persevere and be patient.  I am losing weight, and learning healthy habits that need time to become ingrained into my normal operating procedure.  I need to continue to cross over the bridge from a mindset that says "I am making these choices to lose weight" to one that says, "I am making these choices as a way of life."  As my dear friend often says, “Patience Grasshopper. You’ll get there. This is a journey, not a race.”