It’s been a couple of months since I’ve blogged about my Metaboli Balance® journey.

A lot has been going on in my life, and yes, I’m still on plan. I even did a month on Phase 3 at the recommendation of my nutrition coach since I’d reached my halfway goal (I’m down 45 pounds since Jan. 2) of losing 88 pounds. More on Phase 3 later.

So, I did a Google search, “What’s the best word for not moving?” to describe where I’m at right now in my nutrition plan. The Google results were: “fester, hibernate, languish, stall, stand still, constipate, decay, decline, idle, putrefy, rot, rust, stand, stifle, stultify, trammel, vegetate, go to seed, lie fallow.”  Sounds pretty grim, doesn’t it?

Being a positive, upbeat person, I’m choosing “stand” as the best descriptive word. Stand has a few meanings, not the least of which is an action word I often use when I support a person, a movement and, yes, in this U.S. presidential election year, even a political candidate. I’m standing with her.

Today marks Day 261 since starting MB®. The thing is that on Day 198 — Aug. 1, which is more than two months ago — I weighed exactly what I weigh today.

For the previous nine months, I’d been losing about a pound a week, which I believe is a healthy amount for weight loss, not too fast, not too slow.

So, I’ve basically remained the same weight for two months. What the heck?! That could be depressing. But hey, I’m positive, upbeat. So I did Phase 3 for a month, actually it was more like five weeks.

To recap, if you’re new to all this, remember, Phase 1 is the two-day Preparation Phase where you cleanse your system. Phase 2 is a Strict Conversion Phase where your goal, according to Metabolic Balance®, is “Conversion of the body to an optimized nutrition, harmonization of the metabolism, ability to reach a desired weight with noticeable health improvements.”

Yup, I’ve been doing that since Jan. 4, and I’m proud to say I’ve got Phase 2 down. I don’t have to look at my meal plans anymore. I know the measurements and my food choices.

But Phase 3 was totally new to me. I checked the MB® binder that my nutritionist gave me back in January. It explained the Relaxed Conversation Phase as the goal of “Stabilization of your metabolism, maintenance of your improved well-being or weight. Gradual liberation of the rules and guidelines, more freedom with your food choices.”

Hey, that sounded great! I was able to expand my food list to include pork and beef to my protein options as well as adding additional fruits and vegetables in a trial-and-error method to test other foods or quantities that had been outside the boundaries of my plan.

Some of the fruits I was able to add and experiment with were apricots, blueberries, blackberries, grapefruit, Kiwi, nectarine, peach and pineapple. The low-glycemic carbohydrates that I could add in Phase 3 included oatmeal, brown rice, quinoa, whole wheat pasta, baked potato with skin, sweet corn, popcorn and wild rice.

It actually worked great. I didn’t weigh absolutely all the food as I’d been doing for months. I was fairly accurate with my ‘guestimate’ measurements. I certainly enjoyed corn on the cob and watermelon, especially since it is in season. We’ve had many roadside stand opportunities for great fruits and veggies, too.

And, thankfully, there was always my weekly Treat Meal to look forward to with wine. Yes, I’ll admit I sure do miss my wine. That said, I also acknowledge that my results speak for themselves and, I can’t believe I’m writing this: “It is absolutely worth going without wine six nights a week!”

Another goal in Phase 3 is not to gain, nor lose weight due to adding so many different foods. So I did very well, only loosing 1 pound in the five weeks.

Now I’ve been back on Phase 2 for almost three weeks, and I haven’t lost any weight, which I’m not sure I can explain. I’m exercising by walking 30 to 60 minutes at least four times a week if not more.

The great news is that a lot of people are noticing my hefty weight loss and are making positive comments. I also experienced buying a completely new wardrobe since nothing fit. The last pair of jeans I bought were size 14, which I haven’t worn for more than 20 years. And the new turquoise top I bought last week was a size 8.

Guess I won’t complain.

Results: I’ve gone from size 3X to 2X to 1X to XXL to XL to L to M in 261 days.

Tips: Never give up.

In case you were wondering, here’s a list of few of the happenings in my life in the past few weeks:

• Opened a photo exhibition Sept.16 of my photographs titled “25 Black & White Photos of European Women in Traditional Male Professions & Trades” at the Germanic-American Institute, 301 Summit Ave., St. Paul running through Dec. 5.
• Was featured speaker at GAI sharing about my years freelancing for seven German newspapers.
• Enjoyed a three-week visit from my daughter, Andrea La Valleur-Purvis, before she left  last week to live in Barcelona, Spain.
• Made three trips to La Farm with family.
• Had two family deaths.
• Spent quality time with our grandson, Jackson, who lives in Washington, D.C., for two days.
• Attended several fundraiser events.
• Volunteered for numerous hours at Edina’s Fall Into the Arts, at church and Landmark Worldwide.
• Attended an extraordinary weekend Landmark course “Communication: Access to Power.”
• Participated in several board and commission meetings.
• Wrote two blogs at unheralded.fish.com/barbaralavalleur.
• Attended a German Oktoberfest in St. Paul.
• Took a few hundred photos here and there.
• Sent for and received my new passport in only nine days!
• Installed a new art wrap on a utility box in Edina.