It finally happened. I finally crawled off the floor of StudioX Fitness and marched right next door to Baby Doll Pizza, in my pink and sweaty glory, and had myself a slice.

Granted, it was in the line of duty: I was trying their upcoming super slice for Pizza Week.

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But despite such transgressions, I am starting to finally see (and more importantly, FEEL) the results of these last 10 weeks of hard exercise and pseudo-self deprivation. Now that it's over.

Today is my last personal training session with StudioX owner Tim Irwin, a hard ass and established task master who finally prodded my indulgent ass into giving up the whole "eat whatever I want, whenever I want" mentality. We'll take my final measurements today. And you know what, even if they're not super crazy dramatic, I know I've been victorious.

I'm back into pants that haven't fit for a year. A dress I had custom made in Vietnam in January is baggy. I'm feeling more upbeat and positive than I normally do. I'm drinking less. OH CHRIST, I'm a health convert.

Kind of. I still have had my share of pizza, tempura, multi-course meals and even more than a bottle of wine in one night. I'm just also having a salad for a lunch at the office, or eating a slice or two instead of four. It's a mental hurdle that is astoundingly hard to get over. I'm sure fellow gluttons can relate.

And I can do things I couldn't before. Some of my regular group class trainers have gone out of their way to remind me of how I couldn't do a wall squat while lifting weights while standing on a balance ball (yes this is a fucking thing)... and now I can. Or that I couldn't hold myself up during lengthy planks. Now I can. And now, Tim has me doing crazy ass stuff like standing on a human-sized rubber band strapped between two posts and using it to do pull ups. I cannot wait for the moment I lose my grip and I am propelled straight through the skylights. (PS: You can sign up for free classes today through Tuesday in honor of the 12th anniversary. This is your bonus for reading past the jump.)

I guess I'm at peace about all this and intend to keep going because I've come to this simple realization: WTF is wrong with the diet culture in America, where people keep doing stupid shit to lose 20 pounds in two weeks?? It didn't take me two weeks to put on these 25 pounds I've accumulated since I started food critic-ing, why should I expect to take them off any faster? Especially if I plan to keep them off?

My food critic job isn't going to go away (I hope). My love of calories won't either. This is about having my burger and my health too.