Great to hear you are sticking with it and making progress!
You are doing better than my wife and I. Just before Thanksgiving, we started a low carb diet (our variation on Atkins) in an attempt to lose a few pounds and hopefully make it through the holidays without a big gain, which is what typically happens to us. We knew we would have some cheats because of the holidays, but at least it would give us a chance. That plan worked out ok --- I lost about 5 pounds, then gained back a few, but still made it to Jan 1 below where I started instead of above. Since then, we haven't had much success. We keep falling off our program for one reason or another. One example --- we both do yoga and had high hopes for results from a 28-day yoga challenge in Feb (28 classes in 28 days). We had done it before with good results. We both agreed to relax the diet a bit during the challenge, because all the extra exercise makes you hungry. Unfortunately, early in the contest, my wife tweaked her back and couldn't go. Without her going, I had trouble keeping my motivation up. And we still let the diet rules relax. Long story short --- we made some progress early in January, but it's all been lost now! Anyway... we have agreed to get back on our program next week.
Keep up the good work. The "50 by 50" goal is great, but I didn't mean to pose it as a challenge to you! It's sort of arbitrary. If it works out, great! But, like you said, it might be a kind of fast weight loss that may mot be realistic or healthy, depending on how much time till your birthday. The main thing is not to be discouraged if that long term goal slips a bit, but be sure to acknowledge and be happy for the smaller steps and progress along the way. You are doing really well.
About the acid reflux, that could be due to the change in diet as much as the weight you have already lost. I used to have acid reflux all the time, and what I found was it went away almost immediately as soon as I cut most carbs out of my diet. I had always thought of it as a reaction to spicy foods or too much grease. But for example, if I go to a Mexican restaurant and don't eat the chips, I can still eat more fatty, spicy chili verde than I should, and I won't have a problem with reflux. It's not good for the diet to eat too much chili verde, of course, just an example of one thing I noticed with reflux. And I noticed it with other things too. I could eat the thing that I used to think was the problem as long as I did not eat it with carbs. Whatever the cause, it was great to be rid of that problem!
Congrats again! And keep us posted. We may be offering you encouragement, but you are also inspiring the rest of us who have our own weight loss goals.
