"It's never too late to be who you might have been" George Eliot. I love this quote! Tom shared it with me.
Being part of a healthy, supportive community is making a difference in my life. I learn something new each week, it inspires me and I will start sharing things.
My current weight loss is 38 lbs and 32 inches in 12 weeks. I still have a lot to lose. Often the negative talk slips in and when I see pictures of me all I see is a fat girl instead of where I came from just 3 months ago. I am on the right path and I just have to keep going and trust what I am doing. It is working! Each week I see positive results with the scale and measurements and that keeps me going.
The negative part of me says, "Ugh, look at you, still have a tire around your waist, look at how much the scale says! Gross!"
So I am going to be brave and tell you where I started. The scale said 253... 12 weeks ago. Disgusting, despicable. It now says 215. I should feel good about that right? But it makes my stomach turn and makes me cry to tell you those numbers. I slip into thinking, "I will never be healthy so just eat whatever I want, why keep trying... you'll just gain it all back anyway...like every single time before." But then I say, "No! Look at how far you have come! Look at the path you are on! Look at how you feel 110% better and stronger and healthier already!" I really have to try hard to not feed the negative thoughts. If someone compliments me I usually say "thanks, but" Tom just told me I look awesome and I said, "Thanks, but I still have SO much to lose!"
It takes commitment to keep making healthy choices and sometimes I feel weak but still in control. Being in control feels better than giving in to cravings, but I need to give myself an escape when I feel cravings. So instead of eating the oreos and chips (which my family ate in front of me Friday night) I got a sugar free jello and fat free whipped topping, or I go DO something. Cravings go away if you just acknowledge you have them and don't give them power. It just IS what it IS. They go away after 15 minutes, did you know that? I didn't. But I've tried it a few times now and it's really true. Tell yourself you can have it in 15 minutes and go get busy doing something else, I bet you won't give in to the craving.
My kids have watched me and said they wish they were doing the program with me (even though they are not heavy) and I worry about their self image. So I try to focus on being healthy and not skinny. Just because the scale says a small number does that mean you are healthy? No! I need to listen to my own advice!
Here's something I learned and have been thinking about- just because you're
not sick does that mean you're healthy? Just because you are skinny does that mean you're healthy? Nope
This is from the habits of health in my program-
"If
you are not sick, you are healthy, right?
That’s often how the medical world sees it. But in reality, these two
states—non-sick and healthy—are vastly different.
Health is a state that requires active maintenance. It is not something you
achieve and get to keep forever without additional work, even if you are at a
healthy weight and not currently faced with any health challenges. When you
treat health as a destination, you are in danger of yo-yoing. You put in
the effort to reach your goal, but then you drift back into unhealthy because
you are not continuing your healthy lifestyle indefinitely.
Non-sickness is like purgatory—simply surviving, as opposed to a healthy state
of thriving. It is caused by eating an excess quantity of nutritionally barren
food, which overworks the pancreas and facilitates your body’s storage of fat. Non-sickness
is a state in which your muscles become weak and flabby, a state of not enough
sleep and way too much stress. It’s a state that leads you to progressively
depend on medications to relieve your symptoms—symptoms that are merely your
body’s way of telling you that you are not healthy.
To put it another way, maintaining your health is like maintaining a car.
If you lock the newest, nicest car in a garage for 40 years, it will not run
like a new car if you suddenly take it out for a drive. The engine may have
rusted. That battery will likely be dead. The oil probably needs changed. The
rubber on the tires may be old and rotting. The dust and dirt may have damaged
the paint.
Keeping a car running at peak performance requires diligent maintenance. You
take it in regularly to be serviced. You change the tires. You wash and wax the
exterior. A classic car may not have the glitz and glamour of the models coming
off the production line, but the engine can still roar, and the body can still look
great if it has been properly cared for.
Your health is similar. You have to first decide that your health is a priority
and then organize your daily choices to support a new healthy lifestyle to
truly maintain optimal health.
Being non-sick often leads to life-threatening illness over time, just like
driving a car without ever taking it to a mechanic for an oil change will
eventually lead to serious engine failure. This state on the road to obesity is
sometimes referred to as pre-obesity—a more apt description of the
corresponding negative health effects than the innocuous-sounding overweight.
In a state of non-sickness, time is against you. It may go unnoticed until one
day you are so fatigued that you finally go to your doctor and find out you
have diabetes. Your health path has led you from non-sick to sick. The bad news
is that close to 90 percent of us fall into this non-sick category. The good
news is that the non-sick can usually reach optimal health in a relatively
short amount of time.
Your goal should not be to achieve non-sickness but to achieve vibrant,
thriving health. There is a difference."
I do love seeing my before and now pictures, so here's the most recent one-
 |
| I can almost see my collar bone! Yay! |
And I can't get over the difference in my face!
I am 1/3 of the way to my goal! Only 6 more months to lose the rest of my weight. I can do this! This is the last week of school before summer starts, I hope I can be as good as I have been when my kids are all home. Wish me luck!
#committed #watchmelose
3. I am not perfect. I know, shocker right? I had gone 6 months without going off my program and losing 70 lbs! I was on a role. Then school started, then holidays start kicking in, then things start slipping. It is hard to get back on 100% after slowing down. But I did add exercise to my routine, so I was building muscle. And I have NOT given up. Still gearing up to lose the last 50 lbs..jpg)
4. Eating crappy makes me feels crappy. I noticed that when I
ate more carbs or sugar I felt more tired, got more headaches, and
thought "That was NOT worth it" every single time!!! I think this is a
really important lesson to learn. Before trying to lose weight I never
knew the effects of crappy high carb eating because that's all I knew. I
lived on carbs and sugar. I NEVER ever felt full or sick after eating
too much- what a curse right? :( Ugh! But no more. Now if I eat too
much I feel it and it's gross. It causes me pain. I hate it. And I
bless that feeling because now I know the difference. 
