Here it is, my start photo. All 224 pounds of me. Carla took this photo after I got done making, "My Final for the Rest of my Life Weight Loss Grid," on February 26, 2012, pictured above. At that moment I thought I weighed 222 pounds. When I weighed in the next morning, February 27th, I found out I was starting out 2 pounds above my line. Ah well, such is life.
As I mentioned in my first post, my goal was to start this blog (and the journey it was meant to chronicle) in June 2011. At that point I believed I had the pieces in place and the motivation to make it happen. By “it” I mean getting truly healthy, losing the weight I need to lose, and developing a habit of exercise and good nutrition. The underlying motivation for this goal is to be very healthy during the 2nd half of my life. There's something about staring down that 50th birthday that causes one to take an inventory. I've battled my weight all my life. There were years when I had my weight at a reasonable level and I felt great. But I have had more years when I was too heavy (200+ lbs) and did not feel great at all. But something really clicked in this last year. One of the contributing factors to that "click" was reading the book, Younger Next Year. Although I have known most of my life that I would look and feel better if I exercised every day, that book helped me understand how important exercise really is to enjoying the second half of my life. My first blog post, originally written last June, came about as a result of reading that book.
A lot has happened since then, some good, some not so good. Unfortunately, one of the things that has not happened is I have not lost any weight. Do I weigh more today than I did then? Honestly, I'm not sure. I know I have lost a few pounds since then, and I’ve gained a few pounds since then, and I lost it again and gained it again. But I am talking just a few pounds. To get right down to it, I have been hovering around the 220lb mark for a couple of years.
When I made that original post, I was training for a 500 mile bike ride. Training for that ride did motivate me to exercise regularly but I wasn't dieting; therefore, I was still right around 220lbs, maybe a little less, on day zero of the ride. That did not deter me, I went on the ride and had a blast. I rode every mile and felt good, except for some saddle sores (can you say ouch?). In spite of some long days, including our 106 mile first day, I did not have any knee or muscle pain. In reality, the ride was not difficult for me to do. It was reassuring to know that I could ride my bike 500 miles in a week. Obviously I was healthy, strong, and had stamina; but that did not erase the fact that I knew I was overweight and I needed to do something about it.
When we got home from the ride, I managed to keep up the habit of exercising a few days a week. Mostly that exercise consisted of 4 mile walk/jogs before breakfast. I was also doing some weight lifting with a free weight set that I have at home. I kept up this almost regular exercise routine until Thanksgiving, which is when I let it all go. I am pretty sure that before I left for our Thanksgiving holiday in Sonoma I weighed 217 or 218 pounds. Between Thanksgiving 2011 and February 26, 2012, I think I exercised 4 times, maybe 5. My eating habits fluctuated based on my mood, and most of the time I was feeling stressed. The result? I gained six pounds in approximately 3 months, which got me back to 224lbs on the morning of February 27th.
The mental battle I've been fighting with myself came to a climax when I started to realize that I was starting to feel depressed. I knew I needed to take action, and I needed to take action quickly. I had to throw the excuses out the window and do something about it. At about that time a friend at work mentioned that she was going to 24 Hour Fitness, a gym 2.4 miles from my house that is open, obviously, 24 hours a day. Up to that moment I had used the excuse that there were no gyms close enough to home that were open early enough in the morning to fit into my routine. With that excuse obliterated, I decided to join the gym and sign up for three Personal Training sessions. As soon as I signed on the dotted line my analytical mind took over and I started formulating a plan of action. I set a target weight of 150 pounds, because I know at that weight I feel healthy and I like the way I look. I chose 1.5 pounds a week because I know that is fast enough to see progress, but slow enough to be healthy and attainable. I made the chart pictured above as a way to graphically represent my progress and to help keep me motivated. It is posted on my bathroom wall.
As you can see, I taped my start photo to the graph as another motivational tool. It was later in the week that I had the idea to take my photo every Sunday, and tape them up, too. I am also making notes on the chart, to remind myself of signficant moments during the process. Others are encouraged to write comments on my chart, as well. In fact, if you have words of wisdom, encouragement or inspiration that you want to share; feel free to comment on my blog and I will print them out and tape them to my chart, too!
I am using this blog as another tool in my tool box. I am hoping that by posting my story, my photos, and my progress on my chart; I will be more motivated to succeed.
Thanks for listening!!
No comments:
Post a Comment