Around the track a time or two:

To start, I hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving with your families / friends! It was truly a great Thanksgiving for our families and friends!! I am amazingly blessed!!

I am certain there are many others who have been around the weight loss track a time or two…I certainly have!! As with a running track, my weight loss and exercise journey has been a series of starts and stops, hurdles, and speed trials.

I have fought hard to lose weight quickly, only to gain it back even faster…and don’t forget that for every pound lost, at least 1.5 was gained!! So then I tried the “slower” approach which took me longer to get the pounds off and the still came back on fast and at an amount more than what I actually lost.  Every stop / start session seemed more and more difficult to “start” and easier to stop! The hurdles seemed to increase in size making it seem nearly impossible to complete the weight loss run. I finally got to the point where I figured that I had to accept the fact that I was going to be fat and I just needed to learn to deal with it and be happy with who I was….so I stopped looking in the mirror below the waist and threw away all of my “skinny” clothes.

Needless to say, not looking in the mirror, and throwing away my skinny clothes helped me ignore the problem….for a brief time period. But there were still the horrible pictures that I could not seem to avoid. I look back at those pictures now and still get that sad feeling in the pit of my being. All the avoidance in the world could not take away that sadness and frustration!

So, it was now almost 3 years ago that I finally decided that I did not want to live like this any longer. It is the same place where runners decide to fight the urge to stop and give that last mile their all.  I looked within and decided that feeling sad and sorry for myself was getting me no where and that NOW is the time to make a difference!!

I decided on a weight loss plan and I went at with full forced, determined to make it work this time!! The difference was that I was not losing weight to be as skinny as I was in high school…I was losing weight to be healthy and to be happy with myself. I did not base my goal on what other people or research said I needed to weigh, I based it on what I felt was acceptable for me, and what was a healthy weight that I could maintain after the “diet” was complete. THAT for me was the biggest key to success!! I was not trying to be something that others said I should be / weigh, I was working the plan around what worked for ME!!

I think this is where many people get defeated in their weight-loss journey. They base their diet plan on what others say is an acceptable weight and not on something that works for them!! You have to be realistic or it will never work.

Our bodies are not all the same so what worked for me or my lifestyle might not work for you…you have to find what works for YOU!

I would like to challenge you…if you are planning on starting a weight-loss journey. PLEASE wait until after the Christmas holiday to start, why set yourself up for failure right out of the gate! BUT what I would challenge you to do over the next few weeks is this: keep a diary of two things for at least a week (and don’t do it the week of Christmas!).  1. List everything that you eat / drink during the day. It will surprise you at how many calories you are currently taking in daily. And please don’t hold back…you need for this to truly reflect what you take in each day, and 2. As you are writing down what you eat, think about why you are eating and write that down beside the foods (ie., craved something sweet, was angry at my husband, frustrating day at work, was really hungry, etc.)

I promise you will be surprised at how many of your calories in a day come from feelings other than hunger!!

If you do this exercise, I hope that you will share your thoughts with me as you do it! I still do this from time to time when I feel my calories and eating habits have gotten out of control!