[Marie]

So I've been playing in the maintenance game for about 6 months. I'm thrilled with my weight loss, not struggling too badly with my eyes being bigger than my caloric limits and I love exercising. So all is going quite nicely. Exactly what I vowed when I started this journey for the last time. I'm praying I am always so dedicated to my new lifestyle.

Now, the title of the thread is because I've read the signatures that say Nothing Tastes as Good as Being Thin Feels. Or variations on that theme. I agree with that. Mostly. Over the last few months as I've tackled formerly difficult physical tasks, I've come to the conclusion my motto is Nothing Tastes as Good as Being Healthy Feels. I started my exercise love affair 3 years before starting to lose weight but didn't make the more physical tasks a bunch easier. Losing weight PLUS the physical conditioning did.

I know my original intent in losing the weight was to be "healthy". Being thin didn't really enter the equation because I never have been and maybe down deep I didn't think I'd really get there. But I didn't start for looking pretty. As I near that half century mark, I didn't really care about thin and pretty. But... I started looking not so bad. At one point, my reasons switched to thin and pretty. Heck, the plastic surgeries are a semi-result of that. Regardless, the healthy was there but not the focus.

Fast forward to this May, especially yesterday. DH and I decide to go biking for the first time in two years (knee injury last year). We start out and I said, "We'll go until my butt gets sore, then we'll turn around". DH nods because my butt always hurts like the dickens after a few miles. I'd tried two female atomically correct seats and had come to the conclusion my tailbone was just not normal. Well, duh Marie, it was fat.

So we're at a new trail that is 18 miles long. We're staring at mile 5. Off we go and I'm pedaling and having a ball. Spring is all around me (for those that have read my many complaints about our weather, we went over the mountain to a lower elevation to bike). Birds are chirping, wildflowers are blooming and the trees are budding. It was awesome. We're going and going. DH keeps asking how I'm doing. Fine, I reply. Then I realize we're about 10 miles down the trail. My legs and lungs are happy. I'm happy. We end up going to the end and turning around and my butt doesn't hurt.

OK, so it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the 70+ pounds I lost was why my butt didn't hurt. At no point did it hurt yesterday and we rode for 26 miles total. In the past, I loved my bike so much and hated it at the same time. Now I just love it.

But I digress. My recurring thought yesterday was the same as when DH and I snowshoed at the beginning of May and I was nearly running up and down mountain hills having a ball.

My recurring thought yesterday: Nothing Tastes as Good as Healthy Feels

I reached my original goal as to why I started the journey. It is an awesome thing. I am healthy. Labwork backs up what I just feel. I have energy, I am more active than I was at ten years old and life is so fun to live. Truly, no food can come close to that. Just how cool is that?

Marie

PS - to the Three Fat Chicks that created this awesome site. THANK YOU!!! I'm not so sure I could have found who I am without you.

[mjhart23]

I am more active than I was at ten years old and life is so fun to live. Truly, no food can come close to that. Just how cool is that?

Can I agree with you wholeheartedly? I'm going to a local battlefield over the weekend to do some hiking. I NEVER would've considered doing that at 239 pounds. But now, I want to be active and do stuff.

It truly is a great feeling!

[MeganTheMushroom]

I was so unhealthy for the first 14 and a half years of my life, I ate my fruits and veggies (thugh I couldve done with more), but I would eat 4 slices of pizza with a pound of added salt on them, or maybe a whole 9 inch calzone to myself, maybe a gigantic spoon full of chocolate icing I found in the cabnet (probably equal to at least a half a cup)

This changed when I finally gave up meat for good (after months of forcing it down my throat because my mom made me...)
I started eating less, since I would eat the same things my family ate, just without the meat, but that grew in to more healthy habits,
I started eating tons of steamed veggies- and loved it! I would mix flax seed oil in cottage cheese, snack on fruit rather than crackers, started eating nuts over candies, and became a health nut!

I lost about 5 pounds in the first 8 months of being a vegetarian, and that was when I decided to start exercise. I was pathetic- I could barely lift 5 lbs, and was huffing and puffing after only 25 minutes ont he eliptical,

Now I'm 30 pounds thinner, am the healthies eater out of my whole family, can lift 45 pounds, have so much toned muscle, can go on the eliptical for an hour without my lungs burning, and can jog for 25

I love it! I love being a healthy nut, I love exercising! And I just feel great!
I want to start distance training though, and become more of a runner

There just isn't anything like it ^^

[paperclippy]

Marie, does your secret work for everyone? My butt still hurts on the bike, do I need to lose 10 more pounds?? (just kidding)

Seriously though, I totally agree that being fit and healthy is the greatest feeling ever. I am more in shape now than I have ever been in my entire life (well unless you count that when I was a kid I could do the monkey bars, but my arms are too weak now).

[Shannon in ATL]

I am so much more active now than I was ten years ago. Heck, even five years ago. I love it! It does feel great. I love the exercise rush. I love that I can lift and carry things at home (most of the time) without help. I love that I brought my own boxes upstairs at my office without having to drag employees off the make line. I love that I ran a half marathon. It just feels fantastic.

But, my butt does hurt on a real bike....

[LisaElevated]

Thanks for posting this! I am just starting my journey to a healthier me and this is just what I needed to see to remind myself of why I am doing this and the good things that can result from turning down that cheesecake!

[Marie]

Lisa, the journey takes some interesting twists and turns but you can reach your goal. Healthy and fit is so awesome.

Shannon and Jessica, have you tried going to a bike shop and getting a female anatomically correct seat? Mine is the female one and it hurt my butt until I lost the weight. Now it doesn't but the one that came with the bike might. I'm not willing to experiment.

DH and I plan to bike on Friday, weather willing. When I mentioned riding on our way to picking up our DGS on Friday, he said, "I thought we were going on Sunday." Me: "I didn't think my idea was an OR situation. It was and AND." He gets it now.
Marie