I DID IT! KNOCKOUT - ROUND 1 (of 6)
I cannot tell you how much fun it was today to change my little chick avatar from 5 lbs to 10 lbs lost! My other rewards are to post here...my first time in the Mini Goal thread...do my victory laps in the grocery store with TWO five lb bags of sugar ... and going to get my hair trimmed. Oh yes, and I'm adding three days of working out in the exercise room every week. Gotta start thinking of exercising as a reward, and not punishment!
In some ways it feels like such a little amount, but in others it seems already like a huge accomplishment. I've never actually tried to lose weight before in a real planned fashion. Only by starving myself or diet pills. Although I am very committed to my "lifestyle change" this time, I needed the incentive of seeing the scale number drop, to confirm my decision. I really can do this, it's not magic.
I basically count calories with an online tool, am paying attention to nutrition and activity level, have a diet buddy and joined here for support, try to eat as much "whole food" as I can, limiting processed and eating organic fruits and veggies, have been working in more exercise, am working on my self-esteem (inside out changes) and honestly give myself a little leeway when I need it. We cut down drastically on alcohol, but I still enjoy a couple of glasses of wine a week, have a favorite bratwurst meal once or twice a week (but count it) and those days I want to crawl back in bed, I do.
The best part is I have a loving BF who loves me as I am and is willing to make life changes with me just because he wants to support my happiness. I could cry writing this because - well - I really got lucky in the love department!
The first month has been hard - there was some weird perspective changes as one one hand I was looking in the mirror and since I had finally faced the reality of the scale, really started seeing how badly out of shape I had gotten. This was somewhat horrifying. But because my first 10 pounds seemed to have come off my upper belly I could see an immediate difference in my waistline and how pants fit - so it was like I was seeing both good and bad at same time. Emotionally it was a little disconcerting.
So 1/6 of way to goal. Can't wait til I've been here long enough to add my ticker. But I started at 205 almost exactly one month ago (tomorrow), the scales showed 194.8 today and I'm aiming for 145. At 5'5 I know when I was thin I looked good at 135 - but I was squishy. This time I'm aiming for FIT AND BUFF. So I've added 10 pounds on for all the amazing muscle I'm going to be putting on.
THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR SUPPORT - and sharing all your successes and yes, even failures. Because sometimes there are days when the scale hasn't moved it's just darn depressing. I need to know this is not a journey I'm undertaking alone. I'm so glad to be here in company of such awesome gals and guys.
THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR INDULGING ME IN THIS POST!
By the way, I'm protecting some posts on my 3FC blog - not sure if this is just paranoid, or not. I guess I don't want anyone from the general public stumbling on them. It's just the before pictures at this point of course. The thing is I talk about some things that I'd prefer stay somewhat private and I don't necessarily want semi-private and public to cross. I want to be able to be completely honest in my blog. If anyone here is interested and wants the password though feel free to send me a private message. When I reach goal though I will post before/after in the forums!