Cataloging and celebrating my successes!
My first success, is not solely related to my most recent weight loss and healthier life journey but it has lingered in the back of my mind. It was not too long ago that I hit my highest weight, and so I did start to exercise more and I lost some weight it was in the double digits but then I started to slack and hovered around the same weight for well over a year. So if I look at how much progress I have made since I was at that heaviest point I have lost roughly 26 pounds. That is certainly nothing to sneeze at.
Secondly, since I started this journey about 30 days ago I have lost roughly 7.6 pounds, again that is a healthy and respectable amount. During this time I have dropped down a BMI class. I have various feelings about BMI and I know that there are flaws with it but this was a big mental thing for me, my BMI was going down! If you are interested in the different categories of BMI you can check out the table at the NIH and the NIH also has a BMI calculator.
Thirdly, I have broken a weight barrier that none of my other attempts have broken. I think most of us have had that one number that we get down to and maybe even a pound or two lower than it and then bounce back up to that number that seems to be a wall that we cannot completely climb over. I have climbed over it and have taken several steps away from it, while I celebrate this I must also be vigilant that the wall does not reach out and grab me and pull me back. (I should note that this success was my light bulb moment from the previous post. I didn't put it at the top of the list because I am trying to keep the successes in mostly chronological order of when they happened not when I realized they happened.)
Fouth, this is one of those intangible things because it is so hard to measure. But overall my mood and energy levels seem to be up. I am tired and on some days I am sore but it isn't the same deep level of tired bordering on exhausted. And my mood the thing I notice the most is that I am more optimistic and my patience seems to growing as well, and I can shrug some stuff off more easily. I am less likely to automatically very into the worst case scenario territory.
Fifth, I feel stronger and this not just a feeling. I noticed during last week's Mass I was able to kneel longer, prior to this endevor I didn't really kneel I did a partial sit on the edge of the pew with my knees on the kneeler but my weight was on my bum. This week I did more straight up kneeling than last week and only a tiny bit of resting my bum on the pew.
Sixth, I had mentioned the dress that I hadn't worn in 10+ years in a previous post. I have also worn a pair of dress pants that had not fit in a few years, I am not sure how long but it was less than 10 years. This morning I tried on two skirts that are certainly 10+ years old I would say 15 or so years old and I am so close to fitting into them. So I am going to celebrate this twice once right now because I could wear them now but I feel they are just a tiny bit too tight for my personal taste, and the second celebration when I wear one of them out.
Seventh, I make adjustments to the various cardio routines to match my current abilities and the adjustments are to make it easier to do the routine. An example is that routine starts out as a grapevine and then transitions to scissors, well the scissors were hurting my knees so I stuck with the grapevine, well guess what I am not doing the scissors and it doesn't hurt. w00t!
Celebrate the small successes no matter how small and you will find the strength and motivation to continue. I have found that by taking a bit of time to think about and celebrate the small successes I find myself finding more that I never noticed. When I set out to write this post it was originally 3 items long, but as I wrote and pondered more came to me.
Secondly, since I started this journey about 30 days ago I have lost roughly 7.6 pounds, again that is a healthy and respectable amount. During this time I have dropped down a BMI class. I have various feelings about BMI and I know that there are flaws with it but this was a big mental thing for me, my BMI was going down! If you are interested in the different categories of BMI you can check out the table at the NIH and the NIH also has a BMI calculator.
Thirdly, I have broken a weight barrier that none of my other attempts have broken. I think most of us have had that one number that we get down to and maybe even a pound or two lower than it and then bounce back up to that number that seems to be a wall that we cannot completely climb over. I have climbed over it and have taken several steps away from it, while I celebrate this I must also be vigilant that the wall does not reach out and grab me and pull me back. (I should note that this success was my light bulb moment from the previous post. I didn't put it at the top of the list because I am trying to keep the successes in mostly chronological order of when they happened not when I realized they happened.)
Fouth, this is one of those intangible things because it is so hard to measure. But overall my mood and energy levels seem to be up. I am tired and on some days I am sore but it isn't the same deep level of tired bordering on exhausted. And my mood the thing I notice the most is that I am more optimistic and my patience seems to growing as well, and I can shrug some stuff off more easily. I am less likely to automatically very into the worst case scenario territory.
Fifth, I feel stronger and this not just a feeling. I noticed during last week's Mass I was able to kneel longer, prior to this endevor I didn't really kneel I did a partial sit on the edge of the pew with my knees on the kneeler but my weight was on my bum. This week I did more straight up kneeling than last week and only a tiny bit of resting my bum on the pew.
Sixth, I had mentioned the dress that I hadn't worn in 10+ years in a previous post. I have also worn a pair of dress pants that had not fit in a few years, I am not sure how long but it was less than 10 years. This morning I tried on two skirts that are certainly 10+ years old I would say 15 or so years old and I am so close to fitting into them. So I am going to celebrate this twice once right now because I could wear them now but I feel they are just a tiny bit too tight for my personal taste, and the second celebration when I wear one of them out.
Seventh, I make adjustments to the various cardio routines to match my current abilities and the adjustments are to make it easier to do the routine. An example is that routine starts out as a grapevine and then transitions to scissors, well the scissors were hurting my knees so I stuck with the grapevine, well guess what I am not doing the scissors and it doesn't hurt. w00t!
Celebrate the small successes no matter how small and you will find the strength and motivation to continue. I have found that by taking a bit of time to think about and celebrate the small successes I find myself finding more that I never noticed. When I set out to write this post it was originally 3 items long, but as I wrote and pondered more came to me.
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