It's not always about the scale

epido

I've been on this weight loss journey for almost 15 months now. In some ways, it's hard to believe it's been that long, and in other ways, it just doesn't seem possible. From Halloween of 2013 to mid-May of 2014 I lost just over 70 pounds. Amazing! There were days I never thought I could do it, but managed to stay the course. Since last May, I have been struggling to lose the next 10 pounds. That sucks!

It isn't that I don't know what to do, since I obviously was doing things right in the months prior. It isn't even that I've lost the motivation to see this to the end, even though there have been several times in the last few months where I have wondered if that is ever going to happen. To be honest, there have been times when I have thought about quitting, but then I think of how far I have come, and how to reach my goal weight, I really don't have that much left to lose in the grand scheme of things.

And, since I'm being honest, I can admit that a (big...maybe? probably?) portion of the slow down has been that I have been struggling with food. Not really the "what to eat" portion of it, although there have been sporadic days where that has been an issue, but more "how much to eat". Everyone knows that in order to lose weight you have to burn more calories than you take in. However, calculating how many calories you take in every day gets old. It really isn't that hard to do. There's plenty of different websites and apps out there to help you track the numbers. What is hard is simply doing it every single day, and doing it honestly. It's recording that candy bar that you only kinda, sorta wanted and now would rather forget you ate. It's the planning out your day, making sure you are getting filling, healthy meals while not going over the number you have set as a target. It's continuing to record every single bite of food you put in your mouth, day in and day out, until you reach your final goal. That's the hard part. That's the part I struggled with over the summer and through the fall - the mental part of losing weight.

In the last few weeks, I feel as if I have gotten back to the right place in my mind to be able to finish the job at hand. Yet, the number on the scale doesn't seem to be moving any better than it had been, prior to that. One to two pounds. That's it. That's all I want to see gone in the short term. It would finally get me past this 10 pounds that I have been finding next to impossible to lose. I know I can do it. I know I will do it. It's just a matter of when, and I am tired of waiting. I want it to have happened last week, or last month, or even 6 months ago! But, I really only have myself to blame for that one.

In the mean time, there have been other successes. Some of them concrete and measurable, some of them a bit less tangible, but all of them successes. I've lost over 50 inches to date. My body fat has decreased by about 12%. I've dropped 6 dress sizes. I no longer need to shop in the plus size department. And, I've gotten significantly stronger. I can press a 20 kg (44 lb) kettle bell. I can deadlift 240, easily. I can run a 5k. I've had old friends, co-workers, and acquaintances not recognize me if it's been a while since we last saw each other. I actually weigh a lot less than the number on my driver's license! I've been able to stop taking some of the prescriptions my doctor had me on in the past. I can wrap a regular size towel around me when I get out of the shower. I can see my toes when I stand up, without having to lean slightly forward to look past my belly. Sometimes, I have to go through my 11 year olds clothes to find a missing shirt I want to wear, because it was put in the wrong pile of laundry. My wedding band falls completely off my finger. And that's just the short list I can think of off the top of my head.

Do all those other successes mean I don't get frustrated about the scale? Of course not! I still want to see that number continue to get smaller over time. However, they do make it easier to live with a "too big" number on the scale. Nothing on that list happened over night. Every single item on that list is a result of the same hard work and dedication that has gotten the number on the scale to go down. Every single one of them is just as important, and some, like my improved health, are easily more important than any number on a scale. And, that's the important thing to remember. After all, when it comes right down to it, all it really is, is a number.

healthygreek

Beautiful!

MrsKila

This is great!