Thoughts from my morning hike

NikiChicken

This is for those frustrated with "slow" weight loss.

On my morning hike this morning, I started thinking about my weight loss and my journey so far. My mind tends to wander on these hikes and today, that is where my thoughts landed.

I have been on this journey now for almost 16 months. I have lost darn close to 70 pounds (69.6, to be exact). That gives me an average of *just* over 1 pound per week. However, most of that weight was lost in the first 9 months. My weight loss since January 1 has been about .7 pounds per week. My goal is to lose about 120 pounds, so I am more than half way towards my goal. I am hoping to lose all the weight I want to lose in about 3 years, but if it takes longer, it takes longer and I don't care.

Why do I not care how long it takes? This gets me back to my hike this morning. I realized this morning that it took me about 12 years to go from my lowest adult weight to my highest adult weight. That's a long time. Why should I expect the weight come off fast? I certainly didn't put it on fast, but over time it certainly added up. Also, I am learning so much about myself and teaching myself some good habits along the way. I've learned to savor every success and take it for what it is and quit discounting those successes just because I'm not yet at goal.

I yo-yo'd for so many years because I wanted that quick weight loss, so I'd do whatever I thought it took, healthy or not. When the weight loss didn't happen overnight, I'd get mad and frustrated, binge, beat myself up over it and quit. Where did that get me? Just bigger than before!

I finally realized that whatever I do to lose weight, it has to be something that I'm willing to do FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE and it doesn't really matter how long it takes to get to goal. Every milestone is worth celebrating, even when that milestone is getting back on track the day after a vacation or only eating half a slice of cake instead of the entire cake.

Take some time to stop and look around on your journey. Instead of getting upset about not losing 5 pounds in a week, celebrate what DID happen that week, no matter how small the victory!