Happy New Year.....Same Old Me

barefoot_shuffler

It's funny.

Ok....maybe it's not so funny.

For 6 months, I obsessed over eating better and shuffling more. I hated...then loved...then hated...then loved my scale. I rode the daily emotional roller coaster of "becoming healthy". I lost 16 pounds! I shuffled faster...even placed in my age group in a couple races! I felt wonderful!

But it was a constant, exhausting struggle...

Summer morphed into Fall...I injured my foot...school began again...and I completely lost focus and motivation...

and my demons, like silent little ninjas, took over once again...

like. they. always. do.

In the past 3 months I have barely noticed them.....

....the weight creeping back on....the mindless-stuffing-of-my-face...the way I reach for my sweat pants instead of my jeans because they are "more comfortable"....the way I hide behind large, comfortable sweaters and sweatshirts...sitting inside the warm, cozy house watching Winter outside the window.

Well....HERE is the result of that oh-so-easy-and-effortless-behavior:











Two words come to mind here....

Holy.
Crap.

That, my friends, is 9 pounds of walrus blubber back on my bones.....9 pounds that weren't there in August...or even September.

9 pounds since October. 148lbs in August.....157 today.

MAN....that was EASY!!!!

What was NOT so easy was buttoning up those size 10's....(or even most of my size 12's for that matter! ) Yes...I DID get those buttoned, believe it or not....but I worked up a sweat doing it (the most I've sweated in weeks!!) and when I took them off I was left with an "equator" around my waist!

So in three months, I gained more than half of what it took me 6 months to lose! I am on par to be heavier than I was when I started by the time March rolls back around (my 1 year mark).

I have a goal....
I have always needed a goal in order to accomplish something even remotely difficult. I can't change if I don't have a goal. Obviously, losing weight and being healthier are not good enough (or maybe to vague?) goals to shoot for.

We signed up for a 20 miler in April.
I have NEVER shuffled so much as an inch over 13.1 miles. (I don't even want to walk to the car after shuffling 13.1 miles!) But....Honey and I are signed up for a 20 miler in April...and I've got A LOT of shufflin' to do to prepare for that. There are only 500 spots available for this race...and there are many great runners in our area. That being said, I am absolutely POSITIVE I will come in last place for this one....that's OK....someone has to, right?

I'm not really convinced I can shuffle that far....

But...I no longer have the luxury of watching Winter happen from within our humble abode. Time to get these old stumps moving again and my toes used to the cold.

And maybe...just maybe....I can lose some of this blubber along the way!

Syriene

We all fall off the waggon now and then, but congrats for getting back up and out there.