1 year and 94 pounds (little long, sorry)

Yesterday, 1/14, was one year since I had the "a ha" moment and I am officially 94 pounds lighter than I was then. I wish that I could give those of you, that may be wondering, what it was that made something snap in me and make this be the time that I actually lost the weight, but I can not give you an answer. I just don't know what it was that made me stick with it, this time, when the 17 previous years I had not and in fact got heavier each time. What I can offer you is what it is that I have done and how my life has changed.

When I started I actually did it on my own. I did not know about MFP, yet, but told myself that I needed to QUIT eating past being full, I needed to quit having desserts after dinner, especially since I wasn't even hungry but just "thought" I was supposed to have dessert after dinner. I told myself that somehow or another I needed to get some movement in my day. I spent a lot of time taking naps, watching TV, and sitting around on the couch. So I started walking when I was at the dog park with my dogs. I took my dogs to the dog park, every day because I knew that they needed their exercise, but I just always watched them run and play. So that is where I started getting my movement. I guess. Had the mind set of "I am here anyway so why not do some walking?" the first month I would look a my watch every few minutes just trying my best to get 15 minutes in and if I got to the 15 min I would try to push as much longer as I could.

During this same first month I would count everything that I did as exercise. Vacuuming, washing dogs, cleaning the house, gardening, and so on. I also found that I needed every bit of every exercise calorie in food. I never went over but there were several days that I had 10 or 15 calories left over with a couple hours left before bed and afraid I would need to eat something.

My daughter had told me, once, that if you do something for 30 days straight it becomes habit. So I just kept pushing and hoping that I would make it to that first 30 days. No one in my family really knew what I was doing and that was how I wanted it. I just didn't want to announce I was watching what I ate, and exercising, yet again, for it to all be over a month later. Si just kept plugging away because I needed to prove to me, and me alone, that I could do this.

After the first month I noticed I was feeling a little better. I was sleeping just a tad better because getting some exercise in every day, and it "seemed" as if clothes were just a tish big n me. But at just over the one month time frame my last remaining grandparent past away and I was off to my home state for over a week. I was terrified that this would sideline me as I was going to spend one da, each way, in airports, plus the 8ish days I would be home around family that first of all eats out All of the time, but also because there were going to be so many of us from all over the country there probably wouldn't be an home cooking going n anyway. But I survived it and stayed motivated and positive during a very trying 8 days. I found that when I wanted to have some to myself, to reflect on m grandmother, that I would jus go out walking and I would be gone for 30-40 minutes at a time. I also tried to eat salads, or things with a lot of veggies, everywhere we went t eat. I would stop eating when was full and I just plain made myself stay away from deserts as I knew if I gave myself the "ok " under the circumstances that I would just keep eating deserts each of the days I was there.

Then, on the plane ride home, was reading a magazine and there was an article about a lady that had lost over 100 pounds in a year and how she had done it. Well one of the things that led to her success was MFP. I ripped out the article, threw it my carryon, and forgot about it until I cleaned out my carryon bag later that week. Then the article sat on m desk for another week or so. I logged on, and joined MFP on 3/14/10 and that was just what I needed. I am a firm believer that actually logging, and seeing, those calories everyday was what kept me motivated. Until you see those calories stating at you, you just really don't know what you are consuming.

Except for Easter weekend last year, three weeks into me finding MFP, I have logged in EVERY single day and I have been 100% honest with everything that I log into either my food or exercise diary. If you aren't honest with yourself who are you hurting but yourself?

Since I began there have been exactly TWO days that I have gone over on my calories and that includes during a 10 day vacation. If innate ever been close, or thought that I was going to go over, besides those two days, I would jump on the treadmill, walk around the block, go out and jump on the trampoline, or whatever I needed to do t not go over calories.

I kept up with the walking, every day while at the dog park, it just became more brisk and longer, with each passing month. By May I decided to go get a bike, at Walmart, and start that as well, which I did. I would walk in the morning, at the dog park, and bike in the afternoon.

Now a year later I do a variety of things! I run, walk, stair step, elliptical, zumba, hula hoop, jump rope, (still bike just put away until the snow is gone), I "hike" through snow mounds, shovel snow which I NEVER would have done before, and I jus stay active. I never put in less than 60 minutes of workout time and sometimes I am so motivated to burn calories that I will two workouts in a day.

This time last year I was probably easily consuming 3000 calories a da and this year I am pretty consistent with 1600 calories per day and always have such an abundance of calories left, because of workouts, that couldn't possibly eat.

Some changes in the last year:

I sleep soundly through the night unless I have a bathroom break and I go right back to sleep
I wake up on my own not to an alarm
I do not have constant back pain
The heel spurs, and constant heel pain, is gone
I do not eat 3-4 tums per day
I like to exercise
I don't mind NOT feeding my face all day long
I read nutrition labels
I can keep with m family members without gasping for air
I can stay in the same section, at a dept. store, as my friends/family
I am more positive
I am more confident
I seem to get more done on a daily basis because I am not planted in front of a TV all day
I don't actually have any urges to be in front of a TV all day
I have gone from size 26 pants to 16 or to XL for sweats or yoga pants
I have gone from a 2X, sometimes 3X, shirt to XL
I have heard more compliments in the last year than in my whole life
I am "beginning" to like what I see in the mirror
It is not hard to buckle my seat belt in my car anymore
I actually sat very comfortably in a movie theatre chair on Christmas day
I willing chose healthier options over junk

And there are so many more things like that but I just cant think of all of them right now.

It has been a journey, and make no mistakes, it is a journey. But this is most certainly the proudest journey that I have ever made. It is not over yet! I have at least 20 pounds left to make me feel "comfortable," once I get past this three week plateau, but 94 pounds is nothing to sneeze at, that is for sure.

I type this tonight in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, one of you reading it will be inspired and be able to continue on that same journey that you have obviously chosen to make. There will be bumps, there will be highs, there will be times you doubt yourself, there will be times your will power breaks down, there will be times your will power surprises you, and so on. But I can tell you that the benefits of what you are doing far outweigh the path you were going down before you made the choice to change.

Every single day that goes by that you did some kind of exercise, and stayed within your daily calories, is one day closer to your ultimate goal. I have faith that if you are here, on MFP, and you are putting your best foot forward, everyday, that you will succeed.