Week One Update

Week One Update

Today I celebrate and embrace the loss of 8 pounds.

On my frame, with the amount of weight I have to lose (over 150 pounds), 8 pounds doesn’t seem like a lot and you can’t see it when you look at me. But that’s ok, because this weight loss journey is about me and my body. Do you know what kind of impact just 8 pounds can have? For every pound over weight we are, that’s 4 pounds of pressure on our joints. I just eliminated 32 added pounds of pressure on my joints! That’s fabulous!

I also made progress on my goals. Progress is part of what fuels our passion to keep going. When I can look back and see how far I’ve gone, that’s what’s going to help me get through those tough times when I feel like nothing is happening and I’ll NEVER meet my goal weight.

So how did I kick those pounds to the curb? I joined a challenge group hosted by my awesome BeachBody coach. It started last Monday and every day I earn points by being accountable and supporting the other people in the group. The group doesn’t teach extreme weight loss or how to starve myself to get fast results that will come back later (and bring friends). No the group teaches me small healthy daily habits to work on and supports me through the fitness program that meets me at my level and provides a little challenge.

What are those small changes? Things like drinking my water each day. Checking in for my daily work out, even on rest days (and actually taking my rest days). They help me in making healthier food choices and getting in my recommended amount of protein and vegetables. When I have a rough day, that group has my back. They’re the ones reminding me that I can do this and that it takes one small step at a time. They lift and encourage me and when I need to, they give me that quick kick in the rear to get moving.

Challenge groups have done wonders for my personal life as well. I started posting ‘sweaty mug photos’ that’s the selfie you take after you’ve worked out when your hair is a mess and there’s sweat dripping down your face, you’re breathing hard and your face is red. Who celebrates photos like that?!? My awesome group of fellow challengers do! We all take those photos. There’s no priming or adding make up or trying to look “sexy”. This is the real thing. I swear it’s almost more of a “who can look worse after working out” competition and its awesome! No one judges me for how I look. They congratulate me for looking happy or exhausted or like a royal mess. They congratulate me for taking another step along my journey to a healthier, happier me. How amazing is that!?! Talk about a confidence booster. I even find myself feeling more confident about taking and posting photos of myself. Something I’ve never been able to do. I look in the mirror now and find good things to say instead of degrading self-talk.

I still have a long way to go. With my weight loss and my health. I struggle with getting the right portion sizes and eating enough of the right things. I struggle with emotional eating and binge eating. I struggle with getting that daily exercise in and feeling like I matter. But every day I get one step closer to being able to do the things I dream of. And this January Challenge group is really helping me take the steps I need.

Childhood Dreams Defined My Future

When we’re young we have big dreams. We have plans and goals and sometimes we make decisions that affect our lives years later based on those dreams of youth. At one point I wanted to be like Janet Jackson.

 She was the only strong, beautiful, and talented African American woman I really looked up to (let’s face it Whoopi Goldberg was awesome but she wasn’t a role model for girls in middle school). I stayed up late one night, way past the time my mother had told me to go to bed, so that I could watch Janet Jackson on tour. It was glorious. I found her captivating. She was beautiful, she could dance, and she could sing, all things I dreamed of being able to do. During one of the interviews they asked her about how she stayed so fit and she talked about how she did 75 sit-ups every single day. Every day! No matter what happened, or where she was, she carved out time in her super busy schedule to do 75 sit-ups. So, in true pre-teen mental fashion, I decided I wanted to be awesome like her and the way to get there was through sit-ups. I knew I had a ways to go when it came to fitness, so instead of 75 sit-ups a day, I would do 100. For years I kept up that habit. I wasn’t always consistent with a daily practice but I was pretty consistent in doing 100 sit-ups multiple times per week. I even developed some abs. I didn’t have Janet’s rocking ab definition but I did have 2 ab muscles that were clearly defined, nestled right under my breasts. Years later, when I lost the habit and started gaining weight, I still had definition of those two muscles. I don’t have them anymore. I lost sight of my goals for a while and gained a bunch of weight, seriously, it took tons of weight gain before those muscles disappeared. But something I find even more interesting is how that one choice has affected so much of my life. I’m 32 and even now when I’m needing to burn some energy or craving a nice work out, my first thoughts are still “Oooooo sit-ups! Must do sit-ups…” 

Which has all lead me to my current passion for health, nutrition, and fitness. However, that's a topic for another day. I think I'll go do some sit-ups now...