So How's the Weight Thing Going?

When I first started blogging I counted the days that I had been alive (it was a slow work day, okay?) and then talked about how much I needed to obey God in all things and one of those things was my weight issue. I HATE talking about it. And I really HATE blogging about it. It's mainly because I fail most of the time with losing weight and who wants to write about their failures unless it's things that happened years ago that you have been able to overcome?

I named this blog "Two Steps Forward, One Step Back" because that seems to be the pattern of my life and I have a very slight feeling it's the pattern of many people's lives. Unless you're my dad and in that case you should have a blog entitled, "10,000 Steps Forward, 2 Giant Steps Forward." It's not because he's perfect but because he's goal oriented. He loves to set goals AND reach them. Me? Not so much. I like to set them then enjoy the ride to reach them. If I reach them, then hooray for me. If I don't, then at least I'll have tons of pretty pictures and stories of my journey.

So how is the whole weight thing going you ask? It's going okay. Thanks for asking.

I've actually gained some weight this year. Can I blame it on the ridiculous stress at work and the ridiculous paperwork for our adoption and the ridiculous full-time school load? Yes. I can blame it on all of that. But at the root of all of that is a bigger problem. My heart. I run to food when I'm stressed, sad, happy, bored, busy, lazy, and on and on I can go. I shut off my consciences and turn on my "I deserve this" button and off I go. And that folks has brought me to a dangerously high weight. I'm not the largest I've ever been but I'm close, a little too close. My clothes are doing the typical "you need to go up a size" things on me. You know, sleeves too short. (Did I put this in the dryer too long? NO, your arms and shoulders are fatter and therefore are taking up more arm space which means your long sleeve shirts are more like three quarter length.) Pants too tight in the rear (I won't elaborate on this. You're welcome).

So what is a girl to do? I went to the doctor. I had to. I needed a physical for our adoption so I found a doctor close to work (you see, I didn't actually have a doctor) and went to hear it from her. She was great. She checked my blood pressure and it was normal. She sent me for blood work and that was normal minus my cholesterol but she thinks I can get it down naturally (and I will because this girl ain't goin' on meds). Then I told her I wanted to be healthy. I didn't want to be size 6 or 8 or maybe even 10. I simply wanted to be healthy. And that woman said the sweetest thing to me. She said, "Honey, just lose 50 pounds and you'll be fine." Now some of you are thinking, "50 pounds? That's a crazy amount of weight!" But I was thinking, "I can DO 50 pounds!"

I am about three weeks or so into this "Honey, just lose 50 pounds and you'll be fine" diet and I have to say it's not bad. As of November 1 I am down five pounds. I'm getting up most days during the week and going to the gym before work. I'm not going for an hour of intense training. I'm simply going for 30 minutes on the elliptical. Soon I'll add some arm weight lifting to that a couple times a week but I'm not worrying about that right now. I'm eating raisin bran or granola with skim milk in the morning and then some raw nuts in the mid-morning. I'm eating tuna or salmon or a lean meat for lunch along with some whole wheat crackers or bread. For dinner, I'm eating the usual stuff - grilled chicken, turkey burgers, turkey tacos, etc. If I crave something sweet at night I'll eat a little something. And on the weekends I lighten up and try to enjoy some things I might be craving.

Now didn't that sound like a normal person talking? No plan. No fancy additives. Just eating less and more healthy and exercising. I know I'll have to tighten things a bit more when I plateau but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

And for now, it's working. My pants have that familiar looseness to them. My shirts are getting back to their long sleeve status. I may have a relapse at some point. But I do fear my doctor. She's a little thing but also Italian so I don't want to cross her. And consistency is a beautiful thing, people. If I get up every morning with the same routine then I have less of a chance to forget to spend time with God in his Word and praying. I don't crave that yummy chicken biscuit from Chick-fil-A (most mornings). I don't panic and wonder what I'll do for lunch.

That's how I'm doing. It's nothing fantastic. It's nothing mind blowing. But it's working. And I go up a level on the elliptical every week or so. This morning I went to level three and it said I burned almost 300 calories. Which is not at all surprising cause I was going all fast for about three minutes doing 8.1 mph. And that is pure craziness.