I'm down to the final stretch now. I'm within a pound or two until I've reached my goal weight. I'm bouncing within a few pounds and am really close to being in the weight range that I've been shooting for (the upper range of the "Healthy Weight" BMI). My second goal will then be my new focus. It's important to me that I continue to learn what healthy living entails and finding ways to reach my goals. I have not set any unreasonable expectations of myself. I try to pace things in a way that doesn't overwhelm me. If, instead of living through the past 5 1/2 months, I could have jumped forward into my life today, it wouldn't have worked for me. It would have been a LOT of responsibility thrown at me all at once and I wouldn't know how to cope with it.
I still view my learning style after the title of a book in the movie "What About Bob?". Baby Steps. It's funny to think of taking literal baby steps. Human babies are dumb and can't walk immediately like giraffes. I take baby steps to how I approach making changes in my eating habits. I've applied this method to other areas of my life, as well, and have been seeing great success in most instances. I think that a lot of people must feel that way about certain things that feel like their out of our control, but they're actually completely within our control (not referring to people who actually have a debilitating health condition).
Everything I've ever done was easier when I could do it at a pace that I could handle. Sometimes it doesn't take me a long time to catch on, and others seem to drag on for an eternity. For example, I understand musical things quickly, and thanks to theory training it got even faster. On the flip side, it took me until 6th grade to learn how to read a clock. No one ever explained it in a way I could understand, and I never bothered to ask for clarification. The reason I finally learned was because when I switched from an open school to a regular public school, I was woefully behind in many areas. I was super creative, but there weren't many rewards for that in school. I'm very glad I've been able to hold onto my creativity throughout all of that because now it is what I make a living doing. It's very enjoyable. Much like how getting better about taking care of myself every day, not just when I feel like it, I'm slowly feeling like this will only continue to get easier to handle. The physical sicknesses will keep me from ever returning to several foods, and that was a large portion of my problem all along. Eating something junky won't derail me from my current path. It's the daily routines that matter. Most days I am remarkably on point as far as WHAT I eat. I may overeat one meal and feel uncomfortably full, but it was because I ate a few more bites than I had room for. I'm glad I decided to throw out all of the crap in my house and never brought it in again, as that really helped a lot on the days when I felt tempted to eat something silly.
My focus going forward is to take my husband's advice. I know how to eat right and exercise enough for a 160 pound person, so now I have to eat and exercise like someone around 135lbs. Lots of little mental adjustments will be made in baby steps!
My focus is also largely on a promise I made to a few folks on reddit. I made a post on May 24th where I vented my anger about everything I'd been through and after having learned more about the side effects of excess sugar. It felt good to get it off my chest. It felt good to have some moral support from people who weren't just saying nice things because they knew me personally or felt obligated. They were just there, ready to make me feel encouraged to really follow through with my plan. It felt good to know that there were still naysayers. It gave me a little flame under my tush, making me pumped to prove them wrong - and hopefully they'll learn something, too. Hopefully they'll think "wow, I didn't know that was a way people could lose weight. I could do that!"
That would be the best case scenario in my mind because they wouldn't need anything more from me. It's not a diet plan with a monthly subscription, just a frame of mind anyone could slowly work toward. It's like a wise cook once said, "Not everyone can be a great cook, but a great cook can come from anyone" -Chef Gusteau.
Anyway, I also got a couple of requests to make an update in 6 months which is going to be this month in about a week and a half. I'm curious to see if anyone will even remember my story. It'll be a cool experience regardless!
Here's a pic of an old shirt I now use when I'm dying my hair. Have a great week!
I still view my learning style after the title of a book in the movie "What About Bob?". Baby Steps. It's funny to think of taking literal baby steps. Human babies are dumb and can't walk immediately like giraffes. I take baby steps to how I approach making changes in my eating habits. I've applied this method to other areas of my life, as well, and have been seeing great success in most instances. I think that a lot of people must feel that way about certain things that feel like their out of our control, but they're actually completely within our control (not referring to people who actually have a debilitating health condition).
Everything I've ever done was easier when I could do it at a pace that I could handle. Sometimes it doesn't take me a long time to catch on, and others seem to drag on for an eternity. For example, I understand musical things quickly, and thanks to theory training it got even faster. On the flip side, it took me until 6th grade to learn how to read a clock. No one ever explained it in a way I could understand, and I never bothered to ask for clarification. The reason I finally learned was because when I switched from an open school to a regular public school, I was woefully behind in many areas. I was super creative, but there weren't many rewards for that in school. I'm very glad I've been able to hold onto my creativity throughout all of that because now it is what I make a living doing. It's very enjoyable. Much like how getting better about taking care of myself every day, not just when I feel like it, I'm slowly feeling like this will only continue to get easier to handle. The physical sicknesses will keep me from ever returning to several foods, and that was a large portion of my problem all along. Eating something junky won't derail me from my current path. It's the daily routines that matter. Most days I am remarkably on point as far as WHAT I eat. I may overeat one meal and feel uncomfortably full, but it was because I ate a few more bites than I had room for. I'm glad I decided to throw out all of the crap in my house and never brought it in again, as that really helped a lot on the days when I felt tempted to eat something silly.
My focus going forward is to take my husband's advice. I know how to eat right and exercise enough for a 160 pound person, so now I have to eat and exercise like someone around 135lbs. Lots of little mental adjustments will be made in baby steps!
My focus is also largely on a promise I made to a few folks on reddit. I made a post on May 24th where I vented my anger about everything I'd been through and after having learned more about the side effects of excess sugar. It felt good to get it off my chest. It felt good to have some moral support from people who weren't just saying nice things because they knew me personally or felt obligated. They were just there, ready to make me feel encouraged to really follow through with my plan. It felt good to know that there were still naysayers. It gave me a little flame under my tush, making me pumped to prove them wrong - and hopefully they'll learn something, too. Hopefully they'll think "wow, I didn't know that was a way people could lose weight. I could do that!"
That would be the best case scenario in my mind because they wouldn't need anything more from me. It's not a diet plan with a monthly subscription, just a frame of mind anyone could slowly work toward. It's like a wise cook once said, "Not everyone can be a great cook, but a great cook can come from anyone" -Chef Gusteau.
Anyway, I also got a couple of requests to make an update in 6 months which is going to be this month in about a week and a half. I'm curious to see if anyone will even remember my story. It'll be a cool experience regardless!
Here's a pic of an old shirt I now use when I'm dying my hair. Have a great week!