Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

This is what I keep repeating to myself, particularly today.  I might be a slightly impatient person (somewhere my Mom and Matt are rolling their eyes over the use of the word slightly.  Perhaps overly impatient is the better phrase) so sometimes I get a little frustrated at the rate at which I'm losing weight.  Then I have to bring myself back to reality and remember that I didn't gain weight overnight and I sure as hell am not going to lose it all overnight either.  While there are drastic things I could do to lose weight quickly, and believe me, they crossed my mind this morning, like increase to two-a-day workouts or drastically cut back on my calories, I'm not looking for a quick fix.  This is really about make a lifestyle choice, thus you will not hear me say I'm on a diet, and keeping the weight off for good.

With all that being said, here is this week's Birthday Challenge update.  4 weeks into the challenge and I am down 4.6 lbs overall and I lost 0.4 lbs since last week.  If I may pout for a minute, I think I might need to stop weighing myself everyday.  It's screwing with my head and I don't like it.  On the one hand, I like the accountability that weighing myself everyday provides.  If I get on the scale, like today for instance, and I don't like what I see, I am much stronger when it comes to resisting bad foods or my beloved Pepsi.  However, my weight fluctuates so much day-to-day and it's driving me insane.  For example, had yesterday been my update on the Birthday Challenge, I could have reported a 2.6 lb loss; frustrating, no?  I'm going to mull this over for a bit and perhaps just weigh myself once a week.

I was wallowing about the aforementioned things at lunch today with a friend and we had a great talk about perspective (this is probably going to be my topic of conversation every Tuesday when I weigh-in for the challenge).  Rather than lament about how I'm not as far along in my challenge as I feel I should be at the half-way point, I present my successes so far (thank you, J!):

1. I'm losing weight, which means I've overcome the plateau I was at for so long
2. At some point in the past 4 weeks, I've officially labeled myself a "runner" because I actually enjoy when I run and don't dread it.
3. I've decided that my first 1/2 marathon in April will not be my last and I'm already planning how I can get to Florida in 2015 to run the Disney Princess 1/2 marathon (i.e. I've started a running bucket list; who would have thought?)
4. I started a blog to track my progress and I'm learning a lot along the way (Google Analytics is awesome!)
5. I became a Sweat Pink Ambassador and became part of an inspiring, positive community of people who "sweat hard, play hard, and inspire those around them to achieve their best selves." (http://www.fitapproach.com/sweat-pink-ambassadors/)
6. I don't back down from a workout when I start getting sweaty anymore.  I feel a sense of accomplishment and bad-assness after a gnarly, sweaty workout.  Sweat is a badge of honor.  Last night I was actually boasting to Matt that I was sweatier than he was on our walk.  I think he thought aliens had abducted me.

Halfway through (ahem, someone's birthday is in one month and two days.  Who's counting?) and the Birthday Challenge is serving its purpose; it's holding me accountable to a healthier lifestyle and it's pushing me and challenging me in ways I hadn't imagined!

It was a touch hot tonight, so I thought it would be better for me to tackle a wog without the boys in tow.  I thought it would be a good opportunity to push my time a little bit, but tonight was not a night to set a PR by any means.  I ran a few stretches, but I mostly walked at a good pace.  I did just over 5K and even though it was hot and humid, it felt great.  It was a bit lonely on the trail though and I missed all three of my walking buddies!

"The length of time it will take to reach where you want to be isn't important. What's important is that you get there. Keep going." 

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