threadwalker

A week ago (8/31) was the one year anniversary of my mental turn-around on my attitude towards my health. Last fall came on the heals of a summer spent mourning the loss of a great boss and mentor. It dove-tailed with a lot of introspection about my past, my future and how I felt about myself. By 8/31/06 I decided that I hated the way I felt about myself and I declared to myself (out loud) that I was going to eat nutritionally and exercise. I moved my personal health up from the bottom of my priority list to Number 2 (right after the kids, who are number 1). I joined Weight Watchers in mid-November and "got serious" about the gym in December. I achieved my Goal Weight on 6/27/07 and last week (8/29) I achieved Lifetime Membership with Weight Watchers by maintaining my Goal Weight for 6 weeks. I'm not sure how I'm going to celebrate: there will be 2 celebrations; one for me and one for the whole family.

I honestly never envisioned I'd get to this weight. I am pretty sure that if I focused on how long it was going to take, I would have quit out of a sense of being overwhelmed, which has been my track record before the last 12 months. Instead, I always focused on smaller goals that were not related to my weight. For me, each goal empowered and fueled the next goal. The weight loss was always some sort of happy surprise.

It has been a very big year for learning about myself, my environment and my family (immediate family and family of friends). I know I posted frequently, but that was one of the tools I used.
I balance healthy eating with occasions where I indulge and now I've learned to do that without actual gluttony. I'm not into denying myself foods I like, but I use Weight Watchers to help me determine portions and balance. I also use the nutritional guidelines to direct my food choices. Fitness has become a key part of my lifestyle and I really enjoy the sense of strength I feel when I swing my kids around or run up the stairs. There's nothing quite as cool as "bench pressing" a giggling 6 year old.

For me, resetting my priorities has made me a lot happier. I do fewer projects, less house cleaning, less yard work, less volunteer work, etc. Do I miss that stuff? Sure, but dem's the breaks. If I'm committed to "me" and I'm already using every waking second, then something has to give. And maybe it's because I'm a spaz, but housework was one of my bug-a-boos. By resetting housework lower on the priority list and just letting go of control, I'm a lot less stressed about it and spend less time annoyed with the family. I still have moments where I stomp my foot and say "clean up now or else" and it took actual practice and chanting to get here, but to go from cleaning alone each eve where I'd get cranky that I was the only one doing it to "hmm... the essentials are clean laundry and garbage out of the house, which is done, thus I am done" has reduced my tension because I'm not cranky every night.

Now I am challenged with maintaining a weight I haven't seen since Junior College. It might be more scarey than losing weight because now that I'm "here", I have more to lose if I goof up. And since I obviously couldn't maintain this weight the first time around, the sense that I could easily put 50 lb back on is lurking in the back of my mind. To help myself stay motivated, I am entering races and setting fitness goals.

I am also challenging myself to make sure my children eat healthy. One of the interesting threads on WW website is how members deal with changing their own eating habits vs how their family could/should/will eat. My opinion has been evolving over the last year. I'm now at a point where I will eat some of what they eat (smaller portions) and I will feed them the same low-call alternatives that I eat. And I am making sure the message is about being healthy, being well and making choices that make our body stronger; it's not about weight or vanity.

The last year was one set of challenges. I think the next year will present its own challenges. It's exciting and scary.