10 Percent

Well I did it.

(I know this isn't a weight-loss specific blog (I've tried that, it worked for awhile, but it was too much pressure, I think, and I gave it up), but this is a huge moment for me, so bare with me as I head back down the weight loss blogging path for a little bit).

Back to the post title: 10 Percent.


Yeppers, I did it. I lost 10 percent of my body weight. It took longer than I wanted it to - it took about 9 months - but, what's important is that I did it, and I didn't have to do any crash diets or crazy weight loss pills or plans to do it.

Last January, I weighed (and *gasp*, I am going to come fully clean right here) a whopping 234 pounds. It was the highest weight I've ever been, except for during one of my pregnancies. Seeing as my "baby" was two years old at the time, I couldn't really blame anyone other than myself for that weight.

I made a decision last January that I needed to "get healthy." In my life, that meant two things: losing some weight, and taking better care of myself. I've been working on both since then, making small changes to my daily life. (seriously, some were REALLY small - like flossing every day instead of a couple times a week). I'm happy to report that, overall, I've kept those resolutions. Sure, there have been some setbacks - I DID move 3000 miles with three small children and two dogs, after all - but overall, things are looking up.

The last time I ever hit the 10% goal on a weight loss journey was when Mike and I joined Weight Watchers before getting married. We did well - he lost something like 40 pounds, and I ended up being 60 pounds lighter at the end than in the beginning. I contemplated joining again this year, but for various reasons decided not to.

WW had taught me a lot: how to cook healthy food, what proper portions looked like, and that it was very, very easy for me to mindlessly eat (I had a love/hate relationship with my food journal, that's for sure!). Just these changes made a HUGE impact in my weight loss. Switching from regular soda to diet, eating more veggies and whole grains, keeping track of my food: all of that combined to be the biggest overall motivating factor behind my weight loss that time around. WW provided me with a lifestyle change when it came to my food intake and choices.

What WW did not teach me - and not for any lack of trying on my WW center's part, I just didn't commit to it - was how to maintain weight loss or how to continue to lose weight once you'd made a drastic change in your food choices and intake. I didn't know what to do when I started gaining weight, but yet was eating all the "right" foods. My love/hate relationship with that journal, and the HUGE desire to not be attached to points and a notebook for the rest of my life, translated into me giving up completely. I fell back into my old habits, and it was even harder to break out of them this time around. I'd gotten used to eating "healthy" foods, and had grown to like them and would willingly choose the salad over the burger or sandwich....but I'd still eat too much of it, and eat even when I wasn't hungry. I'm living proof that you CAN still gain weight eating primarily veggies.....if you eat too much of them. I was still an emotional eater: my weapons of choice had just changed from chips and ice cream to carrots and apples.

I'm not perfect, by any means. I had so many stops and starts, it isn't even funny. It's been awhile now, though, so I think I might finally be settling into a routine. I'm running a mile at a time now (this is huge for me - I could barely do a few minutes of jogging when I started in January), and I'm down to 210 pounds, which is a 24 pound weight loss....in other words, I've officially lost 10% of my body weight. I still have a long way to go.......let's just say 3 kids translated into about 80 pounds of extra weight along the way....but I've made it over the first hill. I feel stronger....and I feel like I finally, myself, have realized that there is no one who is going to do this for me. It HAS to be me, not a weight loss plan or company, not a magic pill, not a doctor, no one else.....it has to be a change and a decision that I take responsibility for.

So my weight loss journey isn't over at all, and I'm sure that I'll blog a few more times along the way about my weight and any struggles or successes that I run into, but for now, I'm enjoying the moment. I hit my first goal, and I can take responsibility for myself getting there. No one told me what to eat and how often or how much of it to eat.......except me.

I think I might be growing............or shrinking. ;-)