Holy Ga-JINGOS it has been TOO long since my last post! It has been a mighty busy holiday season- good and bad! Perhaps my New Year resolution should be to strengthen my commitment to routine posting on this page! Anyhow, a lot has transpired over the last few months. I have discovered that I am a champ when it comes to maintenance mode (which is good and bad given my current situation). Since crossing over my 100lb lost threshold, I have lost a few more pounds here and there and have maintained a loss of 106lbs total. While it is fantastic that I have not gained, I am disappointed in myself for losing focus and not finishing what I started. I do have some more to lose, and 2015 will be my year to do it!!
THERE IS a topic for today’s post… so buckle in for the main event!
I have written about the enormous amount of support I have at home with my fiancée, Laura. She has been by my side every step of my struggle and success. Laura and I began our quest for weight loss at the same time in December 2012. Along the way, Laura had a few medical hiccups that forced her hand and brought her progress to a halt (more on that another time- maybe as a special guest blog!) I will take you back to a conversation we had a few weeks ago: we are standing in the kitchen and Laura says to me “I’m ready to go at this with everything I’ve got! I need to retrain my brain and break my addiction to food! I’m going to eat very plain, non-seasoned food so that I view it as ‘fuel’ so that I can finally get control”. She finally had her breakthrough- I really couldn’t have been happier for her. As she got more excited about it, she shared her plans for “clean eating” and being strict with herself in order to strengthen her self-control and willpower. This is where things began to go downhill…
While Laura began telling me her plans to have a meeting with our trainer to discuss setting up a meal plan I responded “I could help you with that”. After she told me she wanted to create a gym schedule to stick to I said “let me do that for you”! She was resistant to my help and I couldn’t understand why. This frustrated me. Why wouldn’t she want my help? She has watched my journey unfold over the last year; she knows that I have been successful and have the tools to help her along the way! What gives?
Pause. *Cue intimate self-reflection*
Significant, life-changing weight loss is achieved when a person makes a commitment to themselves to improve their own life. If you make the conscious decision that you are worth the work half the battle is over! Furthermore, making health/wellness a priority is a very personal and self-directed choice; something you must do on your own. Having a support system, professional advice, and other resources along the way are helpful- but uncovering self-confidence and improving your self-worth is invaluable and by far the most important element to success in any circumstance. How could I be aggravated with her for wanting to make her own journey?
The fact is, I can try and relate to anyone who has lost a significant amount of weight but not one story is the same. I am by no means an expert and what worked for me might not work for Joe Schmo. When I made the decision to get healthy I had a whirlwind of opinions hitting me from all angles :
Weight Watchers is great! CARBS ARE THE DEVIL!
EGGS are TERRIBLE! Paleo is the way to go!
EGGS are the BEST!
it went on and on and on. I made some mistakes in the beginning, but in the end I found what worked for me to cultivate a sustainable lifestyle that transformed me into who I am today. It isn’t fair of me to impose my opinions on my fiancée DAY ONE and expect her to take my opinion as gospel.
Laura (or insert your name here) , when you read this I want one thing to be clear: I will always be willing to help if you’re struggling and want some encouraging words, have questions about weight loss and don’t know where to start, If you want recipes or have questions about what worked for me; but I will never impose on your personal journey. Self-discovery is one of the most important and rewarding elements to sustainable weight loss and I want that for you more than anything.
I suppose I didn’t need to go deep-sea soul searching for the last couple paragraphs, but the points I wanted to express are: YOU are important, not one weight-loss journey is the same (don’t let anyone tell you differently) and eggs really are awesome (in my opinion).
