Non Scale Victories - 2013 Recap

Hi everyone!

It's been a while since I participated in NSV Thursday with KTJ so I thought today, the last Thursday in 2013!, would be a great day to celebrate some Non-Scale Victories.

I absolutely love the Holiday season; I truly do.  The spirit of the season, how everyone seems to be just a little bit nicer to each other, the food!  Oh, the glorious food...

And did I EVER enjoy the food this year...in all honesty, I sort of gave myself a free-for-all.  I told myself that I would enjoy it and not stress...I can't promise that I didn't stress a little, but it wasn't so stressful that I didn't stop myself from reaching for yet another sugar cookie.

The thing is that I tried really hard to bust my ass in the workout category to counter-balance SOME of what I was doing.  And I know that you can't outrun a bad diet, but I honestly don't feel like I completely fell off the wagon because I made my workouts a priority.  Still, I'm not going to get on the scale to see how much damage I did...I think doing that would probably do terrible mental damage to myself...and how healthy is that?  Not. Healthy. At. All.  So I'm forgiving myself and I'm moving on.  And isn't that the most healthy thing I could do?

See, I'm learning - ever so slowly - that it's okay to live a "normal" life, as long as I just keep going in the right direction.  And by "normal" I mean a life that doesn't involve the stress of worrying about every little thing I put in my mouth or about how many calories I burn in a workout.  That's not normal!



I'm still a work in progress but I'm learning, every day.


And I definitely had a few moments when I was feeling pretty yucky and mad at myself this past month, but I turned things around with a little shopping trip.  And I don't mean retail therapy - well, actually I guess it was - what I mean is that I tried on clothes last weekend and I was still able to wear the same size and even a few smaller sizes.  SO, while I felt fluffy and flubbery on the inside, apparently I'm still okay on the outside!  Phew!

My last NSV for 2013 has to be a little progress pic.  What better way to really see how far I've come?

I remember feeling really great about how I looked on our cruise in February, and I still feel great about it...but then I look at pictures of me just 10 months later and I honestly feel amazing at how far I have come this year.  I'm still a little leery of sharing these kinds of photos but this blog has been such an amazing journal of my healthy journey that I'm doing this for me.  I needed to see this comparison and I need to be able to look back on it when I'm feeling like poop.

As I say goodbye to 2013 and welcome 2014 with open arms, I have big, lofty, high hopes for myself this year.  Nothing out of reach, only to continue living the life I have always wanted for myself.  

Happy New Year to all of you, my friends, and I hope 2014 brings you love, health and as always: happiness!

Jenn

Taking a Moment...

Hey there!

So things have been going really well in my neck of the woods...it's funny, it seems when health/fitness/weight loss bloggers "disappear" for awhile it means they fell off the wagon...in truth, that's definitely not happened in my case.  I just haven't had the time to blog in a while and I feel bad because I didn't have much to say...basically my life is pretty boring:  get up, work, workout, shower, make a healthy dinner, pack healthy stuff for the next day, make sure Hubby's taken care of, sit down on the couch and fall asleep watching one of the many sitcoms we love.  Pretty boring stuff, right?  And how many times can you say the same thing?

So, I thought I'd check in and let you know that I'm still here...plugging along...doing my thing.  And that's actually what I wanted to post about today.  The monotony that is a healthy life.

I'm really trying to formulate in my mind that this is basically my life now...as boring as my every days seem, this is exactly what I wanted for myself...to live a life that incorporated my healthy lifestyle.  When I first started out, everything was new and I had so much to report on...everything was an accomplishment.  Now, it seems that it just is what it is.  I'm not even at goal yet if we're talking numbers, but my TRUE goal is to live a healthy life and I AM...someday I might have to write about maintenance...right now, I'm writing about plugging along.

And that is absolute reality:  if you want to truly live a healthy life, you have to do it day IN and day OUT.  And that's all I'm doing here.

I also wanted to touch a little on some of my "challenges" and they really continue to be how much stress and expectation I put on myself.  The thing is that if you want to be successful on this journey, you HAVE to be driven...it takes obsession in a way, to lose weight and get healthy.  but you have to find a good balance between keeping yourself motivated and also being happy in where you are right now.  When I think back about the last two years, it was such a blur...of course, it didn't feel like that when it was happening or I was plateauing, but it really WAS a blur.  Part of that makes me sad because there really were so many different things going on but most of the time I was focused on the next thing I had to do:  set a goal, hit it, move on.  And here I am now, the time flew by anyway...all of that stress I put on myself and I still got to where I am in this moment.  The part of me that is glad though, is the blogger in me.  Thank goodness I started my two blogs to document the journey.  I love going back and reading my old posts and remembering, mentally, where I was in that moment in time.  My feelings were so very real and yet, the newest me, wants to reach back to the older me's and say, "Calm the EFF down!  Stop...look around and enjoy the view!  Hop into your closet and pull out some of your fat clothes that don't fit anymore and just take a minute...SAVOR. THE. MOMENT.  Because I don't really think that I spent a lot of time savoring anything and that really makes me sad.  I'm not going to spend too much time dwelling on it, and will instead learn from it, but while I was not wasting my time, I certainly didn't live in the moment.

Recently with the holidays I've really been in my head.  And if I am being completely honest, I've been chastising myself for the silliest of things:  enjoying myself...not stressing.  So...can you really say "I'm not stressing" if two days later, you think back and stress about it?  I'm going to say, "No...that's stressing in a nutshell, dumbass."  My point is this:  I need to be better at doing exactly that...enjoying myself.  The problem with me and my head, is that I always feel like I'm one meal from a downslide into oblivion.  Is it just me?  That's the thought that is always just sitting on my shoulder, rolling around in my head, clogging my every days.  Even 75+lbs later and two years of healthy living, that's what I think about.  Isn't that exhausting?  Yes.  It really is.  I am still learning folks.

In January, I start classes again.  I'm anxious about how I am going to manage my healthy life and the stresses of school.  But I'm also excited about it because I've changed my Graduate program to Sports and Health.  I am very much looking forward to learning more about the ins and outs of health in general and of course, incorporating these theories into my life.  I'm also hoping someday I can offer educated advice to all of you if you have questions!  I think I have a good plan in place so we will see how it goes.

So there you have it - what's been happening in Jenn World lately.  Hope you all have a wonderful Holiday!!  I am going to work hard and keep the promise I made to myself this year and not plan a bunch of things that will stress me out...and I WILL be slowing things down and enjoying the holidays before they are quickly over.

I'm working hard to slow down my mind, but certainly not my momentum.  I cannot turn back now.

Be well, everyone!