First 10% Lost!

Big milestone for me so I'm posting about it! I've officially lost 10% of my weight this year! That is 20lbs and I'm so happy. What makes me happiest is that I haven't done anything drastic to achieve this. I've tracked what I eat on SparkPeople, joined some groups there, and tried to fit more exercise into my life. I did great for about 2mos (May & June) and then the summer colds hit and I would jump back too quickly and mess up my back and then I would stop tracking. I would try again for a week only to have it happen all over again. BUT the biggest thing was that I did not gain back the weight I had lost when I wasn't tracking! I would fluctuate a little but even then, it kept trending downwards not up! This has always been the biggest problem when I did WW or tried anything else is that I would lose weight but the second I got bored with the program or stopped being super careful, I'd gain again. Not everything, but something and then usually I would get pregnant and it would all go out the window. Well, that is definitely not happening again and this time I haven't been following a program other than to eat sensibly and try to be more active.

I've been working on gradually making small changes here and there that will replace less healthy habits with healthier ones. Simple things like having a salmon burger and fresh peas for lunch rather than canned soup. More fiber, more vitamins, more protein, less sodium. Not a huge change. Not really any more work to prepare but healthier. Now we are working on finding alternative side dishes for dinner that can replace the boxed rice and pasta dishes to bring down the fat and sodium content. Simple things like using our new cuisinart to slice potatoes and doing a simple pan fry with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper. Baking potatoes. Doing something with squash instead. Using a mix of brown, white, and wild rice (and starting to phase out the white until its gone and will be wholly brown or wild) or using just boxed pasta and using the sauce from our food to flavor it or making fresh pesto for it or cooking it with chicken broth and some seasonings for flavor. Again, simple things but they all add up to really reducing our caloric, fat, and sodium intake on a weekly basis. It's getting us away from foods with ingredients that are not found in nature and we can't pronounce and getting us closer to our ultimate of goal of primarily only minimally processed foods.

The other big thing has been working hard to find time to exercise. It's not always been feasible when my back is out or I'm sick but otherwise, I work hard to find a way to do something even if it's just stepping while I fold the laundry. I've been trying to find ways to get extra steps into my days. I've slacked off recently because I did something to my heel and my back but I'm seeing a chiropractor now on a weekly basis to get my back feeling better and I'm starting back slowly doing some yoga as I work into a more active exercise regimen. I made sure that as I'm making my schedule, I've included 45min for exercise and that does NOT get cut for anything! I've also included time for meditation and my cross-stitch. Hoping I can keep the cross-stitch in there as it's good relaxing time for me which I need too.

I guess that is the biggest thing is that I'm starting to make ME a priority. I'm not allowing everything else that has to get done become my excuse for not taking care of myself. It's slow going and I still have a lot of things I need to do to get myself where I want to be but I'm doing it and not just sitting on my duff saying "someday" or "when the kids are grown". I'm carving out the time now. Little chunks to start with, just babysteps, but working towards trying to figure out how to take care of the bigger things too. It's taken me a long time to not just hear the words but really take them to heart which is...

I DESERVE THIS!

And I do. Not because I'm some superwoman, not because I do so many other things, not because I homeschool or because I'm a mom or a volunteer or anything else. Simply because I am a human being worth and deserving of basic respect and taking care of myself is showing myself the respect that I deserve.