Last week I tried on my “size down” jeans. Ya’ll. They FIT.
We’re not talking pull them up and they’re too big. We’re talking, I pulled them up and they zipped up. Maybe just the hint of a muffin top on 3 of the 5 pairs I had sitting there just waiting for this day. Oh but Amy what are you doing to get there? Give me your “quick fix”. Let me tell you what. It has been a LOT of hard work. Putting on weight? Easy. Taking it off? SLOW. HARD. A constant challenge.
I have been to the gym 3-5 times a week since March and before that I was going, just not as faithfully. I have a routine – a plan – a schedule. I’ve finally figured out how to stay (basically) within my calories on MyFitnessPal. I cut out SO MUCH sugar – like, I actually look at the amount of sugar in things before I eat them and try not to eat a ton of it throughout the day. There’s more about that here: if you’re interested.
What I’m trying not to do is to lose myself within the loss of weight. Weird thing to say, but alright. Yeah, so I don’t want to be “that guy” who, when all of my friends go out, I eat a side salad and one little vodka-cranberry and am done for the night. I want to choose the times I splurge and those times should be the ones that count. Going out with the girls. Maybe going on a date someday (been a while!). I want to jump off of the wagon with gusto and then slide right back on the next morning and know it was the plan so I don’t feel guilty about it. I don’t feel like this is un-doable. So long as I’m not doing this every weekend all weekend I should be able to manage this while still continuing to lose the weight I’m working on.
Right, but what about just “feeling good in your skin”? “Why not just be happy the way you are?” I AM happy the way I am. That said, I want to be the healthiest version of myself and that involves me losing the fat that has happily settled around my organs and has made me unhealthy. It has become acceptable in our society to be overweight and if you’re ok with that, good for you. To me, it spells out more money spent on medical expenses – it’s more time sitting around being uncomfortable. It’s more time worrying about how to make yourself feel better through medicine. I have watched family and friends struggle with this for their entire lives and I don’t want to be that person. I just want to be healthy, happy and able to splurge when I want to. Oh yeah, I wouldn’t mind looking like a snacc either. lol Hey, I’m not going to lie to you. I want to put on clothes and be like dayyyyyyyum girl. Not to shabby.
At some point I have stepped back and just realized that everyone lives their lives differently. Some people are complacent and don’t really care about their weight and figure. Some people constantly diet. Others go about it the way I have – trying to change their diet long-term and exercise. Are any of these ways wrong? *shrugs* I dunno. It would be awful bold of me to tell you I’m the Judge. All I can tell you is that I want to walk around and feel the best I can and this is how I’m going to do it. There are so many people smarter than me that have said diet and exercise are the way to remain healthy – who am I to say they’re wrong???