I’ve been avoiding the scales for the last couple of months. My cycling dropped to near zero in December and a good part of January, November was not much better. My eating habits have been pretty good but I was still worried about my weight loss, or lack of, so I used the ‘bury my head in the sand’ approach.
I hopped on the scale today because my bike riding has begun again. The weather guessers are predicting that the colder winter temperatures where I live in New Mexico are largely being behind us now and so I am hopeful that I’ll reestablish my riding routine. With that in mind, I wanted to know my re-starting point.
I was VERY happy to see 238 pounds displayed!!
I know, that’s probably not something one should be very happy about… 🙁
Nonetheless; it is a drop of a couple of pounds since the last time I set foot on the evil creature (the scale). Given my lack of riding (and much of anything else), I had reason to celebrate! So, I fixed myself a pan of brownies!!
No! I didn’t do the brownies – but I did think about it.
Making it thru the holidays and winter cold spell was certainly an emotional challenge again this year. I sure hope that becomes easier with time. So, I have to admit, my holiday season is probably easier than most. The typical causes of holiday weight loss simply did not exist (parties, gobs of food, family get-togethers, etc…). Combine this with the fact that I no longer have a television so I am not sitting around eating and watching football games and movies and I guess the result speaks for itself – two pounds lost!
2012 was an interesting year. I got serious about my weight around the first of April. I had lost 30 pounds within three months using a raw foods approach to eating. Then the losing stopped. I started cycling in earnest in July. My body went thru a transformation over the next several months. I was not loosing weight but my waste was getting smaller, my clothes were getting looser, and I was feeling better but the scale was barely moving. This was mildly frustrating until I realized that the scale is only part of the story so I stopped focusing on it. I stopped looking back at yesterday and or what I ate an hour ago and started focusing on tomorrow and I what I might be stuffing in my mouth right now (and stopped). In all, this resulted in a year of which I am very proud. My goal for 2013 is for the same result – to lose another forty pounds. I’m sure it will be more difficult but I have a WHOLE year this time and I have learned so much. Whether or not I achieve the goal isn’t really all that important. What is important is that I try and that I make progress!
Hang around – it should be interesting!!
Keep up the good work, man. I coached my ex through a (104# so far) weight loss and now she looks and feels fabulous. Slow and steady does it. She did it just the way you are doing it: exercise and no more sweets. I had her throw out anything with any grain or sweeteners in it. All she eats is meat, fish, and nonstarchy vegetables. You can make some super tasty, satisfying food out of those ingredients with a little olive oil and spices. Rides her bike, does yoga, goes swimming. I did it myself, once, too – lost 30 pounds. Once your body switches gears into fat burning instead of fat building, you have tons of energy and you never feel hungry. Eating sweets or grains or sugary fruit will turn off the metabolic process that causes you to burn fat and you will start building fat again. Staying away from carbs and sugars will cause your body to flick on the switch to burn up your stored energy. 40 pounds is huge progress, but the weird thing is a lot of people might not notice a change until you reach a certain point, and then suddenly EVERYONE will notice. So it’s just a question of hanging in there and doing the right thing day after day, day in, day out, ’cause you know it’s the right thing to do, and then one day – BAM. You’re a new, buff person. People will look at you differently, because you accomplished something LOTS of people wish they could do.