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How to make goal & become a Lifetime member in 3 seconds flat:
Today was weigh in day. I’ve been stuck at 175 or above for two months. I could not seem to get below 175.0 no matter what I did. I would estimate that I have not weighed less than 175 in 22 years. I had a doctor’s slip for many months that stated that an appropriate goal was 170, or even higher. For a long time, that seemed too high, but what I did not take into consideration was my muscle mass. I’ve done strength training for well over a year, and have more muscle mass than perhaps the average female. Everyone kept telling me that I couldn’t possibly have more weight to lose. I couldn’t see it because I’ve been so heavy for such a long time that I could never see myself as I really am. It took the very right-on advice of several friends, my leader, and family to help me see that I’m really there. I also had a fitness evaluation done, and my body fat % was only 1 point away from being “excellent”. (20%) I can fit into size 12 pants and a size 8 top. I used to wear a 34W and size 5X. How could I not be within what is a proper & appropriate weigh range for my body?
I stepped on the scale today & it read 173.4. I had lost 3.8 lbs & a grand total of 201.6 lbs! I was so very excited to finally break the 175 barrier, and that was all I could think about. I was in a daze of sorts. My leader said; “Why don’t we call your goal at 175?” I heard myself saying yes, and she hugged me & gave me some paperwork to fill out. She said I was now a Lifetime member and showed me how, as we counted back in the weeks prior, that I had been within 2 lbs of 175 for the past 6 weeks, so I made goal & Lifetime all in 3 seconds just by stepping up on the scale!
It was actually a very low key moment. There was only 1 member present at the @Work meeting I attend, as the other members all had other meetings to attend. I felt like I was in a daze for the remainder of the meeting, and, as I had to go back to work, I felt I had to place myself on “auto-pilot”, so that I could focus on my job, & finish the day’s work. Driving home, I suddenly found tears in my eyes as the reality set in.
It was odd, or perhaps not at all, that this would have occurred on a day with a negative connotation to me, which is the 13th, the monthly anniversary of my son’s disappearance. (20 months now) Was I right in my thinking that one of the reasons this all happened was to save my life? I had been eating myself into an early grave, and now I feel more alive than ever. I feel so blessed in my life, and in the things I am now able to do that I only dreamed about before.
Those of you that know me understand the meaning that Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz has for me. She represented dreams coming true and a spirit of youthfulness. I recalled dialog from the movie in the scene where Glinda comes to Dorothy’s rescue after the Wizard leaves her behind when his balloon flies away. Dorothy says to Glinda: “Oh, will you help me? Can you help me?” Glinda replies: “You don't need to be helped any longer. You've always had the power to go back to Kansas.” Then Dorothy says: “I have?” The Scarecrow interjects with: “Then why didn't you tell her before?” Glinda explains: “Because she wouldn't have believed me. She had to learn it for herself.”
If anyone had told me 20 months ago that I was going to be a
fit, slim, and healthy person, I would never have believed them! I had to
learn it for myself as part of life’s lessons. I’ve had the power all along
to do this, just as Dorothy had the power to go home. I’m now home as a
Lifetime member, and I can say with all honesty & conviction: “There’s no
place like home.” Written on February 13th, 2003
I'm still journaling and doing my exercise just as I always have. Last night my husband wondered why I asked to see the container for a food item so I could calculate the points. I explained to him that what I am doing is forever, unless I want to be right back where I started, which I have absolutely no intention of doing! (I think sometimes people who don't have this battle to do, just don't truly understand that it's a lifetime commitment)
I don't feel like I'm a Lifetime member. In some ways, I feel cheated that I didn't get to experience the challenge of doing the 6 weeks of maintenance, and you know how I love a good challenge! But then again, I wouldn't have really done anything different than what I did, and what I am doing now. Maybe I'm still in a bit of a daze from all of the events of the last few days. :-)
I did have a nice Valentine's Day. Jim loved the Glamour Shots. He liked the one of me in the hat the best, & then the close up shot, but he did like them all! He bought me a dozen roses, which are an unusual but pretty cream color, with a hint of pink. He also gave me a gift certificate to our bike shop, as I need to get outfitted to accomplish my biking goals this year. (I'm doing B.R.A.N., which is Bike Ride Across Nebraska, a 7 day, 455 mile trek in early June, and then by season's end, I plan to ride a certain scenic trail in one day, which is 128 miles) I'll need some padded bike shorts to save my rear end! LOL
My next challenges (other than the ones pertaining to my son and the getting the law passed to help families of missing people) are to prepare for these events & attain my Peak Fitness goal, which is my ultimate goal. Gee whiz, after that, what will I do? hehe The sky really is the limit though. I feel like I have removed the chains that kept me bound, the excess weight that kept me from my life and whatever is meant to be for me. I forge ahead unafraid & excited to have been blessed with life anew. It's a wonderful feeling! Written on February 15th, 2003
Wow, they say this
maintaining is not easy, and they are right. You're supposed to be able to
add potentially 4 pts to your pt range, but so far it appears I can't do
that! I did it 3 days in a row, and boom, I gain 4 lbs. I've had to work hard
the last couple of days to whittle it back down to being up 2 lbs overall at 175ish. (My
stats will always reflect my official meeting WI's, not what my home scale
says....Lifetimers weigh in once per month, and I don't WI until March)
Written on
February 20, 2003 Written on
4/3/03 Over these past few months and when I started training for BRAN, I also started to gain weight. It was very frustrating. I could not figure out at first why it was happening and no matter what I did, I could not get back to 175. It was even difficult to stay in the 180’s. My weight went up and down like a yo-yo. I tried eating more, I tried eating less, more protein, etc, but nothing would get me back into the 170’s. My leader told me that it was probably muscle gain due to my extensive BRAN training. but I thought if I gave in to this thought prematurely, and if it wasn’t true, I might be setting myself up to start gaining the weight back, and I certainly didn’t want that to happen. I could only keep working hard on it until I was able to have my next fitness evaluation at the YMCA in August. At that evaluation, I would find out if my body fat % had gone up, which would tell me that the weight I had gained was indeed fat. Here is what happened when I went for my fitness evaluation: Wow, did I have a major
victory last night. I went to the Y and saw Krissy, who always does my
fitness evaluations. We can have one done free every 6 months. I had put in a
request to be called for an appointment for one, but no one had called me. I
stopped in her office & told her this, and she said if I wanted to, we
could do it right then & there, which suited me. Two reasons why I was
anxious to do this is because 1) I wanted to see how I was progressing to my
Peak Fitness goal and 2) I wanted to see how my body fat % was coming along
as I had gained weight since I started to train for my biking event back last
March. The results floored me, the previous Queen of all Couch
Potatoes! Sit-ups: (how many modified sit-ups you can do in a
minute) Written on August 21, 2003
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