50 pounds ago, there’s no way I get on a rope swing for fear the tree would give way.
One year ago today I woke up and decided to give up my two favorite foods: bread and cereal. Just like that, poof, no more bread and no more cereal.
Cold turkey a few days after Turkey Day.
I had been trying to lose weight again and again with varying degrees of temporary success for decades. I exercised regularly, running (over 600 miles in 2015!), hiking (across the width of England in summer 2016!), and remaining on-my-feet-active-at-home, but I was, in the end, doing all of that physically activity to eat, basically, and so I never experienced sustained weight loss success.
This time, a year ago now, it felt different. My mindset and the discipline I had in those early days last late November felt different. I didn’t know why but I could tell immediately that this try, this new attempt, was different than all those failed efforts that had come before it.
The weight I’d been carrying my whole adult life began to immediately drip away.
After a miserable first 3 days, from Nov 28 – 30, I craved nothing. My appetite was gone and I thought, “this must be what it feels like to be a normal person in the kitchen, at the dining room table, at a restaurant”.
I had heard that those kinds of carbs, the breads and cereals, were only pretending to fill me up but in reality were actually making me hungrier, but the sudden impact of eliminating them completely was startling.
At Christmastime I had but a single bite or two of the delicious cookies my kids and my mom had baked. I would have a bite or two of my favorite pizza. I enjoyed a lick or two of the kids’ ice cream cones, a forkful of cake. All that was enough to satisfy me. Strangely, I wanted for nothing else. I enjoyed a taste and moved on.
I couldn’t believe that the same guy who literally couldn’t stop eating cookies, bagels, and big bowls of cereal during his entire life was now able to have just a tiny bite and say no all together.
I lost nearly 50 pounds over the course of last winter, 50 pounds in 3 months, and have kept it all off since, save for 3-5 pounds depending on the day.
Sure, I struggle still with body image (those 3-5 pounds of flux drive me nuts) and I would like to lose another 15-20 pounds to get to a certain number (selected at random, really) that I think would sound good to say aloud in regards to myself, but I’m happy when I look at myself in (most) pictures now. And that’s something.
I hate Berenstain Bears morality plays, I really do, but I want to finish this weight loss success post by telling you, yes you, that you can do it.
Whatever you are trying to accomplish, you can do it. The first 3 days might suck so incredibly hard but if you can manage to push through that barrier, the whole freaking world might just open up in front of you.
I mean, who is this guy??
