I don't usually talk to people about my weight loss journey, because technically I have never been overweight and so a lot of people don't want to hear it. However, I was inching closer and closer every year to that upper healthy range limit for my height. It happened so slowly that I didn't notice. Sure, I couldn't fit in my dress pants anymore, my dresses were a little tight, but overall, I thought I looked the same...
until I saw a photo of the 50-59 age group awards at a trail race in July 2023. I was surprised at how soft I looked. I shouldn't have been surprised; I really hadn't run (or exercised in general) all that much for a few years. After seeing the picture, I told myself, "Well, I'm over 50 now. This is probably my new normal. My metabolism isn't what it used to be. I'll never look like I did in my 30s anyway."
A few months later, hitting yet a new high on the scale, weighing more than I did in the hospital having my second child, less than 5 pounds from the top of the healthy range and feeling sluggish in general, I decided to see if I could do something about it. January 16th, I began my journey to better health with a goal of losing 17.4 pounds.
I used Garmin Connect and LoseIt to track my exercise and calories. I had used food trackers before, but I was never completely honest. If I overate, I just didn't enter the food. This time, I entered everything and I haven't missed a day. I've had many, many days where I went over my calorie budget, but overall, I guess I've been doing all right because I have slowly lost weight for nearly 9 months. I also kept track of my weight and exercise in a Google spreadsheet. I even added a formula in another column for my 7-day weight average. That's actually been more useful than looking at the daily number since weight can fluctuate from day to day. I created a graph so I could easily see how my average weight was trending.
There's the saying, "You can't outrun your fork" and that's very true. While I've had plenty of days where I've eaten crummy, junky food (PLENTY of days), there were more days where I made smarter choices. Keeping an eye on my fiber, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sugar intake was probably even more motivating than simply counting calories.
I saw the numbers slowly falling throughout the year and I noticed that after a while I even felt lighter on my feet. Still, I didn't think I looked all that different as the weight came off. I truly didn't notice any big change in my appearance until I was getting ready to run the Virginia 10-Miler last weekend. I got a glimpse of myself in the mirror in my running clothes and thought, "Wait, I think I look leaner." I whipped out a measuring tape, which I hadn't used in over a year. My hips were 4 inches smaller and my waist was 2 inches smaller. What? (Maybe that's what distracted me from pinning on my race bib. See what happened with that in my previous blog entry!)
Later that day, I tried on old pants that I had put away in boxes because I didn't know if I'd ever be able to wear them again. All of them except three pair fit! So then I tried on dresses and I had ROOM in them!
I decided to have my picture taken again in the outfit I wore to that race in July 2023. Wow. What a difference. I picked up a 15-pound dumbbell the other day and jogged in place with it for a few seconds. Holy cow, this is what I was carrying around all the time? Never again!
It's not always been easy choosing NOT to overeat every day, or getting up before 5 AM to work out, but I'm really glad I have done it. The progress I've made makes each day a little easier. This is the most weight I've ever lost.
I'm only getting older, so I hope I can continue to make healthy choices and stay as active as possible for many years to come.
You're doing a good job! Congratulations on your plan working . . . because you're working the plan!
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