I believe that one of the greatest obstacles we face in life is our own self. I could go on for ages listing out all of the possible, destructive reasons for a person's lack of self esteem and self-love. It could be neglect, abuse, the fashion industry. It could be anything really. And I would venture to say that most people can't pinpoint that exact moment in time when they went from happy, carefree child, to weight-obsessed, I-think-I'm-ugly child/pre-teen/teen/young adult/adult/senior. I can't pinpoint it myself, but I do know it's been a struggle for as long as I can remember.
Of all of the lessons I've learned throughout my own weight-loss journey, by far the most important has been to love myself, no matter what.
When I look into the mirror, I see a gorgeous, intelligent, funny, caring, and sexy woman. I see a beautiful body, and I remind myself daily to appreciate those parts of my body that I wouldn't trade for anything. My eyes. My hair. My legs. My feet (yes, my feet, I have awesome feet). My collar bone. The strength and broadness of my shoulders. My smile.
I am amazing.
Yes, I want to lose weight. Yes, I want to tone my body. And yes, I want to look even better than I do today. But does that mean that I don't love exactly who I am today? Of course not!
Loving yourself is the best thing you can possibly do to achieve your goals. When you look in the mirror and see all of the incredible things about yourself, both inside and out, you will feel amazing. Motivation to achieve the goals you've set forth increases. Confidence in your abilities increases. Your sense of self-worth and your positive attitude radiate from within, so that every single person you come in contact with feels and sees just how incredible you are!
Only when you truly love yourself, for who you are at this exact moment in time, and who you always will be, will you be able to achieve your goals in life - regardless of what they are.
Trust yourself, believe in yourself, love yourself.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Starting Over
Considering most of my readers are friends, you more than likely know all of the dirty details of the past 6 months of my life.
Long story short - I got sick. Really sick. When I caught what I thought was a cold in mid-April during a trip to Sydney, Australia, I didn't think it was much of a big deal. But five months of exhaustion, constant headaches, an inability to smell, taste, or breathe properly, feeling lethargic and depressed, and generally just being ill, will cause a girl to well, umm, gain weight.
Remember all of that amazing progress I made 1.5 years ago? All of those inches I shed, and how happy I was? It really hurts to wave goodbye to all of that progress, but not have the energy to do anything about it. I slipped into a spell of self-loathing, which of course led me to chocolate, which then led to more self-loathing. Shocking, I know.
Ultimately it came down to surgery. At the end of August I underwent a full sinus surgery, including a 3-day hospital stay and 2 weeks of at-home recovery. They found mushrooms in my sinus cavities. And no, I am not joking. No wonder I felt like crap for months!
Only now am I able to work out full-throttle, smell things, taste things, breathe the air around me! I'm still recovering, though. This morning the doctor gave me one more week of meds, one more week of steroids (I HATE STEROIDS), and one more week to really get well before we do another CT of my head. I'm not healing as quickly as he'd hoped, although I'm staying incredibly optimistic that these meds will in fact kick this crud for good.
So, with all of that in mind, and beginning the 3-month countdown of my repatriation to Houston, I find myself starting over. The new Weight Watchers Points Plus program is not awesome, if you want my honest opinion, but I know it will probably work. They wouldn't have switched over to it had they doubted the plan, right?
This past week I tracked as best I could, stayed away from booze, and really kept myself motivated. But those damn 40mg daily doses of steroids don't exactly aid in the weight loss process. In fact, they do nothing other than add weight. A 2.5lb gain this week was not what I expected to see on my scale, but alas I must deal with it.
So what's the plan going forward? If I bite it, I write it! Too much cheating goes on in my daily eating, and I refuse to do it any longer. Every single bit of food that goes into my mouth is going to be documented in my Points Tracker. Period. End of discussion.
But the biggest change I am going to make defies the plan WW has set forth for me. Apparently a person of my age and size (27, 141.5lbs) gets a daily points plus allowance of 29. Well, that is simply ridiculous, especially when one considers fruits are now "free", or zero points. I am sorry, but why on earth should I be consuming 29 points per day, when a person who weighs 220lbs should consume the same? Which one of us do you suppose is going to lose weight? Hmm?
Starting today, my new allowance is 26 points per day, with only two free servings of fruit. If I consume more than two fruits, I have to track them as having points.
I'm going to give this new points plan two weeks and see how it goes. With any luck, the weight will slide off like it used to, and Sarah will get her groove back! I mean, really people, I miss my clothes! I bought so many new, pretty things when I lost weight, and now I'm 10 stinkin' pounds heavier! They don't even button up!
Long story short - I got sick. Really sick. When I caught what I thought was a cold in mid-April during a trip to Sydney, Australia, I didn't think it was much of a big deal. But five months of exhaustion, constant headaches, an inability to smell, taste, or breathe properly, feeling lethargic and depressed, and generally just being ill, will cause a girl to well, umm, gain weight.
Remember all of that amazing progress I made 1.5 years ago? All of those inches I shed, and how happy I was? It really hurts to wave goodbye to all of that progress, but not have the energy to do anything about it. I slipped into a spell of self-loathing, which of course led me to chocolate, which then led to more self-loathing. Shocking, I know.
Ultimately it came down to surgery. At the end of August I underwent a full sinus surgery, including a 3-day hospital stay and 2 weeks of at-home recovery. They found mushrooms in my sinus cavities. And no, I am not joking. No wonder I felt like crap for months!
Only now am I able to work out full-throttle, smell things, taste things, breathe the air around me! I'm still recovering, though. This morning the doctor gave me one more week of meds, one more week of steroids (I HATE STEROIDS), and one more week to really get well before we do another CT of my head. I'm not healing as quickly as he'd hoped, although I'm staying incredibly optimistic that these meds will in fact kick this crud for good.
So, with all of that in mind, and beginning the 3-month countdown of my repatriation to Houston, I find myself starting over. The new Weight Watchers Points Plus program is not awesome, if you want my honest opinion, but I know it will probably work. They wouldn't have switched over to it had they doubted the plan, right?
This past week I tracked as best I could, stayed away from booze, and really kept myself motivated. But those damn 40mg daily doses of steroids don't exactly aid in the weight loss process. In fact, they do nothing other than add weight. A 2.5lb gain this week was not what I expected to see on my scale, but alas I must deal with it.
So what's the plan going forward? If I bite it, I write it! Too much cheating goes on in my daily eating, and I refuse to do it any longer. Every single bit of food that goes into my mouth is going to be documented in my Points Tracker. Period. End of discussion.
But the biggest change I am going to make defies the plan WW has set forth for me. Apparently a person of my age and size (27, 141.5lbs) gets a daily points plus allowance of 29. Well, that is simply ridiculous, especially when one considers fruits are now "free", or zero points. I am sorry, but why on earth should I be consuming 29 points per day, when a person who weighs 220lbs should consume the same? Which one of us do you suppose is going to lose weight? Hmm?
Starting today, my new allowance is 26 points per day, with only two free servings of fruit. If I consume more than two fruits, I have to track them as having points.
I'm going to give this new points plan two weeks and see how it goes. With any luck, the weight will slide off like it used to, and Sarah will get her groove back! I mean, really people, I miss my clothes! I bought so many new, pretty things when I lost weight, and now I'm 10 stinkin' pounds heavier! They don't even button up!
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