Ten Year Anniversary Update

May 29, 2014

Ten years seems like an appropriate time to take a few minutes to stop and reflect on life in general and my journey specifically. For those of you in the beginning stages of your amazing journey I would say to you, enjoy each step as it comes. I know it was hard at times for me to not just look at the end goal and compute the "if's and then's". The end goal will come, don't worry. What I found just as valuable was reflecting how I was changing inside as well as outside. You find strengths in you that you hadn't used. You venture out into arenas you were hesitant to go to before. Enjoy your "wows" as much as your shrinking jean size.

No sugar coating it, maintaining isn't always easy. I have had a few times through the years that I gave into the old habits and put on my well worn blinders to ignore the obvious- those  extra pounds knew just where to find me. The difference was that I couldn't forget the joy in life I gained as I lost the weight. By going back to the basics, I managed to shed the extra pounds and have maintained a 235# loss. Biggest lesson there, don't beat yourself up over the backslide. The surgery doesn't take away all our problems nor does it make us super human. What it does do was is let us know that we have the strength to tackle whatever we need to.

I truly believe if I didn't learn that the most important tool to maintaining weight loss was reflecting on the "why" I gained and regained the weight, then I couldn't be successful. The old triggers are still there. It is much easier to recite the "what" I did or ate wrong that caused the weight gain. It wasn't the cake that put on the pounds, it was why you chose to eat it that did.

So, Happy re-birthday to me. I am proud of the NEW me and I learned to love the OLD me. To all of you who are moving toward your "anniversary" ( one day,week, month or year), Congratulations! Life is good.

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