Today the scales finally show that I've lost 70 pounds. Well, 70.8 pounds, actually. It's been a tough road getting here.Besides all the unfortunate side effects of losing weight (gallbladder surgery) and the complications from that (pancreatitis), just battling the issues that most of us face when losing weight has been tough!
- Head hunger
- Sweet tooth
- Motivation or lack thereof
- Exercise regimes or inability to exercise due to whatever reasons
- Laziness in upkeeping new habits - good habits
- Allowing old bad habits to creep back in to our routines
- Busting through or waiting to get through plateaus
All of these things make it very hard to keep on keeping on. For some of us, me especially, this hasn't been so much a physical effort, but a mental effort. We all understand the physics behind losing weight: burn more calories than what you take in. That's the easy part. The piece I find truly hard is convincing myself that I really don't need that chocolate chip cookie, or that extra bite of dinner, or that exercising is really beneficial. I know these things. But how does a person who knows what they're supposed to do get beyond whatever it is in the back of their head that tells them that they don't need to do what they're supposed to do? A shrink? lol
It's a vicious game we play with ourselves. I know that many people have won, and have battled that voice and defeated it. Many of us are still battling it, myself included. Others, they haven't yet started the battle, and that's where the victors can help. Blogging our experiences not only helps us to track where we are and what we're doing, but it allows others who are following behind us to benefit from the battles we've faced. That's why I love both of the blogging communities that I'm involved with: IF and WLS. Each community has a wealth of knowledgeable voices to provide a helping hand and encouragement to get through the fight we're in.
I'm looking forward to my next 10 pounds. I'll be down in the 2-teens then. It has been since about 1993 that I've weighed that little. OMG, that's 17 years! I didn't realize it had been that long ago. Wow, I can't believe that I was so complacent with allowing my weight to get so out of control for so long. I really didn't want to think about it, I guess. I knew it, but just didn't allow myself to truly understand the ramifications of being super morbidly obese. Now that I think about it, I was playing with fire, and just hadn't gotten burned yet with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease, etc. It would have been only a matter of time before those issues would have reared their ugly heads.
In closing up this long post, I want to thank everyone who has followed my story, from the beginning when I just started my journey through fertility treatments through my weight loss journey now. Knowing that I've had people who I have never met (although I have met a few of you now) that cares about me and wants to provide the encouragement and pieces of themselves with me, well, it means the world to me. You all rock!
