Tell me if you can relate. My closet is full of an array of sizes. Some sizes represent my fit and energized clothes and some are my I don’t care I’m just going to eat whatever I want as much as I want clothes. So, you’re living your life in your I’m going to eat what I want clothes until one day something happens that triggers a response. It could be anything, you catch yourself at the WRONG angle or you see a picture of yourself and you think – Is that me? Or, you are going up the stairs and you feel tired all of a sudden… That is what I think of as the last straw day.

The “last straw day”  the day when you decide enough’s enough it’s time to turn this car around, time to get back to the fit and energized clothes!  This was me. I am convinced that somewhere deep in my brain, there is a well-worn path from one behavior pattern to another. I’m up I”m down I’m up I’m down and that’s the way I lived my life. It is as though I believed those fit and energized clothes were nothing more than a temporary gift that I was not meant to keep.

Yet hope must have always been inside of me, and this time I’m having a very different experience.

Today was weigh-in day and the scale was not “kind” to me as I hoped… so how does that feel?  I feel powerful and strong – truly. Not because I am writing this post, I feel powerful and strong despite my gain, this number does not represent failure.  I wear it like a badge of honor. It’s like taking a punch, getting back up and having the resolve to continue the fight. Only I don’t feel like I”m fighting, I feel nothing but joy and love.  You see, I am so grateful to be on this journey with you. I am living the program and I am truly changed. I have to celebrate because did so many good things this week:

1. One day I forgot my lunch at home and bought a salad without dressing because the full-fat dressings they offered were not appealing for the points values.
2. I got in a lot of activity and had a great time even though other people were more skilled than me.
3. Meal planning was challenging because of my longer work days for most of this week, and I made excellent choices.
4. I practiced mindful eating and really thought about my external and internal hunger.
5. My why was present in my thoughts when I was tempted to eat foods that would not be helpful to my end goal. Yes, I could have eaten them and still been on plan but they just weren’t worth it.

I know we all just want to get to goal and celebrate Lifetime but it usually doesn’t work that way. I think there is a reason for that, and it’s equally important to discover why. For those of us who have a significant amount of weight to lose there was probably something else going on, that got us to the point of needing to lose so much weight.  Emotional eating is a response to stress and while other people can recognize it in us, sometimes it hard for us to recognize it in ourselves.  There are days when life can beat us up and all we want is a little comfort.  A piece of cake, an extra glass of wine, some comfort food from childhood. If this sounds familiar you understand what I”m saying. Understanding the reason why I turned to food is the reason why it takes time to get to goal and Lifetime.

I know that the choices I make this upcoming week will have a positive impact on my weight loss. I know that I am capable of making choices that will get me there and that’s the way it is going to happen for me. I wonder, how is the journey going for you? I hope you are working the program and being kind to yourself because you deserve that and much more.

A Personal Challenge:

Our focus this week is on getting in activity every day. I am going to get some activity in every day and track it in my Weight Watchers App  I’m doing this because I think it will be a fun challenge that reinforces the lifestyle change I am creating for myself.  Let me know if you want to do it too – it is just another way to energize and celebrate my efforts for me and not a number on the scale. Thank you thank you thank you for reading more tomorrow.