One Year

Oy! As busy as this last week was, I completely, totally missed my one-year anniversary of hitting goal weight. Thursday marked one year since that elusive 130 showed up on the scale.

I'm not going to lie. I don't weight 130 now. I am about 135-137. I don't love this, but I don't feel like it's a huge failure, either. I eat a very healthy diet 95% of the time, and yes, I have my splurges. I'm working on making them few and far between, but I won't give up my bits of chocolate here and there. (For the record: Justin's Organic Peanut Butter Cups are BETTER than Reese's and have a lot fewer calories. Two cups, dark chocolate and slightly salty-tasting, are 140 calories. They are THE BEST.)

My fitness has fluctuated. A very hot summer and starting a new job have affected my running, but I'm determined to find my groove again, and I know I can do it. I'm signed up for the Urban Cow 5K in a few weeks, and I'm thinking I may bite the bullet and do a 10K before year's out. Maybe I can convince a friend to pace me, or at least yell at me not to stop.

I may make a fall/winter push to get back to 130, or even a little under, but for the most part, I think my body is just fine here. I feel healthy; though I do need to think about how much dairy I consume because it makes me feel bloated. My blood pressure is fine, I am able to fight off colds much better than when I was overweight, and I sleep like a log at night. My goal weight clothes still fit.

Breakfast is still scrambled eggs, a habit Matt the Reasonable got me started on almost two years ago. I cook them with a mix of spinach, onion, peppers, black beans, tomato, chili powder, and cumin. I eat a lot of fresh fruit, a lot of veggies. I'm learning to navigate my new super-busy schedule and still maintain the healthy eating. It takes a little thought and a lot of planning ahead (Sundays are now food-prep days), but it's absolutely worth it. I put a mini-fridge in my office where I can keep healthy snacks and plenty of bottled water.

Is maintenance easier than losing? I vote "no." It's easy, in maintenance mode, to convince myself that I can have one more cookie, one more bite. I have to remind myself that I'm always going to be thinking about what I eat, and how I burn calories. The upside is that I can work out hard, and find ways to get movement in my life, like taking the stairs, parking further away, etc.

I still get random people doing double-takes when they see my driver's license photo, and I still enjoy telling people who did not know me five years ago that I once weighed 220 pounds--they can never quite believe it. Sharing my story is still fun, still a motivating factor in staying healthy and fit.

I will never regret the time and money I spent turning my life around. When I think of the direction I was heading (anxiety, depression, hypertension...probably on a fast track to diabetes and heart disease, too), I am glad I took the steps of asking for help, and followed through. I'm glad that I continue to follow through, and know that this is not a diet--it's a lifestyle. It's absolutely worth it.