My First Victory - A Weight Loss story

Ladies... I am so excited I just couldn't wait to share the good news with you!

As you know I began a weight loss journey just over a month ago.

There was no big turning point for me that made me go - I want to lose weight - no terrible picture, no major dip in self esteem (I've always suffered from high self esteem ( : ) just a couple of personal realizations such as: I love healthy foods like fresh veggies, and fruits, whole grains, etc so why am I eating so much junk (hello sausage Mcgriddle!). The other came to me by nature of my job. One day while spending time with some of my 80 yr. old + residents I thought- I'm 25 years old, God willing I have 60 + years left of living to do and as nature goes- my body will only get harder to maintain as I age- why should I not bust my butt to make it the best that it can be at any give time?

These thoughts nudged me towards healthier eating habits and I used the best system I know of to base my decisions on.

I've been following the Weight Watchers plan which allows me to still live my life, make choices, indulge from time to time and NEVER feel deprived. If your not privvy to WW formula its essentially High Fiber/Low Cal/ Low Fat. You calculate points based on those nutrition facts and are given a target point # to not exceed each day and also given a weekly allowance to use as best suits you ( a piece of birthday cake, alcohol) but you are also given good health guidelines to follow such as limiting added sugar and alcohol, drinking enough water so you know to keep these special idulgences limited.

You can also earn bonus points for working out -I personally have not allowed myself these activity points these last several months because I don't want to get myself in the habit of equating a work out to junk food as a reward (or MORE food as a reward). I want excercise to be for the benefit of excercise- at least at this stage in the game.

Anyhow, I have followed the food plan quite well for the last 5 weeks and have gradually been adding in workouts/ additional activity (such as shoveling snow, taking stairs, etc). I am not where I want to be with workouts but I will say that on average I work out 3 times a week.
At about the end of week 1 I got my first, "Are you losing weight?" and it felt damn good. I said that I had just started and that I couldn't really be showing much yet but my supporter swore my face looked thinner and I was geeked- maybe I was doing something right- so I kept right on going, feeling encouraged but too nervous to get on the scale- not wanting to get discouraged by weighing myself too soon. So I used my clothes as a guideline- first my tightest fitting jeans got loose, then pants I've not been able to wear comfortably for years zipped right up and made it through a whole day without pinching my skin off. I started thinking about getting on the scale.

This week I finally got the encouragemet I needed to do it!

5 times in one week- by 5 different people I was asked if I was losing weight and it wasn't just anyone asking- 4 of the people who were asking were residents of my senior living community! This may not seem like a big milestone to most but to me it said- I really must be losing because it takes A LOT sometimes to get my residents to notice details and changes. I knew I could wait no longer to have cold, hard numbers as proof of my hard work so yesterday after an evening meeting I drove to my mother's for our pre-planned dinner together- greeted her and made a bee-line for the bathroom where I located her scale, took a deep breathe, and stepped on.

I was fully prepared to be completely bummed by what I saw. Instead, when I looked down I saw a 22 lb difference between the number on her scale and the number my doctor wrote on my chart back in the fall!

I immediately called my mom into the bathroom and asked her if her scale was accurate. She stepped on, waited for her number and told me that it was probably off by a few lbs because at her drs appointment earlier that week she weighed 9 lbs more when she was still wearing boots, jeans, and a sweater.

I was kind of bummed but reminded myself that even if it was a 10 lb difference- that would be a huge accomplishment for just over a month on plan.

About 15 minutes later my sister came by to visit for a minute and almost instantly gestured at me and said, "You look good- what are you doing?"

Hmph. Mixed messages. So I knew I needed a second digital opinion.

Long story short- today I went out and bought my own LED digital scale and hopped on.

My mom's scale was 4 lbs off....

Its official and I can say this with confidence. I HAVE LOST 18 lbs!

I can't say exactly when I started losing because I didn't weigh myself at the very start of my journey and unfortunately all I have to go off of is my last physical from September 2009 - but still I feel that this is such a huge accomplishment and only the beginning.

I set an initial goal for myself of 35 lbs and without even realizing it- I'm over half way there!

I'm so excited to see what will happen once I start amping up my workouts and once all this snow melts and I can get outside!

It all just feels like such a journey and I'm so glad to be on it!

I hope I don't sound like a braggart- but damn I'm geeked right now!

Thanks for bearing with me while I share! I can't wait until I have even more good news to share with you in the coming months!

Much Love Always!

Miss Amber Lane

Starting Goal: 35 lbs
Weight Loss To Date: 18 lbs
Left To Go For Goal #1: 17 lbs