Losing It, Yay Me!

  
The day after my 44th birthday, back in September, I started a diet and exercise routine with the intention of losing some weight. Since my second kid was born, I had been hovering around or over 200lbs, which is high even for my curvy body. I got winded from climbing a flight or two of stairs, had a hard time shopping for clothes, and generally didn’t like the feeling of being inside of my own body. That’s not a new experience for me — I’m the survivor of childhood trauma and have struggled with body issues my whole life — but I was inspired by a friend’s weight loss  this summer to try to shed some fat again.  

I started logging my food and weighing myself daily using the Lose It! app. I joined exercise challenges in Lose It!, and after about a month got comfortable with a daily exercise routine (with a day or two off per week for recovery). I started running, and actually enjoying it, which was a real shocker. 😉 I found some circuit training and aerobic dance videos on YouTube that I could do on days when the weather or my schedule didn’t permit a run or walk outside. 

Basically, I started eating less and exercising more, and stuck with it. And it worked! I’ve now lost 40 pounds and reduced my BMI by 6.5 — still in the “overweight” category but out of the “obese” category, which hasn’t been the case in as long as I can remember. 

I haven’t talked a lot about this effort much with anyone but close friends and family, but I’m pretty proud of meeting my goal, so I thought I’d share more publicly. 🙂 Yay! It feels good to be on better terms with my body and my health. It feels good to run and play with my kids instead of watching them run and play. It feels good to shop in more mainstream clothing stores and thrift shops again. It feels good to take enjoyment in exercise and challenge my muscles. I feel more confident that my body will be able to do what I ask of it, and it’s generally been good for me to prioritize my own needs a little more than I have in the past. It’s still feels weird to post something that’s mostly about “yay me,” but I’m going to tolerate that discomfort enough to reiterate: 

Yay me! I worked hard at this, and I did it!