Most of you who have been following me on my blog and/or on Facebook know that besides spending time with my family I spent most of the summer either running or biking. I decided that I needed to bump up my exercise by adding a few days of biking to my running repertoire, or I was never going to lose those last stubborn pounds. And boy did I exercise—I ran and biked along the California Coast, around Murrieta and Lake Elsinore, and even swam and tried pilates. Despite all this hard work, I did not lose one pound, one ounce, or even a measly fraction of an ounce.
Last week I started back at work after having the summer off (one of the great perks of being a teacher). While I went from school to school meeting with colleagues, I couldn’t believe how many asked me if I had lost weight. As I began to think about this I realized that I had once again been deceived by the power of the scale. I had to remind myself that in weight loss, as in life, there are many ways to measure your successes.
One important sign I had completely ignored was that I had moved into a new size and even this new size 10 was not tight on me. This should have been my big clue that while I had not lost weight, I had lost inches. I was reading an inspirational article last week that gave me the best visual of the difference between muscle and fat—a pound of fat is about the size of a softball and the same pound of muscle is more like a baseball. I have actually kept measurements from several points along the road to flabulous, but for some reason I always let the scale define my success. This practice has got to stop.
So if I change the way I measure my success in weight loss, maybe I should also change the way I view my successes in the exercise department. I have been a little down lately about my running. Besides being sidelined by injury, I have not been able to improve my mile time since hitting a little over nine minute miles (for my three-mile runs). Now I don’t plan on winning any races, I just want to finish my workouts faster. It all comes down to laziness—I want all the benefits of running…just faster. The day I can run a two-hour half-marathon I will feel like I have won the lottery!
Again, I feel I am focusing on the wrong thing. Progress should not be tied just to time—my dad tried to tell me this six months ago, but I ignored him. After I ran my first half-marathon at Disney I spent the next two weeks limping and walking backward down stairs to avoid the burning pains in my thighs. Now when I run my half-marathons, I am itching to run two days later. Shouldn’t I be proud of that huge step forward in my running stamina? You would think so, and yet I continue to focus on the time.
As for the improvements in my eating habits, I still have bad meals and even bad days, but here, too, I need to measure my successes in different ways. I may still have an occasional bag of Cheetos, scoop of ice cream, or bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, but overall, I eat far healthier than I once did. I eat just about every color veggie and fruit, giving me a variety of vitamins and minerals, and I almost always choose whole grain carbs over processed ones. I am eating smaller portions, fewer unplanned snacks, and I have cut almost all artificial sweetener out of my diet. I think this is a huge success over my past eating habits.
Last week I started back at work after having the summer off (one of the great perks of being a teacher). While I went from school to school meeting with colleagues, I couldn’t believe how many asked me if I had lost weight. As I began to think about this I realized that I had once again been deceived by the power of the scale. I had to remind myself that in weight loss, as in life, there are many ways to measure your successes.
One important sign I had completely ignored was that I had moved into a new size and even this new size 10 was not tight on me. This should have been my big clue that while I had not lost weight, I had lost inches. I was reading an inspirational article last week that gave me the best visual of the difference between muscle and fat—a pound of fat is about the size of a softball and the same pound of muscle is more like a baseball. I have actually kept measurements from several points along the road to flabulous, but for some reason I always let the scale define my success. This practice has got to stop.
So if I change the way I measure my success in weight loss, maybe I should also change the way I view my successes in the exercise department. I have been a little down lately about my running. Besides being sidelined by injury, I have not been able to improve my mile time since hitting a little over nine minute miles (for my three-mile runs). Now I don’t plan on winning any races, I just want to finish my workouts faster. It all comes down to laziness—I want all the benefits of running…just faster. The day I can run a two-hour half-marathon I will feel like I have won the lottery!
Again, I feel I am focusing on the wrong thing. Progress should not be tied just to time—my dad tried to tell me this six months ago, but I ignored him. After I ran my first half-marathon at Disney I spent the next two weeks limping and walking backward down stairs to avoid the burning pains in my thighs. Now when I run my half-marathons, I am itching to run two days later. Shouldn’t I be proud of that huge step forward in my running stamina? You would think so, and yet I continue to focus on the time.
As for the improvements in my eating habits, I still have bad meals and even bad days, but here, too, I need to measure my successes in different ways. I may still have an occasional bag of Cheetos, scoop of ice cream, or bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, but overall, I eat far healthier than I once did. I eat just about every color veggie and fruit, giving me a variety of vitamins and minerals, and I almost always choose whole grain carbs over processed ones. I am eating smaller portions, fewer unplanned snacks, and I have cut almost all artificial sweetener out of my diet. I think this is a huge success over my past eating habits.
So as you strive to make improvements in your eating and exercise habits, be sure to look at your successes in multiple ways. It is not all about the scale, and it is not just about the time. And try not to focus only on the times when your eating is not under control. How much better are you feeling? Are you more energetic than in the past? Are you feeling fewer aches and pains after you exercise? Are you sleeping better? Making life changes is hard and these changes are just that—life changes. It took us a lifetime to build up these bad habits…allow yourself a little more time to undo them.
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