Sooo..... Umm.... Happy New Year and some junk....

I pretty much fail lately at doing anything related to my poor little blog here... I have had the best of intentions! But after being busy busy busy at work all day, going to the gym, figuring out what to eat for dinner, showering, and spending a whopping 30-ish minutes with my husband before he has to take a nap before working all night AGAIN... Sitting down and writing a post is generally one of the last things on my mind.

What about weekends, you may ask... Nope. Busy doing things that don’t involve sitting in front of a computer. Things like being pretty much totally awesome at archery...

B.T.Dubs – I have wanted to learn to use a bow WAY before Hunger Games ever existed. Although I do find it really awesome that there is a huge rise in the number of young girls that want to learn because of Hunger Games and Brave.... I love seeing all the littles at the archery range getting lessons.

Except for when I have an epic fail moment because I wasn’t paying attention to my arm position after I had them increase the weight of the draw on my bow... It’s aversion therapy. I haven’t done it since...

So I realized that last Friday was exactly one year from my first meal on Nutrisystem. I still remember my first experience with that scary dehydrated hamburger that caused much whimpering and fear... That I actually ended up liking! One year ago I was miserable with how I looked and felt and had decided to FINALLY stop whining to myself and actually DO something about it. I never thought I would have made it to my goal and be where I am so quickly. I thought maybe I’d be getting closer to where I wanted to be a year later... But, nope. I made it. Not just made it... I ROCKED it.

 Those used to fit. Crazy. And I can fit both legs in one leg of the pants....

For the first time in as long as I can remember, I really had fun shopping. There is nothing better than handing the size 6 pants over the changing room door and asking for smaller ones. It was cause for much proud smiling at myself in the mirror and much dancing while waiting for the woman to come back...

 A handful of my favorite new clothes... I have a lot more color in the new wardrobe than I did before! 

Slightly different size now....

  

For the first time I'm not self-conscious in pictures... We had the Stanley Cup down at our office and I was no longer afraid of jumping in for a picture with the King’s Ice Girls.

And I have spent a lot of time staring at this picture wondering how it is possible that I am actually slightly smaller than these girls!

And the cup, of course...

 Everyone kept yelling at me to actually kiss it, but there was NO WAY I was going to actually touch that thing with my face.

It really is a weird thing to look so different. I still forget sometimes – like it is just a dream. But then I look in the mirror and remember, “Oh yeah! This is real!” I still see myself the same in my head. I read once that our brains are approximately one year behind the truth of what we actually look like – I’m really hoping mine catches up soon.

There are some random thoughts that I have been having lately regarding weight loss:

- NOTHING fits from before. I just had to buy a new helmet for offroading because my old one is too big now... My rings were too big, my necklaces hang longer now... I even had to tighten my shoelaces!

- I am SO COLD! How do skinny people live like this?! I have to keep slippers by the bed and I have blankets everywhere! I don’t leave the house without a jacket and a scarf and I live in SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA!

- How do I gain fat just in my arms? I get that having more muscle than fat in them means that there isn’t padding there anymore, but I really HATE that my veins stand up on top of the muscle. I don’t want to have gross veiny Madonna arms!

- A couple weeks ago I had a sinus infection. That was the first time I was actually sick with more than just a cold in a YEAR. I guess a by-product of getting healthier weight-wise was getting a stronger immune system! Plus, I only got a sinus infection – J got bronchitis... Normally that would have been me.

- I really enjoy shocking people with my weight loss – like some of the newer people in my office or the guy at the store when I bought my helmet. Someone will say something about my weight loss or I’ll make a joke about how stupid it is that I have to buy a helmet because I lost weight and that inevitably leads to the question of how much weight I lost. I think they are expecting something like 15 – 20... maybe 25 pounds. I don’t think they ever expect to hear “almost 90 pounds.”

- Speaking of which – I REALLY need to go the DMV to get a new picture taken. As fun as it is to get the quadruple-takes from people, I’m sick of seeing my old face on there.

- Still on the same train of thought – I have had people walk right past me without a hint of recognition on their face... A lot of times it takes having J next to me for it to trigger who I must be... It’s just bizarre.

All this process has taught me is that whining and wishing will never get you what you want. You have to stand up and fight for it. Nutrisystem made it so that I could do this with as little thought or stress as possible. It took the thought and the work out of it. All of the tools are there for you including a great support system on their site. I still go on there all the time to provide support and encouragement for the people that are where I was a year ago and to see the progress of the people that I grew attached to during the past year.

I still order food there because it really just makes life easier – I’m really down to just getting the Nutrisystem food for lunch and a few other things that I really like that make for quick, easy meals when I need them. I am using what I learned while on the program to keep everything balanced and so far I have stayed in my little 4 – 6 pound “happy range” even with the holidays and all the delicious food!

I am learning that it is ok to have the things I love like ice cream and burgers and all the delicious things I missed while dieting, I just have to make sure to adjust my day so that they fit into it. For example: if I don’t go to the gym, I watch what I eat more closely. BUT - if I eat a lighter breakfast and lunch, I can have chocolate... haha It’s all about finding the balance and not getting crazy. I refuse to spend the rest of my life without cupcakes because cupcakes are awesome. But I adjust everything else to make them fit occasionally!

I still track everything I eat so that I can keep it on my mind. I know if I just stop paying attention, I will start slipping. It’s a lot easier to stay on top of 5 pounds than 50! I don’t start stressing about fluctuating back and forth in my happy range or even if I weigh higher than it for one week – if I start seeing it stay high for longer than that, then I really crack down and tighten up the menu. It’s gotten kind of second nature – I know what proper portions are and I know how to make the things I want work occasionally...

And if I can do this, anyone can. Cause I’m SUPER lazy. Just sayin’.