I don’t see it but I can feel it

I‘ve been obsessed with the scale lately and it’s getting on my nerves. So I decided to give it a break for a couple of weeks. You see, I have been doing my best with my food intake and I have been looking at the numbers slowly but surely go down on the scale. It’s exciting to know that what I am doing is working but… I just don’t see it. I look at my face and I don’t see the slimming. I look in the mirror, same body. I put on my clothes, same size. ok. Maybe not as tight but same size. I’m not saying that I’m not happy about it but I just can’t see if when I look in the mirror. I totally understand why people get discouraged when you think you’re working and one of you factors is not matching up to the other (scale+clothes+belly+…)
Even after all of this, I’m ok with it because the way I feel. I feel simply fantastic. I feel lighter. I don’t see it but my knees feel it. They don’t hurt when I stand for too long. My walks to the train station has shortened (by a whole min! – and yes I time myself). I just feel lighter and just better. I like this feeling. I still have my rolls but that’s not the only thing I see when I am looking at myself in the mirror. In some aspects, I have already reached one of my goals which was to just feel better. I’m petite by technical standards (5’3″) and I have size 6 feet. I felt like to keep going the way I was would just not work out for me. And I was longing for a day where a 15 mins walk was no longer a big deal and if I ran to catch the train, I wouldn’t feel like I was dying. I have achieved that goal and I’m excited. For that reason, I’m giving my scale up for a month so that I can enjoy that awesome feeling I have of actually enjoying my present body, enjoying feeling lighter on my feet. Here’s to victories!

I have not been exercising

 You read right. I’m not lifting, not running, not cycling, the only walking I’m doing is walking casually from the train station to my job and like a maniac back to catch my ride back to my car. And when I get home, I’m so tired all I want to do is take a nap. But since I’m a mommy, I actually have to do some work when I get home.
Now if you’re reading this and thinking well then, she is not serious about that weight loss! No way. Diet and exercise are the key ingredients to a succesful weight loss! I know I know. And I am very well aware of this but here is my tale.
Last year was a crazy start. I was working out three times a week at least. Picking up Minnie Me, dropping her off at the wonderful babysitting and heading off to zumba, kick boxing, the occasional spinning and my favorite body pump. Loved it every time and saw absolutely no results. I look the same, felt the same and my scale showed the exact same number. No matter what I did and how I motivated myself, I was still looking in the mirror and seeing the same image. I didn’t get it. So when our budget got tight, what was the first thing to go? The gym. My pocket got somewhat alleviated but what my weight….skyrocked. And here I am now. What happened there?
I figured it out. I was eating like crap. Not like crap but basically anything I wanted. I mean I work out almost every day so I can eat anything I want. I mean there’s a balance there right? Wrong! See, the type of food you ingest really do affect how you feel and how your body processes. I read that all the time, seen it everywhere but really could care less because I figured I’m putting the gym time in then my success is inevitable. So this time around, I decided to do something else. I decided to attack from the other end of the spectrum. I decided to take care of what I eat. I’m not depriving myself by any means because I know I will fall back into crazy habits and ridiculous eating binges when I’ve starved myself for days. No. I am remastering my palette. I am making some conscious decisions, making some substitutions here and there. Instead of rice, maybe some veggies. Instead of bread with the soup, maybe just soup. That sort of thing. And when I want pizza, damn it I have pizza. I just don’t have four slices of pizza, with seven wings, fries and wash things down with a soda. I think I might call this new lifestyle “restraint”.