Last week, I felt discouraged, among other things. I splurged on our Disneyland trip, but I thought it was an injustice that I'm good 97% of the time and when I decided to indulge a bit, whilst still staying within my daily allotment of calories given all the walking we did, that I pack on pounds. Water weight due to high sodium food for 3 days, but that wasn't much of a comfort.
So this week, I was a machine, drinking kanteen after kanteen of water, seriously watching my sodium intake. My sources (ranging from eHow to Mayo Clinic) tell me that low-sodium diets are 1500mg and below. For women under 50 I think, max is 2300mg--health conditions, age, race, etc. play a role so check for your own personal circumstances. Most Americans get at least 3700mg per day. If you start to really pay attention to sodium and not just calories, you'll notice how high it is in most food. The rule of thumb is that the less something looks like its natural form, the more processed it is. Processed=sodium. Now you do need sodium in your diet. I believe it's under 1000 for normal body functioning. Anyway, I changed my MyFitnessPal to have a max of 2100 because I read that was a better number to shoot for. I tried to keep my sodium closer to 1500 as much as possible.
The result? Well, Disneyland resulted in a 6+ pound gain. Now you see why I was frustrated. I was seeing numbers on the scale I swore I wouldn't see again. The effort I put in this week with water intake, lower sodium and exercise paid off with a loss of...
:drum roll:
9.6 POUNDS.
Now. I know the 6 pound gain was bogus and I know I would have actually lost weight Disney week so in 2 weeks, it's essentially 3.6 pounds lost, which I'm totally beyond thrilled about. I just want to keep rolling with this because this means, Internet friends, that I am 11.4 pounds away from GOAL.
Seriously, I could die. 11 pounds. 11. I can so do that.
Channeling BL Hannah there--so be sure to read it with a southern accent.
It's surreal thinking of that number I started with: 74. I decided on it, I cringed that I had so far to go, I posted it for the world to see, and I got to work. Honestly, the first 5-6 months, I didn't fully commit. I didn't exercise. I didn't put the effort in that I was capable of putting in. But I kept with it. That's what matters. Those rocky first few steps led me down the path I'm on now. 63 pounds lost. 6-3. SIXTY-three pounds. Not bad when I started off feeling like there was a good chance I'd give up partway through. That I wouldn't see it through. I related so much to Olivia on Biggest Loser when she said she was a great starter, but she never finished anything. Well she did and I am.
I'm to a point right now that I'm facing fears, shining a light on the things that have held me back. I'm not letting things have power over me and keep me from truly living and robbing me of happiness. It's a continuous process to break out a way of thinking, but I'm doing it.
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