Week 1

I lost 4 pounds!

While I'm excited by that, I'm really more proud of the little changes I made to get to that 4 pound loss. In the past, whenever I've decided to 'diet' or lose weight or start an exercise regime, it's always felt SO big, like this huge shift in my life has to occur and the feeling is probably similar to what the earth felt as the continents broke up - painful, big, and a bit scary. While I've had success with those shifts in the past, they have never stuck. It takes a lot of energy to break up huge chunks of land, yo!

I went into this challenge with some basic goals, but nothing specific in terms of numbers of pounds or inches I wanted to lose. I still don't have those types of goals, despite some random numbers that have started to float around in my head. I don't know that I want those goals, at least not now. What I want is to continue with the small changes. Taking the stairs more instead of the elevator. Parking farther away from the door at work and at stores. Choosing fruit instead of fries. Choosing apple slices (and being surprised when almost the whole bag is gone) instead of chocolate. When choosing chocolate, choosing 3 Hershey kisses instead of multiple trips to candy jar a day. Choosing to listen to the positive voices in my brain instead of the negative ones. Choosing to thinking happy thoughts when going up the stairs and taking note this morning when my body automatically went to the stairwell rather than pausing for a second in front of the elevator. There's probably a dozen more little things that I have done and want to continue to do, but all of those small things are what I am most proud of this week. The fact that my jeans are quite as snug, well - that's just a bonus.

On to week 2!