I participated in a Philly scavenger hunt over the weekend as part of a friends Bachelorette party. I haven’t been in a bunch of pictures since starting Weight Watchers in February and seeing even these weird photos (I’m always up for an opportunity to be a ham) made me appreciate my body.
My outside is beginning to match how good I’m feeling on the inside and I’m thrilled to recognize the “2012 me” that I worked hard to get to back then and then somehow let slip away.
NSV – When your pants look longer because there is less of you to cover!
Seriously being tall most of my non “tall” size pants walk the line of being high-waters. Couple that with squeezing in some extra weight and it makes your pants shorter.
Glad to see the bottom of these pants graze the tops of my feet again!
When you put on jeans straight from the dryer and have no muffin top at all!!
Check that resting heart rate. Dropped from 58 a month ago. That’s a NSV right there!!
I couldn’t resist a classic John Mayer reference.
The other day I was trying to take a picture in the bathroom mirror to tastefully illustrate my recent lack of back fat rolls. (Talk about a NSV)!
T saw this and of course was like what are you doing? (No I was not taking nudes for all of the internet…technically haha).
I explained to him that I wanted to document my current reduction of back fat. He looked at me perplexed. He said I never had any back fat.
I just think this is a perfect example of how we are our own worst critics. Noticeable back fat or not, T loves me and thinks I have a great body. Even as I’m losing weight and getting toned, I want to focus less on what “I don’t hate as much about myself” and more on “what I love even more about myself.”
I’m preeeeetty sure I used this title for a post back in 2010 when I first lost weight, but I was walking across campus today with both my hands full and I could feel my pants sagging. If I wasn’t so close to my office I would have stopped, put things down and pulled them up, BUT I was wearing a long coat and I knew they wouldn’t actively drop.
I’m much rather my pants start falling off of me than me wedging myself into them and getting a big red waist band imprint on me.
I’m not hitting on you or anything, but have you lost weight? You look great.
For most of my young adult life I was burdened with two major things – weight and debt. I felt enormous pressure to rid myself both which would ultimately lead to downward spirals which left me worse off than where I started.
In 2010 something change, I changed.
In January 2010 I started to take control of my weight and fitness. The way I started to take control was to PAY ATTENTION TO IT. To look at it head on and make note of it. I needed to know where I was before I could imagine where I wanted to be. Those first 6 of so weeks of paying attention and seeing change, made me realize I needed to face my earnings/spending/bills/debt head on too.
I had school loans, but with really low interest rates (thanks pre-market crash). I had two credit cards – one with a much lower interest rate than the other. Instead of trying to pay the same amount on both each month, I paid the minimum on the lower interest card and paid a combo on what I could I paid off on moth each month (minus the minimum paid) on the higher interest rate card. Seeing one card’s balance decline rapidly helped my morale.
One thing that was glaringly obvious was that I was spending WAY too much money on a car loan. I loved the car but there was NO WAY I could keep it up, especially without spinning into insurmountable debt. Plus I could DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE CAR. I could trade it in for something cheaper which is exactly what I did. Car salesman don’t scare me, I’ve never shied away from a car buying inquiry. So in February 2010 (6 weeks into my weight loss journey) I got serious about trading in my car. I knew what my car was worth and I knew how much I wanted to spent a month. I ended up trading in my 2007 Toyota RAV4 for a 2007 Toyota Camry (it even had 3-4 thousand less miles than my car). I also cut my monthly car payment from ~$480 to ~$280. I’m FINALLY two payments away from owning the car. After it’s paid off in March I plan to put $200 in savings each month after it’s paid off and give myself a little more money in my budget.
$0 credit card debt, $0 car debt (as of mid-March), and just over $5K in school debt. This will be quite the NSV (non-scale victory).
I have never been great at managing my finances, although I’ve gotten much better over the last 3 years or so (coincidently soon after I was successful at shedding 40+ lbs).
However credit card debt, car loans, and school loans all weighed heavily on my shoulders and have in the past made me feel like I’m never going to get out from under it. However I’m pleased to report after looking closely at all my debt yesterday (a usual pre-New Year tradition) this is where I stand:
Consider this a sort of WEIGH IN for me 😛
One of my students who studied abroad in the Spring, came by my office today and it was the first time I saw her since December. The first thing she said was that I looked great and looked like I lost weight. She knows I’m active so she was asking me what I’ve been up to so I told her about my triathlons. Color me flattered.