My Journey to be Healthy & Happy

Was way different than 2009. In so many good good ways.

Roommate and I had an adventure that was definitely needed, we haven’t hung out in quite sometime.

Day started with sleeping in a little, I didn’t get out of bed till 930a, to the tune of people cheering on the those finishing the Denver Half Marathon. I took a quick shower, grabbed a plum and we were on our way.

We drove out I70 and had lunch in the beautiful little town of Idaho Springs, CO. I had heard some good things about BeauJo’s when I was doing some reading about hiking etc around Mt Evans, so we gave that a go. It was delicious… I may or may not have completely ignored the nutrition/allergen listing that was included in the whole main menu! (seriously, awesome). Instead we picked out a delicious pizza on the build your own menu (we went for mostly “standard” options in order to get the full Mountain BeauJo’s experience, and added pineapple & roasted red peppers for our toppings). But we also opted into the All You Can Eat Salad Bar:

That was served in an ice (literal) bath! Claw foot tubs?? Awesome. So plan of attack. Have a salad. With good veggies, watch the extra fillers (heres looking at you croutons, cheeses, and creamy salad dressings). I used oil & vinegar, I did add some garbanzo beans & sunflower seeds, but in careful quantities.

I had one plate before dinner, catching up with my roommate. Then when the pizza came, before we divulged into the amazing pizza, we got another plate of salad to have along with.

So when the pizza happened, this was all the damage we did:

That’s right, just 1 piece each. And they weren’t even big pieces. But we both walked away completely satisfied and not over the top at all. And we have 2 more slices each to finish for leftovers!

It continued to be a day of indulging. But smart indulging, and not overindulging. I was pretty reflective all day, but honestly a lot of it, I thought about the decisions I made after I made them and how they were smarter and better. This is stuff coming more naturally to me, they are decisions I want to be making on a regular basis and I have no intention of changing.

In short, we continued on our journey and made our next stop (intended for dessert-y sort of things) in Breckenridge. We intended to indulge in our little tradition of Candied Apples from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory that’s been standing since we’ve known each other. We parked and wandered down to where the map said the store was, doing some shopping along the way.

Now here comes the crazy part. We get to Rocky Mtn and I’m looking at the candied apple. Specifically the Cheesecake Apple. My Favorite:

(*not my picture, from Flickr)

But I don’t want it?? I actually want a taste of chocolate and a coffee from the Starbucks spotted across the street. So I asked for (4) muddy bears (chocolate dipped gummy bears and a crispy cluster. Then at Starbucks I got a hot Skinny Caramel Latte.

Back walking and in the car, I indulged in my coffee (130 cals) and began eating my muddy bears one at a time. Roommate had asked for 5 muddy bears so she could have one, but when I got to the bottom of the bag, I realized there was 6th bear in there! Roommate stepped up to the plate to eat it, since I was awesome and counting how many I had already had. I had a total of 2 bites (nibbles?) from my cluster and am excited to have more in the next couple days.

A year ago, this could have been a disastrous day. I would have had 2 slices of pizza without thinking, honestly, probably all three, in addition to the salad bar. And when we stopped at Rocky Mountain, I would have gotten the apple without a second thought, and if I wanted a touch of chocolate, I just would have gotten some measurable (some amount of a pound, instead of just how many I wanted) amount of the bears, or some bark or something else. 

This is my reflective day of very long posts. Thank you for sticking with me.

On a non-WL note, but rather a wintery note, I bought these adorable wrist warmers at a shop in Idaho Springs:

My aunt had given me a pair last year for Christmas and they are fantastic for driving (still have fingers to grip the steering wheel) and for walking around town (can grip items, like phones or coffee) and the hand still stays warm! Oh yeah, and they’re fleece lined.

I did get these, but I did not get a number of other wonderful things. Like beautiful rings, or snowflake earrings, or aromatherapy shower things, or other pretty house things in wonderful shops. I’m being responsible, because I’m going snowboarding this season. Watch me.

Other One Year Posts:

• Biggest WL Lesson Learned (here)
• Photo grid (here)
• Oct 17, 10 Reflection (here)

And what a year it’s been….

October 17th, 2009.

This was just another day at work at the Pepsi Center. There were no events going on and the beginning on the season was still pretty slow. I was the only one in the office.

A link came through my email to remind us to take a quiz on aramark.net promoting healthy lifestyles and is timed around our benefit renewal time. Oh yeah, and if you take it, $5 will be added to you paycheck for fiscal 2010. 

I was bored, so why not? And $5 is $5.

As I took the quiz it was asking questions like “Do you eat balanced and healthy foods” “Are you active” “Do you exercise” and the like.

And the answer choices were:

• All the time
• Most of the time
• Some of the time
• Rarely
• I plan to

My answer to a lot of them were the last one. Yeah, Not all the time, but I should. I plan to. I intend to some day.

And as I sat there and clicked through, I could feel my ass growing on my office chair as I clicked my mouse and answered more questions.

So, seriously, Sarah. You plan to? Really? Why aren’t you?

And something clicked. If you plan to, do it. Start it. And today is a great day to do it.

I already had a personal blog on tumblr so the resource seemed logical. I can track my work outs, write down what I eat, take pictures. It’s commonly recommended that you write down things to be held accountable. And I’m definitely one of those people. So I started 250andCounting.tumblr.com

I honestly didn’t know how much I weighed. 250 sounded right, that’s what I put on my drivers license. But I don’t know the last time I weighed myself. I was being a little optimistic, but I didn’t know. A part of me knew I was going to get on the scale and it would read much closer to 275. But I was counting down, and without a scale, I needed a number to start. So I picked.

Then I found some clothes I could work out in, put on my old old sneakers and took the elevator down to the 6th floor where our little “gym” is located and used the elliptical for 30 minutes. It wasn’t a crazy hard intensity, but I breathed hard and my heart rate was high.

I wasn’t even a little in shape, but I started…

October 21st 2009.

First weigh-in!

I honestly have no idea how much I weighed before this, or when the last time I weighed myself was.

Did you know that I once got in a crazy fight with my mom because she wanted me to go to the doctor and get my cholesterol checked and I threw such a fit to not go. Why was I acting so mature? Because I didn’t want to go to the doctor’s office and stand on the scale. 

Seriously? I knew I was in bad shape, but I didn’t want a number to it. I knew my cholesterol had to be bad, but I didn’t want to know how bad. Without these numbers, I could continue to live in denial that I wasn’t that bad, just a little unhealthy, and it would all be fine. 

I remember thinking all of this, but who the hell knows really what was going through my mind. I can’t fathom having these thoughts anymore, to be in such a state of denial, to revert to such a childlike state, just so I wouldn’t have to go weigh-in? Goodness, Sarah.

So this was the day this all changed.

Weight Watchers

I had spent the past few days looking into Weight Watchers again. I was on the program once in 2003/2004-ish. The problem with it then was that I was in High School, I lived at home, I didn’t cook for myself, and I definitely wasn’t in control of my environment. (and I admire all of you who are in these situations and are successful!) At the meetings we talked about cooking, and all this stuff that I felt so disconnected from. It felt worthless to go without my mom because she was the one cooking, grocery shopping, etc. And I was brat about it. No other way around it.

Now things were different. I live on my own (with a roommate) and I can control my environment. I cook my own meal. I buy my own groceries. I can dictate what (mostly) is in my kitchen. And I’m more mature. One of my problems before is that I was successful for a few months. I lost somewhere in the ballpark of 17 pounds, but then one week I wasn’t successful. I gained. And I got frustrated and I wasn’t as careful and I gained the next week. And I was already clinically depressed in a way only teenagers can be, and this just latched onto my problems and I couldn’t do it anymore. In my mind, I could not be successful. I could not lose weight. I was fat, I would always be fat, and there was nothing I could do about it.

This is what is so magical about the fact that I’m writing all of this a year and almost 80 pounds later. There are weeks when I’m not so successful. But that doesn’t negate anything else that I’ve done to be successful. I can do this, I will do this. I’m a better person this time around. It’s time to respect me and treat me right.

I’m glad I’m on this program. Starting off, I think straight up counting calories would have been too much. I started Weight Watchers online and it was a great resource. Finding good foods, calculating out nutrition values, it’s great. In January I made the switch to meetings. Online was good, but I wanted the support and honestly thinking about what I hated about meetings when I was a teen, all seemed like such good things now. People talking about new food finds, what works, what doesn’t, people there to celebrate with you, etc. So first week of January, about 10lbs into my journey, I joined Weight Watchers meetings.

As I’ve become more successful and these habits have become more second nature, the strictness of counting points or calories has kind of gone by the wayside. I was never great at it, but I tried a lot harder then than I do now. I use my knowledge and resources for generalities, and still always check labels. I still look up nutritional information online for things I don’t know, but I don’t always (or often) actually record or add up my daily intake. 

So even though it seems like I don’t really follow the WW program (disregarding Point goals seems pretty crucial) I can’t bring myself to quit or stop paying or anything. Because I still really like the meetings. A lot has to do with my leader, I’m sure. When my Monday noon meeting stopped fitting flawlessly into my schedule, I was a no show at meetings for a number of weeks. Later this summer I decided enough was enough and looked up other meetings that might fit into my schedule. Lo & behold, Linda had another meeting Wednesday mornings, 9am. So for a few weeks I went to that one. But it still wasn’t the same feel as the Monday noon group. That whole group has a dynamic of awesomeness and support (very similar to what we know in Tumblr) that is hard to replace. And honestly, that’s why I continue to pay for my monthly pass and am a Weight Watchers member.

Tumblr

Here we are. Who knew the Internet would be so helpful? I started as 250andCounting, moved into ItsMoreThanJustANumber, and have settled at LessThan260.

I started this completely for me. I didn’t know a “Fitblr” or Health & Fitness community even existed here when I started my blog. I wanted to track things for me, have a place for pictures, and an alternate way to track progresses through food pictures, weights (which I kept as private posts for a very long time), and mind sets. And it’s proved very helpful to me.

The first blog was a secondary blog behind my personal one, so I rarely actually clicked over onto the page. I think GlamourandGrace (then ChannellingCarrie) was actually one of my first followers when she was at the beginning of her journey and when I clicked over to her page I couldn’t figure out what interest she had in my little blog about me. It wasn’t until February that I realised that I had some 40-odd followers that came out of the woodwork over the past who knows how long.

Over the past year, this has grown. And people even followed me when I decided that this H+F thing needed its own identity and to be completely separate from my personal blog. So I changed the name and url completely and kindly asked for support here. 

I’m by no means prominent in Tumblr and am rarely found on anyone’s “favorite blogs” list, but somehow I still get flooded with support and appreciation when I post about NSV and progress photos. And every time it’s a new burst of encouragement knowing that not only I can do this, I am doing it

In short (of this long long rambly entry), this has been quite a year. And this is possible and you can do it. It’s all in your head. When it’s time for you to be successful, when your whole head and heart are in it for real, it’ll happen. And it’ll be awesome.

I still can’t believe that I was the girl that is in those photos for the past 5 years. And I really can’t believe that I’m the girl in everyone of those pictures on that grid and there are pictures and times in the mirror where I truly don’t recognize myself anymore. 

But here’s to the past that got me to where I am, and gave me the courage and conviction to make such a drastic change in my life on which I can build a fantastic future…

Did you know it’s okay not to eat everything on your plate?
Even if you bought it, it’s okay to throw away food?
That it’s a *good* thing to share what you’re eating with friends?

Seriously, some people have known this forever. But it’s such a wild concept. In the past, friends had offered me halves of a sandwich, or other foods when we’re eating together.

“Here, this is really good, want some?”

Um, if it’s really good, don’t you want it all to yourself? I sure do. I didn’t generally accept, but I certainly didn’t offer the same back. If my sandwich is really good, I’m not offering you half, I’m going to eat it all. 

Guess what, they had the right idea all along. This is something I do a lot now. Especially at work, if some of us order things, there may be someone who didn’t, and you better believe I’m offering up what I got to someone else. 

It’s built in portion control, it’s just being smart. Just because I bought a $7 salad, sandwich, or something else for lunch, it doesn’t mean I have to eat it all. I want to eat “my” $7 worth. What’s worth it to me. And the whole thing, probably isn’t worth the calories. (um, sometimes it is. and making better decisions overall means most of the time this isn’t an extravagant amt of calories to begin with)

Basically portion control is such a big starting point. And you can’t always get the portion you want. So make it, if you don’t have the will power, control your environment.

That’s the #2 Biggest Lesson I’ve Learned: I. Am. In. Control. And that means I can control my environment, even when it isn’t the easiest thing to do.