Day19 - Enjoying the little changes

I want to lose 65 lbs, be faster, stronger, fit in stylish clothes and do athletic activities well again.

But that is a long way off.

The trouble with getting healthy the right way is it takes time. We are bad at patient. We have fast food, drive-thrus, minute rice, and are always looking to be quicker

We want results now. We used to wait a day for someone to call us back, a week for a letter. Now if we call someone and they don't instantly answer we're annoyed. E-mail? Even that's too slow, so we invented instant messaging.

But a healthy change takes time.

Note I didn't say weight loss.   You can do weight loss fast. Many have. And many (though not all) are right back where they started or worse.

My example? I have lost 65lbs, twice, on a well known and well advertised weight loss plan. Both times the program worked as advertised. But it is not a sustainable lifestyle, at least not for me, not for most. I gained all that weight back, plus some extra.

The goal here is to do it right, normal eating, add exercise, avoid the pitfalls of too many treats or "cheat" days.

But how do you stay motivated? When I was on that weight loss program, it was very  motivating to see 5lbs a week coming off. (and very depressing to watch 30lbs go on in one month at one point)

My weight loss to date is much slower than that, so I can't look to the scale for the drive. So where is it?

It's in the small things. Here's 2 from the past couple of days.

1.     Went to the Mandarin last night for Dinner. Normally that would be 3 plates of food, plus desert, at a minimum. But I'm just not that hungry anymore. Over 110 days since I dramatically overate, my body understands full again. So after plate one, I just couldn't go again to the buffet. I didn't want to, it would have felt gross to do so. That is a huge improvement. That is motivating.

2.     We do Karate as a family. All four of us have a great time at our dojo. We had taken the summer off, and returned this week. I was shocked at how good I felt on the dojo floor. From leading the warm up, right through the katas, I felt amazing. More energy, more flexibility, less tired.

Two small Non-Scale Victories (NSVs). Two things I felt good about, that will help keep me going.

We can't always get the big change we want right away. Most journeys are ones of hundreds, thousands of small steps.

Don't sabotage your goals by looking for the quick fix. There are no shortcuts.

Find your joys in the journey, and the journey will seem short on its own