A great Facebook page I follow is "The Anti-Jared". The pages creator is named Tony and has lost a ton of weight and is living proof of how you can go from fat to buff if you put in the work. One of the features on his page is NSV (non-scale victories). These are any accomplishment during someone's weight loss/fitness journey that doesn't involve the scale. People will share theirs with Tony, and in return he posts some of them on his page. They range from fitting a old pair of jeans to fitting in a booth at a favorite eatery. Tonight, I have two NSV of my own to share.
First NSV: Today is my second day in a row with no diet sodas. All I have had has been water, green tea or black coffee. Besides the dull headache from not having as much caffeine, I feel great.
Second NSV: This is my big one as it involved my whole family. I had debated all day if I wanted to go to the gym or on a walk tonight. First I said it looked too much like rain, so better not go on a walk. Than I said my knees were sore, so better not go to the gym. Once I got home from work, Chloe was in lazy mode and said she was fine not going to exercise and her brother was content with that too. So Crystal gets home from work and we decide since it was already after 7pm we wouldn't be able to go on a walk or gym due to "Extreme Makeover Weight Loss Edition" was coming on at 8pm. As a family we were choosing to sit on our butts to watch TV instead of exercise like the show we were watching was advocating. We were so quick to slide comfortably into our old habits after just 1 day. BUT...after 20 minutes into the show, I let my recliner down and put on my shoes and said "I am going for a walk and will watch this later online". That was me breaking a chain holding me back. No sooner that I said this, Crystal, Chloe and Austin all grabbed their shoes and said they were going too. Flash forward a little over 30 minutes later and the kids and I had walked (with a lil bit of a jog at times) over 1 1/2 miles and Crystal had did almost 2 1/2 miles. Yay us!
These may seem like trivial things to some, but when you have 150 pounds to lose, like me, every victory counts. I could focus on not being able to do the Couch to 5k routine tonight (I'll hit on that shortly) or not doing a Biggest Loser hardcore workout til I puked. Instead though, I will be proud of getting of us getting off our rear ends, turning off the TV and sweating until we were dripping and smelly. At our weight and fitness level, a little over a mile and a half walk/jog in 30 minutes is a big step. We know that each day we do this, we will go a little further and a little faster. These little victories will lead us to the big victory.
Last thing. I downloaded a Couch to 5K app and attempted it tonight. I did not quit during it, but I was physically not able to do it yet. It started with a 5 minute warm up walk. Then it prompted me to run for for 60 seconds. At the end of that 60 second run I needed an entire lap around the track to get my breathing regulated and was sincerely scared I was having a heart attack. I know this was just my severely out of shape body going into shock and I probably would have been safe to try the run again after a few minutes. But at 390 pounds, with no EMT's around and no personal trainer watching over me, I took the safe route and just brisk walked and light jogged the rest of the session. While I was disappointed for a moment, I had to take a step back and realize that this truly is a marathon to lose my weight and not a sprint. I will pick up the 5K app again when I have some more walks and workouts under my belt. I just need time to get in enough shape to feel safe doing it.
Thanks for checking out my post and reading about my families proud moments. I really feel that all of us working together and helping each other will be the key to our success. If you need some encouragement in your own weight loss journey, or just don't want to have to do it alone, feel free to join our weight loss support group "We're Losing It" on Facebook...we'd love to have you join us. The link and more information on it is in previous posts on our blog here.
Take care friends
Mike
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