As I got older I became very comfortable in my own skin...excess weight and all. I was self accepting...as it was what it was and I was okay with that. I was neither a binge eater or a emotional eater nor did I eat a excessive amount of food. I just ate very unhealthy. As far as exercising, that was as non-existent as my healthy eating habits were.
In early May I had to renew my drivers license. This time I needed to go down the DMV office and take a new picture. The picture on my current license was around 12 years old. The new CA drivers licenses have very close up pictures compared to the old ones. When the license arrived in the mail, I was mortified at the picture on it. I did not recognize the me I saw...for I saw a woman at least 10 years older than myself.
Fast forward to a couple weeks later. My daughters college graduation. Pictures were taken and once again I saw a woman I did not want to see. I did not look 10 years older in these pictures but I looked much heavier than what I perceived myself to be. I am over weight at 235 lbs....there is no denial there. Once again I saw a woman who looked 30 pounds heavier than what I saw, yet everyone else in the pictures looked exactly how they looked.
The drivers license and graduation pictures brought such a state of frantic uncomfortableness, with my physical appearance; and at the same time it also brought with it such a powerful ah ha moment...drastic lifestyle changes needed to happen immediately. I was at that point, that I was willing to do whatever it took.
I made immediate, powerful life changing choices. Firstly I over hauled my diet. Not a specific diet, but what I choose to nourish my body with. A mainly organic whole foods diet that is void of processed foods, GMO, HFCS, antibiotic and hormone free. I joined a CSA (community supported agriculture). Locally and organically grown produce. I started listening to what my body was telling me. When I am hungry I eat and when I am full I stop eating. Will power is no longer a struggle. I never think about what I can't eat. I am now thinking about the plethora of healthy possibilities.
Next I bought a pair of walking shoes. I was no longer complacent. The first three times I walked every other day...that turned into walking everyday. I wake up at 5 a.m. and I am out the door 15 minutes later. Some days I wake up earlier with out the alarm and I just get going. It has been two weeks since I started walking, over one week of walking every day. Each time I walked, I walked a little bit longer than the day before. I am now walking 5 miles a day in around 1 1/2 hours. A week after I started walking, I added weight training for my arms with 3 lb. weights, every other day.
I am embracing this journey and the plethora of possibilities...of what more can I accomplish. This will be a journal for tracking this process...for I am forever, a work in progress
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