A year later...

It's been awhile since I've updated about my fitness journey.  Mostly because progress has slowed and focus has shifted.  But it's been about a year since I began, so I figured I would do an official update.  I consider my starting date July 11, 2013.  It's been a long year!  My six month update is here and contains the basics of my approach.  Since then, I haven't been as strict on my diet as I would have liked to be. I continued to work out pretty consistently (aside from the last three weeks of insanity), but not always the 5-6 times per week I had been managing. For me, to begin this journey it had to be a main focus in my life.  I spent quite a bit of free time thinking about it, preplanning, tracking, etc.  But an average jane like me can only maintain that kind of focus for so long before other things get in the way.  That's what the last six months has been.

I had hoped to be at my goal weight (preliminary goal) by the one year mark.  That did not happen, but I'm a peace with it.  Between THIS, THIS, THIS, THIS, THIS, and THIS, I think I've done well to not only maintain my hard-fought weight loss, but to continue to move the scale downward, even if the progress has been slow the second half of the year.  At my six month update, I had lost 36 lbs.  As of my last weight in, I've lost 45.2 lbs.  I am pleased with that.  45 lbs in a year is not amazing, but it's good and it's far better than any weight loss I've ever managed in the past.  I definitely have new habits that I'm able to stick to.  I would like to lose an additional 22-28 lbs to reach my initial goal.  I think I will do it, but it is just going to take longer than I had hoped. And you know what?  If it's weight loss I can maintain, I'm okay with it taking however long it takes.  They just announced another weight loss challenge here at work, so maybe that will be motivation to kick it into high gear again.

The past three weeks have been the most physically taxing and challenging of the year.  Between the entire family being sick on and off (my throat is still annoyingly scratchy, despite finishing my 10 day course of antibiotics), twin's hospital stay and surgery, and my 10+ day headache that I still can't quite convince myself is gone, I haven't worked out.  At all.  I haven't laid off the workouts like that in a whole year (a few days, maybe a week when my back was messed up or I was sick).  But I'm not letting that make me think I won't start up again.  Especially with what I know now about my body and it's apparent auto-immune problems, I realize I need to be careful about pushing myself too fast.  Normal stressful life really wore me down in June and I had to recognize that and really take a break.  I'm still not 100% sure and I'm not decided on WHEN the strenuous workouts will recommence.  I'm going to listen to my body and wait and see.  The ironic thing is, I lost 5 lbs of that up and down weight I've been struggling with to hit and all time low since this break began and my eating certainly hasn't been on point (in a hurry/feeling sick means eating whatever sounds good or is handy).

I didn't reach my goal weight in a year, but I am thrilled with my progress.  I had no way of knowing if I would really do it this time, really make progress.  And I did.  I look better and I feel better about myself.  Physically, I feel better than I did, even with the complications I've had health-wise. I know this was the right decision and I'm so glad I did it.

I've had great support here, and thank you all so much for that!  It means so much!