lessinayear

I’ve been a little quiet the past couple of days. No blogs, because I’ve been trying to get my work done for the conclusion of my summer class. THANK GOODNESS it’s over this coming Thursday, July 2. But, less cool is the fact that basically my entire grade in the course comes down to that day — I have to give my in-class presentation that day, as well as turn in a short and a long paper, all at once! So yes, I’ve been stressing. This weekend has been full of homework, and freaking out about homework, and more homework…

Anyway, I got up early this morning to get back to work on my long paper (the biggest source of stress) and decided a Sunday that begins at 6:30 a.m. can’t get much worse…might as well go ahead and weigh-in. I was nervous about this week. I’ve had a couple of maintain weeks in a row that have disappointed, and I didn’t get to the gym toward the end of the week like I’d hoped (partially school and partially an unexpected visit from an out-of-town friend Friday that changed my plans). I also had wine with said friend, so I figured those calories might have messed things up…

But I sucked it up, got on the scale, and… 200! I’m down 2 pounds! (OK, just between us, it was ACTUALLY 199.5, and a big part of me wants to just go with 199, but I’ve been rounding up, so I’m going to keep with that… Just SO CLOSE to the success of Onederland!)

So I was reflecting on how that was the case, and I have a few thoughts. First, one of my personal struggles with weight loss is portion control. If you put it in front of me, I’m GOING to eat it, whether I’m hungry or not, whether I want it or not… I’ve REALLY been working on that. For me, I think that’s almost a bigger deal than exercise — recognizing that if I’m not exercising as much, I don’t need to eat as much… And I DID think about that a lot this past week. I knew, for example, that I wasn’t going to be able to make the gym Wednesday because of some meetings and deadlines at work, so I adjusted my food intake accordingly. Even Friday, when my plans to go to the gym turned into a lunch with wine with a friend, since I knew I was drinking some calories, and not exercising, I adjusted what I ordered for my meal, how much of it I ate, and also what I had for dinner that night…

And holy crap! It worked!

I know this isn’t rocket science, but it’s a pretty powerful reflection for me this morning. I feel really re-motivated by seeing that scale movement, and I’m SO happy that I just have to make it through Thursday’s final summer class and then I can throw myself more wholeheartedly into my exercise without the distraction of grad school for more than a month. Anyway, hope everyone has an equally eye-opening, inspiring Sunday!