Feeling good

I don't know if I mentioned that I cleaned up my diet and started trying to get a little more exercise in a previous post, but I started about 9 months ago.  All I did was change my diet, stopped eating junk food and sugar, and tried to get a little exercise in. 

I decided to do it when I had to get weighed for a physical.  I hadn't had one in a while, nor had I looked at my weight.  Now I knew that I was packing around some extra pounds, I could see it and feel it.  What I didn't know was that I was roughly the size of an NFL linebacker, without the bulging muscles. 

So I started with little things.  Don't eat out, and if you do don't eat fast food.  It wasn't as easy as I'm making it sound.  But I made myself get into a habit, and I started feeling a lot better.

During the whole thing I realized something important about myself.  That I should pay attention to how I feel, and nothing else.  During this whole time I avoided scales.  I relied solely on how I looked in the mirror and how I felt.  It's amazing what your body tells you once you get your diet cleaned up.  So, for 9 months I haven't even thought about a scale.

Until tonight.

The in-laws were weighing bags for a medical mission trip to Haiti.  I decided that now was the time.  I've been feeling pretty well for a while and people have been telling me I look better.  Which is true, I am definitely not as puffy anymore.  So I jumped on the scale.  I was down 23 pounds.

Not that it's that impressive.  People lose hundreds of pounds.  And to be hones I was a little disappointed.  I thought I was down more than that.  Then I remember....I only weigh 7 pounds more now than I did in High School.  Not to bad for 45 years old. 

I never set a weight goal for myself.  I didn't want to fall into the trap of reaching that goal and then falling back into old, bad, habits.  Especially when the first goal I set is what I need to keep.  Just work on being healthy.

So there it is...the secret.  After 45 years I learned to listen to what my body was telling me.  I have to wonder if we'd all be happier if we picked up that little bit of knowledge a lot earlier in life.