By Lisa Spodak ResultsNotTypical@worldnow.com
Provided by WorldNow
Week 71 Weight In: Change this week: -2 lbs
Change overall: -95 lbs
This was a good week, even though it started with one of the biggest binges I've had in a very long time. I don't even really remember what set me off. But I do remember a few important things:
It lasted one day. The next day, I was back on track.
This has been one of the biggest lessons for me to learn in the last 16 months. And I know I keep talking about it, but I think it bears repeating.
I've finally come to accept the fact that I will make mistakes and I will fall off the wagon and I will make choices I'll regret later. And that's okay. I'm making changes that I want to stick to for the rest of my life - and that means they have to be changes I can live with.
In the past, a day-long binge would have depressed me and convinced me I was a failure. I would have woken up the next day and figured "What the heck? I already screwed up!" and kept eating. I would have seen the scale creep back up and gotten even more down on myself and, before I knew it, all my hard work would be undone.
This time, I wallowed for a few hours and got over it. Had a great week and lost two pounds!
Nobody can always be perfect. And I finally understand that it's not the moment of imperfection that's important, but what I do after.
I used to eat like that all the time.
Compared to how I'm eating now, my slip this week was definitely a binge. But compared to how I used to eat, it would have been just another day.
Lunch was a couple of slices of pizza, salad, a cookie. Dinner was a chicken sandwich and cheese fries. After the gym, I stopped at a bodega for some cookies and Butterscotch Krimpets. Back home I munched on almonds, ice cream and cheese.
Any one of those "meals" could actually be an acceptable treat and something I could work into my plan. All together in one day? Way too much. But I was excited to realize that my habits have changed so drastically that the binge felt a lot worse than it really was. Even in my splurging, I was hanging on to some of my better habits.
At the end of the day, I felt really, really sick.
I don't mean emotionally sick or disappointed in myself or angry that I'd had a binge. I mean physically sick to my stomach.
And in a way, that was the best feeling of all: A real physical manifestation (beyond the weight loss) of all the changes I've made since last February.
It reminded me that I have come a long way and made huge changes in my eating habits and my body is healthier and happier this way. And, honestly, I never want to get back to the point where I can eat and eat and not feel the repercussions.
Week 71: 95 pounds down!
