Success Story (futuristic)
Okay, now that I’ve gotten my fitness history documented, I’m going to give my futuristic success story a go. Its going to be pretty simple because I’m not going to put the little synopsis of my health struggles in the beginning like most success stories have.
“It is now January 2009. Over the course of the last 7 months, I have lost 80 pounds and even more inches by making some simple, but important, changes to my life. Having decided that counting calories, points, or macronutrients was just not something I was ever going to be willing to do, I decided to go a more laid-back, long-term route. So I incorporated three different lifestyle changes that made sense to me and that I thought I could live with in the long run.
First, I worked on re-establishing my work out habit. To do this, I committed with myself to go to the gym three times a week. I tried out a few different workout routines, and settled on doing T-Tapp using a little portable DVD player, plugging it into an outlet in whatever empty workout room was available. Doing this at the gym instead of at home gave me the advantage of not having any distractions (kids, husband, dogs) and also having mirrors to monitor my form (since T-Tapp is all about proper form). I could do other workouts, like treadmill or weights, if I got bored or wanted to mix it up. Which I did a few times during the last 7 months. I still go (and will continue to) to the gym three times a week. A key point to this was not beating myself up if life got in the way and I missed a day. On my off-gym days, I walked my dogs, took runs by myself, and occassionally did a workout video at home, like one of my dance videos. Again, not beating myself up if I didn’t get anything physical done. The goal was 5 days a week to get some form of physical activity for at least 30 minutes, and I did pretty well. Not letting guilt override my efforts and minimize what I’d accomplished was key for me, since depression has been something I’ve struggled with overcoming.
Second, as soon as I stopped nursinng my son in June, I started intermittent fasting twice a week. Usually, I would fast from Tuesday night after dinner to Wednesday night, and again on Saturday night after dinner to Sunday night dinner. This was an easy, unstressful way to create a weekly caloric deficit without counting calories, points or someting like that. Since I’ve fasted monthly for religious reasons for most of my life, I was familiar with going from dinner on Saturday to dinner on Sunday. But it had never occurred to me to use this method for controlling my weight. I did a lot of research on this to make sure it wouldn’t endanger my health or send my metabolism running for the fat-wand. It worked marvelously – on fasting days I didn’t have to think about food at all. I was energized and had to make sure I had a lot to do on those days since I had so much energy and the extra time of not having to worry about food (except for the food I fed my kids). When I wasn’t fasting, I ate normally, trying to make good decisions about eating healthily. If life got in the way of those days being my fasting days, I would switch them to a different day. No biggie.
Third, I established 2 days a week when I wasn’t fasting to eat only all-natural foods. Usually, I chose Mondays and Thursdays for this, to make sure to fill my body back up with the nutrition it needed on the days after I fasted and to make sure that I didn’t over-do it as I came off the fast. I allowed some dairy products on all-natural days, but mostly it was natural protein sources such as lean meats and eggs, and fruits and vegetables. This left 3 days a week when I was eating as wisely as I could without obsessing about it, allowing snacks and treats in moderation.
These three changes made a huge difference and allowed me to lose weight in a method that I could both live with and enjoy. I definitely wasn’t perfect at it, but I tried to keep in mind that it was a progression, not a race. I made plenty of mistakes, but I just got back on the plan afterwards instead of letting it derail me for weeks, months, or years like I had in the past.”
Okay, this is kind of lame. Its not very inspirational – reads like a plan more than a success story. But since I’ve never had a success story to write, I don’t have a lot of practice. So I’m going to go forward with this one and revise it if I have to after a few months. In this success story, I’ve basically set a huge goal for the next 7 months. I’m going to try not to think about that and just take it one day at a time while doing what I’ve said I did. 
Okay, it is Memorial Day and I gotta exercise before we go to my parents’ for BBQ this afternoon. Since K could get up at any time and decide to go buy a car, I decided to work out at home today and do Instructional #1 and #2 to refresh myself on form tips for the T-Tapp Total Workout (TWO) at the gym on Wednesday.
