It’s been a while since I’ve put finger to keyboard (or rather finger to iPhone as that’s how I’m writing this post), but I’ve been reflecting on 2014 quite a bit the past few weeks and had some thoughts I felt like sharing….even if only for me to look back on in years to come.

2014 was an interesting year for me. I had some personal and professional highs and lows which got me thinking about balance, and how often we as human beings spend time trying to find the perfect balance of the pieces that make up our life.

Some highs of the year for me we’re finally hitting a goal weight after years of going up and down. I also made the difficult decision to leave a company I had been at for the majority of my professional life and start a new job at a company I knew very little about. For me this has been the one accomplishment I am most proud of, specifically because it was a big leap of faith. A calculated risk, but a risk nonetheless. As someone who tends to be risk averse, this was huge for me. I recently read an article about traits of successful people and it mentioned taking big risks. I’ve been afraid so much of my life to take risks. I have a lot to fear I hold on to and one of my goals (or resolution if you prefer) in 2015 is to take more risks.

Which leads me to another thing I’ve thought about this year: holding on. Outside of my professional accomplishment I’ve held on to things in 2014 that I should’ve let go of at some point or another. Again it ties back to fear…fear of rejection, fear of the unknown, fear of being hurt. But what I’ve realized is that holding on to things is often a double-edged sword. It doesn’t stop these fears from manifesting. In fact it makes it worse. The counterbalance of holding on is to let go. And so a big theme for 2015 is to let go of things that are not worthy of being part of my life.

Overall I’ve felt that 2014 was a pretty awful year (which is completely subjective, I understand lest you think I’m being overly dramatic)
. While I’ve had some huge positives, the negatives have weighted me down, not letting me enjoy the positives as much as I should. I’ve been off balance. But as I reflect now, and no doubt will reflect in the future, as painful as 2014 has been for me, it has taught me a lot about myself and these are lessons that I will take with me for the rest of my life.

So here’s to 2015. To finding balance, to taking risks, and to letting go.

Hey kids.

I’m just coming back from almost two weeks of travel. One week was vacation and then I was traveling for work. While I did manage to work out several days, there was a lot of eating rich food and drinking. I’m feeling bloated and not sleeping well so I figured it would be a good time to do a detox. I’m dragging my friend Carol along for the ride. For the next week we’re going to be eating whole healthy foods focusing on veggies, lean protein and fruit. Low carb and low dairy. For sanity’s sake, I’m throwing in one cheat meal and the goal is to do some sort of activity every day (whether it’s a 30 minute walk or a 60 minute cardio kickboxing class). I may extend this for another week depending on how I feel, but I’m going to try and check in every day.

I imagine the first day (ie today) is going to be the most difficult. Even yesterday coming back to work, I was sitting in meetings all day with meals provided to us and snacks. It was so easy to just grab what was available. NO MORE! I can’t demolish all the hard work I did over the past several months so I’m forcing myself into another challenge.

Heading off to the gym to meet Carol for a run before going into our Total Body Challenge class. Wish me luck! 🙂

Hello there.

It’s been a couple weeks since I last checked in. Many reasons but they’re excuses so I won’t bore you with them.

But I wanted to come and share something that happened today.

I finally hit my goal weight.

I actually hit slightly below it and saw a number I’ve never seen before in my adult life. Perhaps not since I was a young teenager.

I wasn’t expecting it when I got on the scale this morning which makes it all the more surprisingly wonderful. And I had this moment of panic….what do I do now?

It’s been a long journey….not just the past 3.5 months to get here, but 10 years and 2 months since I started this weight loss journey. And to be honest, I could go back further if I consider this has been a lifelong struggle. I’ve been trying to lose weight since I was in elementary school. It’s been a lot of fad diets, losing weight, gaining weight, repeat. In 2003 I finally made the decision to join Weight Watchers and it changed my life by teaching me some key things: 1) This isn’t a diet, it’s a lifestyle change and 2) You don’t have to give up all the things you love in order to lose weight, it’s about balancing them out and making smart choices.

I lost a lot of weight in the first 6 months of Weight Watchers, but I never quite reached my goal. Over the 10 years I slowly started adding weight back on. So just before reaching that 10 year mark of starting Weight Watchers, I realized I needed to take back control. I used challenges to lose over 20 lbs and now I’m at my goal.

It is a rewarding feeling…being where I am today. Despite being determined, I honestly wasn’t 100% sure I would make it. And now I’m at a loss….what do I strive for now? I suppose it was bad planning on my part to not think about what happens after you reach your goal. But I’m ready now and I have all sorts of ideas buzzing in my head. I’ll try to keep you posted from time to time, and feel free to bug me if you’ve not heard from me in a while.

Until then, thank you for those who have followed along, who have encouraged me but most of all, believed in me. You share in my success as it really was the village of friends and family that helped keep me going when I needed it the most.

So yeah, posting daily has been a challenge this month. Not going to lie. And I’ve been traveling this whole week which means I haven’t been tracking.

The good news is that even though I splurged Friday and Saturday, I felt more on track since then. I’ve been pretty impressed I’ve been able to curb all snacking at my work meeting (where there is food around all day) and just stick to meals and staying fairly healthy. I’ve also been able to work out pretty regularly. Saturday I did a 6 mile run. Monday I did a 30 minute run (about 3.2 miles). Tuesday was a crazy day because I was in meetings all day so I didn’t get a chance to work out, but I took advantage of some free time on Wednesday and worked out for 2 hours. I did a 30 minute run, walked for 10 and then did 35 minutes body conditioning. After that I did a 45 minute yoga class.

I’ve not been on the scale all week so it will be interesting to head back home tomorrow and see the damage. No clue what to expect. But suffice it to say, I will finish the challenge off strong and track every day I’m back home.

Thursday (day 18) was solid. Despite being exhausted, got up at 4am so I could get to the gym early to run 3 miles. Friday (day 19) was a bit of a bust. I spent most of my day sitting on a plane and when I got to NYC, splurged on a couple drinks and french fries. I definitely felt the alcohol…especially this morning! It seemed odd to me because it was only 2 drinks but my friend Jack reminded me that I was likely dehydrated, especially from being on a plane all day (although I did drink at least 4 waters and a couple sodas and coffee). Today was a bit better….did a nice 6 mile run which made me feel less sloth-like since I missed working out yesterday.

Have to be quick because I’m swamped today but yesterday was another solid day. Ate well, tracked all my food, worked out a lot. Gearing up for my trip back east where eating and working out will be a challenge. I’ll be on the road for a week starting tomorrow (Friday). Going to do my best but I know it’s going to be tough. Wish me luck!

Date: January 22nd, 2014

Days Complete: 17

Tracked: Yes

Worked Out: 15 minutes of running and 45 minutes of a total body fitness class/leisurely hour walk in the evening

Feeling: LIKE A ROCK! 

Just realized my days are off because I skipped a number and went from day 4 to day 6. D’oh. So yeah, this is the blog post for day 16 (yesterday).

BACK WITH A VENGEANCE! LoL After a long weekend of not tracking I was back tracking yesterday. It’s definitely easier to track on work days when I have more of a set schedule around meals. It’s also easier when I’m not eating out but that’s not brain surgery to understand. I ate well, I tracked everything and I did a killer run where I progressively sped up from a 9:51 mile pace to a 8:17 mile pace. And somehow I lost 5 lbs from morning to evening. (WTF!!) I got on the scale yesterday morning and was a bit shocked by the number as it was much higher than it had been after my 12 mile run on Saturday. I expected it to be higher, of course you lose weight when you exercise, a lot of it is just through sweating but it’s temporary. But I wasn’t expecting such a huge jump in number. Who knew that a day of eating healthy and a good run could burn 5 lbs but I’m not complaining as it put me back at the number I expected to see.  Here’s hoping today is another stellar day.

Date: January 21st, 2014

Days Complete: 16

Tracked: Yes

Worked Out: 45 minutes on the treadmill

Feeling: LIKE A ROCK! 

Alright, I know. I’m super fired. I feel pretty bad that I’ve not blogged since Friday. I’ve mentioned earlier that this month has been challenging because I’ve been distracted. It’s not an excuse it just is what it is. The good thing is that I’ve still managed to lose weight every week. This past weekend I didn’t really track, I went out to some splurge-y meals. But I also worked out a TON. Friday I did cross fit, Saturday I ran 12 miles (and then walked at least another 3 miles), Sunday I walked around SF for about 4 hours and Monday I rode about 23 miles (from SF to Mill Valley and back).

This week (starting today) has been good so far….should be easy to track and stick to my plan until Friday when I fly to NYC. Goal is to be as good as possible but also recognize that I need to allow myself some leeway because I’ll be on the road for a week. Staying strong and determined that I can make it happen. Appreciate all words of strength that you can share with me.

Another solid day on the books. Tracked all my food, got an amazing work out in. I ran for 30 minutes and then went to my a cardio combat class. Sort of like kickboxing….crazy fun and burns an insane amount of calories….even more than running! I normally go to this class on Saturday’s but since I’m doing my long run (12 miles…YIKES!) on Saturday, I opted to go to the Thursday night class. I’ve also made a cardio combat convert out of my friend, Carol (wow, that is a lot of C’s….I’m so alliterative). 😛

Date: January 16th, 2014

Days Complete: 12

Tracked: Yes

Worked Out: 30 minutes on the treadmill, 60 minute cardio combat class! RAWR!

Feeling: LIKE A ROCK! 😛

Today was a good day. Honestly, the best day of this particular challenge. My eating was good, I tracked everything I ate and I had a really good work out. It felt good to be “on track”. My biggest fear is slipping back into bad habits. As long as I have been doing this, I also know how easy it is to fall back into snacking more often, splurging too often. Finding balance is the most difficult thing so I’m trying to stay diligent.

Date: January 15th, 2014

Days Complete: 11

Tracked: Yes

Worked Out: 45 minutes on the treadmill

Feeling: Good. Best day yet!