Race? What Race?

OK, I originally thought I'd be at goal by December 12th weigh-in. In the summer that seemed to be my target spot. Sweet! Maintain over Christmas and stop paying mid-January. I had it all worked out.

Some things happened along the way.

I could wine about plateaus, my lack of focus during certain time periods, inability to embrase exercise through the summer and fall. Instead we'll chalk it up to learning a new lifestyle. To making changes at a pace I can live with. I never took my eye off the prize - and don't intend to even yet, but I learned something about myself at every stage. Every month I got closer and closer to who I wanted to be. In early October I was 160.4lbs and before Christmas I was still 158. So, in almost 3 months I had only moved 2.4lbs. So much more happened during that time.

I developed a holiday eating plan, I learned that not journaling contributes to BLTs (for me), I learned to change my definition of exercise.

Pre-October defintion: Exer-Cise. Two 4-letter words that should never be said together. Can be replaced by Activity which includes leisurely walks or fun things that require mild exertion.

New definition: X-or-Size. "X" as in X-tra large fries and X-tra large T-shirt "or" "Size" as in the size you want/deserve to be. This involves embrassing the benefits of sore muscles and a bit of sweat. It also involves abdominal moves to get rid of a bulge (described earlier this week)

All of this actually reaped some benefit on the digital devil in the past few weeks and I finally broke the plateau. It wasn't the first plateau I experienced, just the longest. I'm hopeful that, with my new-found knowledge and exercise regime I won't experience another plateau at least until I reach goal, because I'm starting to get tired of paying for meetings...

So, the bottom line. We're not in a race. I'm not going to win any prize for getting to the finish line first. Enjoy the journey - there's more to it than lower numbers on the scale. There's great recipes, great company, and a lot of stuff to learn. And where is the finish line? I am having the distinct impression there isn't one. So, unlike exercise, you oughta take some time and enjoy the journey, with a mild exertion that can be maintained for the long haul.