Finally Getting Fit

On May 14th 2007, I wasn’t long married and I decided it was time to get my health straight. I started at 256 pounds and set out to lose 100 pounds. I wanted to be healthy and happy. And, as the year wore on, it became important to me to be healthy so I could have healthy babies.

My starting statistics looked like this:

Starting Stats: Started: May 14th ‘07

Weight: 256 lbs ~ 116.1 kilos
Waist: 45 inches ~ 114.3 centimeters
Hips: 51 inches ~ 129.5 centimeters
Upper Left Arm: 14.5 inches
Upper Right Arm: 15.5 inches
Left Thigh: 27 inches
Right Thigh: 27 inches

BMI: 41.4

GOAL: 156 lbs ~ 70.76 kilos

I felt ashamed of my body and ate whatever I liked. I knew little about PCOS, insulin resistance and didn’t pay much attention to what dietary changes I should make because I deal with those things.

Now a year has gone by and I look at how far I have come.

Stats: May 14th, 2008

Weight: 248 pounds
Waist: 44 inches
Hips: 50 inches
Upper Left Arm: 13.5 inches
Upper Right Arm: 14.5 inches
Left Thigh: 26.5 inches
Right Thigh: 26.5 inches

BMI: 40

I’m not that much changed in terms of weight or inches, but I am completely changed in mentality. I am no longer ashamed of my body. It’s my body. I like it, but I know it can be better.

Food is no longer my enemy. I have adjusted my diet to one that is better for someone with blood sugar problems. I don’t eat as much and neither do I feel the need to eat more. I eat things that satisfy my hunger longer and have even discovered foods I love that are also good for me.

The numbers simply cannot show how much I have changed in just one year.

I was a bit nervous about making this post because, like a lot of people, I’m afraid (on a subconscious level) of ‘cursing’ my weight loss by posting about successes. It may seem silly, but it’s the absolute truth.

However, there comes a time when you have an undeniable non-scale victory… This week, I am happy to share mine with you.

I have fat pants!

For probably the first time ever, I have a pair of pants that I need to put away because they are practically falling off. I might not put them away just yet because I have a belt, but the fact remains that I am in danger of everyone getting to know my knickers in a public place if I don’t wear a belt with these pants.

I am so happy!

I have had pants get a bit loose during weight loss before, but I have never gotten to a point where my pants were so obviously loose and falling off on me. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten my measurements down so much in my life. It’s a fantastic feeling. It makes me want to go through all of my pants and start putting away the things that are too big for me.

Not only that, I noticed this morning that I had to pull up my gym pants a couple of times because they were a bit loose on me as well.

As they say, when your pounds aren’t dropping, check your measurements! It just might be that you’re losing inches instead of pounds right now.

After a weekend of rest (due to illness and stress), I headed back to the gym this week feeling a bit unsure as to how my body would take to getting back into exercise after the break. I did light exercises yesterday and decided to test myself today on the tread climber. (If you don’t know what that is, it’s the love child of a treadmill and a stair climber.)

The results I had are something I’m proud enough to consider a non-scale victories – the victories we should all talk about more often.

Usually when I get on the tread climber, it’s a workout that tires me out more than every other cardio machine except the no-impact runner (why can’t I think of the name of it?). Usually I stop once every ten minutes to catch my breath, and I’m always practically glistening with sweat.

I worked at it for a while and got to the point where I would only have to take a breath every fifteen minutes, but that was really pushing it.

Today I got on the tread climber hoping that I wouldn’t be too bad of a time after the break.
It turns out I got on the tread climber and didn’t have to get off until I was done (thirty minutes). I was sweating, but it certainly wasn’t torture or forcing myself too hard.

Yay for non-scale victories!

What kinds of non-scale victories have you had? Is there a pair of pants you can now fit into? A battle with a craving that you have overcome?

Please share your experiences in the comments section.

This is a success story from earlier this month, but I don’t think a few weeks of dust on the story will make it lose anything.

Many people who go on the journey to lose weight blog about their stories not only to have somewhere to talk about things but also to find people who are going through the same experiences. Support has always been an important part of weight loss and blogging has made it easier than ever to get in touch with other weight loss bloggers.

In addition to featuring people who are on their weight loss journeys, I would also like to feature success stories I come across.

Yes, I know; success stories sometimes only serve to make you feel grumpy about what is going on in your life. However, they can also serve as a big motivation. Other people are doing it and so can you.

Thus it is my pleasure to feature the first success story here at Finally Getting Fit.

From the headlines of CNN.com comes a story of a woman who was nearing the 300 pound mark in 2004 and stepped back from that line to lose 168 pounds and thirteen dress sizes.

Writer Lynn Bering was like many of us before we started losing weight – no self-esteem and increasingly avoiding situations where we would get attention.

But Lynn is living a lovely life now and is happy to be able to pick up her granddaughter. She even has a blog where she has been keeping track of her journey. You can visit that site by clicking here.