1 Down!

Well, I did it! My small meals, no frills, and counting all those points paid off. I lost 1.4 pounds last week! So my first goal has been met: To Lose 1 pound.

Yep. 1 pound.

That might not sound like that big of a deal to the rest of you. But it is to me because of this story from my past:

Back in 1998, I worked at DHS. They had a company-wide healthy employee initiative to get their employees to lose weight and be healthier in general. You could register a team of coworkers so I did. Along with various other ways to be healthy, losing weight was a prime component. I resolved to lose 10 pounds.

So I started exercising. And exercising. AND exercising. The next week, I hopped on the scale and had lost.......0 pounds. So I changed my goal. I said you know, 10 pounds is an awful lot. How about I just try to lose 5 pounds.

So the next week I exercised. And exercised. AND EXERCISED! And I lost.......0 pounds. GRRRRRR!!!! I was so frustrated! I thought if you exercised you were supposed to lose weight. I got so mad that I exclaimed, "I just want to lose 1 freaking pound!! I just want the scale to MOVE!"

So the next week, I ate smaller meals. I cut out candy. I exercised harder and more intensely than I had the previous 2 weeks. I hopped on the scale and had lost.........1 pound! FINALLY!

Of course, then I realized just how hard it was to lose 1 pound. I was happy for that, but also frustrated because I had to do all that over and over again for 10 MORE TIMES! But then, I don't know if I read this somewhere or just thought it, but I realized: If you lose 1 pound a week, you'll lose 52 pounds in a year! Wow! Wouldn't losing 52 pounds be nice? (heh, back then I didn't have 52 pounds to lose but I might have that much now.....)

So from then on, I realized it's all about the baby steps. That's how babies learn to walk -- one step at a time. That how Dave Ramsey helps you get out of debt and get your finances in order -- one step at a time. So that is how I will lose weight and regain my health -- one step (pound) at a time.