Disappearing Act

Exactly four weeks until I get dreadlocks!!  That's not what this post is about, but I couldn't resist.  28 days!

This post is going to sound a lot like bragging.  It might be bragging, actually, but dang it I'm proud of myself!  I'll keep it short so that you will only be mildly disgusted by my pride.

ahem.

I have disappeared.

Well, to be more specific, 15 pounds of me have disappeared since December.  I'm lighter, I'm leaner, and by golly I am healthier than I was.  I can bound up flights of stairs, touch my forehead to my knees with my legs straight, climb a V2, do 10 man-style push ups, keep my balance in some crazy yoga positions, and jump rope better than I have since I was 10.

My roommates and friends are sick of the following phrase:

My pants don't fit.

They don't!  I shrunk out of the pants I bought this year, so I pulled out my old pants that were a trifle smaller.  I wore those until they hung on me like sack cloth.  Then I bought new pants.  Now they don't fit either.  I wore a pair of shorts yesterday that I never wore at all last summer.  They were too small.  Now I can slide them off with unbuttoning them.

Honestly, what I'm proud of isn't so much the actual weight loss, although I'm thrilled about that, but the fact that I did it.  I said I could do it, and then I made it happen in short order.  It took some work, some money, some dedication, and some doing of things I didn't always feel like doing, but I kept at it.  Keeping at things is not something I'm usually good at.  So I feel like this is not so much a victory over my waistline as it is a victory over my own character flaws.  That's what I'm proud of, not that I conquered my body, but that I conquered my mind.

I should mention that my new size does have it's disadvantages.  For example, my pants don't fit.  Do you have any idea how much money I have spent on clothes in the last five months?  I've kept my wardrobe light, not wanting to replace everything at once, and now the things I have replaced don't fit, either.  Large amounts of my clothes are now rather sacky on me.  Another disadvantage is that when I belay someone I can't keep my feet on the ground anymore.  If they fall I go up six inches.  Those extra 15 pounds were useful ballast that way.

For those of you who haven't already left this post in disgust, here is my 5 step recipe for success:

1.  Find things you like to do that are physical exercise.  It shouldn't be a punishment.  I don't like to run, so I didn't.  I went skateboarding, I went climbing, I joined a yoga studio.  It helped a lot that exercise was fun for me.  At the end of the day I didn't dread another of a strict and punishing regimen.  Instead I thought, "I get to go rock climbing again tomorrow? Score!!"

2.  Eat when you're hungry, not when you're bored.  Don't eat after 8 p.m.  You'll feel a lot like more like getting out of bed to go running or do yoga if you don't feel like an elephant crawled into your stomach and died.  Give up dessert.  If you can't give up dessert completely (and I usually can't), tell yourself you'll only take half of what you would usually take.  If you eat it slowly, it still takes as long and you get the same amount of that yummy taste in your mouth.

3.   Healthy snacks.  Since you're exercising all the time, you're going to be hungry all the time.  If you don't prepare ahead you'll head straight for the easy-to-access food that isn't so good for you.  I have developed a pretty severe hummus addiction.  I consume whole bags of celery, carrots, and peppers.  I eat sprouts now.

4.  Prioritize your exercise.  Don't be afraid to put it before your work, your friends, and your chores.  This will only make you a slight jerk hopefully.  Most days I do it before I grade papers, often before I hang out with friends.  "I'm sorry, I can't hang out because I'm off to go skateboarding by myself" feels weird the first few times you say it, and not getting your work done because you were rock climbing may feel like slacking, but hey, that's how you get healthy!  You're just achieving a different goal than work at that moment.  Your health is important.  Indulge in it.

5.  Speaking of indulging, you may need to spend some money.  In my case, a lot of money.  I can do that because I don't have a family to support.  Besides, it's my health and happiness I'm investing in, right?  Not to mention I'm picking up coordination, balance, and skills.  So the yoga membership, the climbing membership, the membership at the local rec center, the new workout clothes (turns out you can't make it on one sports bra and one pair of sweats when you exercise twice a day), the new clothes when your old ones don't fit, and the gallons of hummus are all worth it.  In my case I sold my iPod touch, and bought a shuffle and a classic.  It's probably extravagant to have two iPods, but I use both of them every single day.  I don't regret it at all.

And that's it.  If you happen to have a lot of spare alone time (I did) and some spare money (sorry savings account), anybody can do it!  What I mean is that I am lucky to be at stage in my life when I can do crazy things like this.

And I'm proud of myself.