Throwback Thursday – HUGE non-scale victories

I started this weight loss journey of mine in January of 2016 by signing up for the 12-week challenge at our Gold’s Gym.  I can honestly tell you that I did not believe I would be successful.  Thankfully I had a trainer who believed otherwise and here I am 15 months later, still going strong.

Once I began to see that what he was teaching me was working, I never once considered quitting.  I had tried for years and years with no success.  So to be successful, finally, I was not going to stop.  One thing he told me at least once a week and sometimes more often was “the 12-week challenge is just your springboard; it’s just what is getting us started.”  I know the 12-week challenge is about to end at Gold’s Gym and I would just like to encourage those participants to keep going.  What I am about to write is some of the non-scale victories I have experienced in the past year to 15 months.

For simplicity sake, I am re-posting the card I made myself last July.  I made that for the weeks that the scale stayed the same and I was tempted to get frustrated.  The numbers have changed on that card by now, I’ve lost more weight, more inches, but you get the idea.

Let’s just talk medically for a moment.  I used to have high blood pressure and take medicine for it.  I no longer have high blood pressure and no medicine is needed.  I used to have moderately to high inflammation with my rheumatoid arthritis.  My rheumatoid arthritis is basically in remission (It’s checked by blood work every 3 months.)   I used to need to use both hands on the stair railings each morning when I first woke up to walk down the stairs from the bedroom to the kitchen because my body hurt so much.  Not so anymore.

Let’s talk stamina.  For the past 15 years at least I have passed on any camping trip, any family hike, any trip that would take a long plane ride.  I’ve missed out on a lot.  Recently Dave and I went to a NASCAR race in Phoenix.  It was 95 degrees.  First of all I had no trouble with walking up and down the bleachers.  I had no problem with the heat.  I felt like I could have kept going for awhile even after it was over.  While I was there I read on Facebook that a friend had hiked Rifle Falls with her children.  I was like, “Dave, I’d like to hike Rifle Falls.”  

It’s funny because almost as soon as the words came out of my mouth, I was like, “WHAT did I just say?”  I absolutely meant what I said, but what a 360 degree turnaround from one year ago.  My kids have wanted me to join them on hikes for years and I just physically could not do it.

It was on this trip that my mind began to shift.  I am reading a great book called, “Who Says You Can’t, You Do.”  Between this book and the things I was realizing about myself, I began to wonder why I was SO hung up with the number on the scale.  My entire life had changed for the better in the past year and I want to focus on a number??????  That’s crazy.

This next point I am going to share I have gone back and forth on whether or not I wanted to make it public.  I am going to make it public, because I believe there are other people in this same situation and this just may help them, so here it goes.

For the past 12 years at least, maybe more, I have not slept in the same room as my husband.  Yes, that’s correct.  I was so obese that I had a HUGE snoring problem.  I was tested for sleep apnea 2 or 3 times over that time period, but I did not have that.  I did not need a C-pap machine and honestly I was thankful for that.  For many years, I slept on the couch downstairs.  When Jessica went off to college, I slept in her room. When we went on trips, we had to get an extra hotel room for me.  My snoring was so loud, none of the kids could handle it either.    So I’m going to just let that sink in for you for a minute.

When we went to Alaska last May, we had to get an extra suite for me.  That was quite expensive.  That has been our lives.  Very few people know this about us, but in the past a few couples I have talked to have told me that they too do not sleep together.  My children will read this so let’s state this simply because I know the question is crossing your mind.  All areas of our life are fine.  We just did not sleep in the same room.  

WELL, we won a trip to Bermuda for the summer of 2017.  We have won trips in the past and we have given them away, because of the fact we would need an extra suite.  This trip is a cruise and it’s Bermuda.  I talked to Dave and told him I really wanted to see if we could make this work.  So that NASCAR weekend was the test.  We were in Phoenix two nights and we only reserved one room.  They ended up upgrading our room so we had the option of one person in a bedroom with the door shut and one person in the living area on the couch.  But we did not need that option.  The verdict is that I do still snore but not NEAR as bad as one year ago.  We made it – two nights in the same bed in the same room.  THAT IS A HUMONGOUS NON-SCALE VICTORY!

So yes I am sure I will still be tempted in the future to “worry” about the scale, but if I just “shift” my thinking to all that I have gained, that worry will melt away.  What are your non-scale victories?

For a reference point for any new readers – me right before I began		the 12 week challenge (December 25, 2015).  I started the challenge and	this weight loss journey of mine January 18, 2016.