Before I left for a vacation, my wise and wonderful Accountabilibuddy challenged me to something that made me very uncomfortable. She challenged me to stay away from the scale and away from counting any calories while I was gone. When she proposed this challenge to me, I rejected it immediately. No second thought necessary. No need to consider whether or not I would even listen to her justification for such an outrageous request. I mean really? Is she trying to sabotage me or what? I have been counting every calorie in and every calorie out for 10 months now. I finally found something that works for me and she wants me to throw it out the window for a vacation? Has she lost her freakin' mind?
Well, because she's such a wonderful Accountabilibuddy, she decided to tie me down and force me to listen to her full proposal before I all out refused any and all cooperation. Turns out that what she was proposing was for me to find out just what I'm made of. Was I adding unnecessary stress to all my unavoidable stress by just doing what had become habit to me? That's what she wanted me to find out. Damn her and all her stupid wisdom! It didn't help that Hubby was there encouraging her challenge and I was peer pressured into it. Peer pressure? Seriously? Aren't I too old for that? Apparently not because I did it.
I went on vacation and didn't step on the scale before I left, while I was there, nor when I came back. I waited to step on the scale until my next official Sunday weigh in. I feel the need to share my views about the scale and tracking with you just to make sure there's no misunderstandings. I don't believe in daily scale checks. That's way too obsessive for me. I step on the scale once a week and that's it. Sunday mornings are my weigh in days. If I forget to step on it on a Sunday, I wait until the next Sunday to come around. I don't count down waiting for the moment to arrive, I just step on it every week as a gauge to see what my actions are producing whether good or bad. It's one measure, not the only measure. I also take my measurements on a monthly basis. But, my favorite tool is in how my clothes fit. If my clothes feel good, I'm a happy camper...unless of course the scale doesn't move for lets say....oh 8 weeks in a row. Then I get a little upset. But that's normal right?
My weight before leaving on vacation was 160.4. My weight on Sunday after vacation was 161.2. I didn't believe it though because it was period time. Then my weigh in this week was 160 even. So that tells me that I was correct to not believe it. Do you realize what this means? Do you? It's huge! It means that I was able to maintain for 2 weeks while on vacation without any tracking or measurements to rely on. It means that Accountabilibuddy was right. Damn her! Just kidding BV, love you to pieces.
She wanted me to take a step or two back and just let my inner voice speak to me. She wanted me to take requirements and restrictions (if you can call them that) out of my daily routine and just trust myself to do what I knew was right for me at that time. She wanted me to listen to my body and give it what it asked for. Turns out, I can trust Accountabilibuddy, Hubby, and myself. Who knew?
I thought about doing away with the calorie counting altogether now that I'm back to normal life again but there's a little doubt in my head still. I'm not going to obsess over every little gram of Cheerios I eat or every little ounce of milk I pour anymore, so I suppose that's progress. I'll lighten up on myself a bit and ease into this trusting my body to tell me what it wants and when it wants it. Perhaps a little bit of checks and balances built into my life is a good thing after all. There are times to put the head down and plow through and there are times to lighten up and trust more. I always thought I'd be considering these things as I got closer to goal but in all honesty, I'm glad Accountablibuddy forced me to start looking at it ahead of time, even if it was against my will.
LHAS Stats
Minutes Exercised: 405
Lbs Lost: 0.8lbs
