Consistency

So I feel like I've been blogging about this a lot...but it's been on my mind a lot.

I need to work on consistency. Mostly because it's maintainable.

I went on a friends blog and totally commented about how any weight loss plan has to be liveable. But what I've been doing is not really healthy even if I am living it.

Let me back up. I lost a lot of weight in 2001 through WW. I did it the unhealthy way. I didn't really date so I just ate pretty much the exact same thing for 5 months. And if I was hungry and had seven points left? I ate seven points of carbs and gave no thought to healthy guidlines or what my body actually might've needed at the time. It is no wonder that the weight came back on. I tried WW several times since then, but my heart was never in it. I wanted to lose weight, but I didn't want to change anything that I was doing. Go figure, I wasn't successful.

But in the middle of July last year, I decided that I had a serious problem. I knew that I needed change.

It's 9 months later and I'm proud to say that I stick with the plan most days...I had a loss EVERY WEEK for the first 5 months. And then? Then I started dating. Then I got comfortable and decided that counting my points wasn't all that hard - why, I may be able to count them in my head! Since then, I've been losing for a few weeks (usually only 2 or 3) and then I'll have a big gain. I'll lose for a couple more weeks and have a big gain. Since December 1st, I've lost like 16 pounds...but it's been like a Colorado mountain range to get there.

I lost weight last week and I know because my eating has been on point this week, that I'll lose weight this week.

But I don't want to lose focus on how I need to maintain a level of consistency. Not only will I get to my goal faster, but I'll have practiced how to be healthy on a regular basis. After I get to my goal, I need to continue focus on living a life that IS liveable. And an on/off mentality is not healthy, it is not consistent and if I don't watch it, the weight will come back on.

I know that my head is in a better place than it was back in 2001. And I have a "bigger picture" idea of how to continue. I only stayed on WW before for 5 months. And if I gained any week, it was like the end of the world in how I reacted. This time around, I'm more kind to my body. And I'm more able to think that if it takes me two years to lose the weight, who cares? As long as I learn how to live my life and still lose or maintain, I will be successful.

I guess I'm struggling. Because part of me wonders whether I CAN be successful. So I'm trying to think of any and all potholes on the road to being healthy that I can avoid. I know that consistency has got to be a key skill...and I see that that's a deficiency in my life right now. So maybe rather than try to identify all other potential obstacles, perhaps I'll focus on this one right now.

(sigh)