The First Week is Easy

Before I begin, I'd like to say thank you to everyone who read my post last week:  https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-journey-of-life.html and offered me kind words.  Goes to show that we ALL have a journey and although each person's story is unique, there is a commonality in them.  

It also proved to me, once again, that at the core of it all, we as human beings are "good".   Or as an amazing young lady once so succinctly put it:  "In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart."  (If you don't know who said it, for shame, now go Google.)

But onward...one week is behind me and I'm going to say that the first week is easy.  Maybe easy is not exactly the right word; very few things in the world are actually easy to do.   Perhaps I should say the first week is the most focused one, which in turn makes weight loss happen in a fashion that doesn't usually happen in the weeks that follow.

Starting on day one, after the initial shock of the number that showed up on my bathroom scale, I took the whole plan very seriously.  I was focused on exactly what and how much I was eating.  Since I am on the Weight Watcher plan, I take my points very seriously during that first week.  I've been hyper aware of what goes into my mouth.  I plan and plan some more.  For example on Friday night I knew I was going to a baby shower and Saturday night I was going to another party.  You can be darned suie that during the day I kept my point count low.  On Friday, I had not one drink (although the fact that I was driving some distance and I knew it would be dark and unfamiliar which played a great deal into my decision) and I bypassed the food (including pizza, one of my FAVORITE foods period) for salad.  (To be fair, I was also concerned about allergens.)  As a result, when I got home on Friday, I was able to "treat" myself to a "kiddie cup" with sprinkles at my local ice cream shop and still be within range for the day.

Saturday, I knew I would NOT be driving and I was hording my points and looking forward to wine.  This worked well in theory...I had several glasses of wine and didn't go over my daily points limit, BUT drinking without eating (or as has been my case in the past over-eating), can have some consequences the next day.  Lesson learned...the hard way.  (The REALLY hard way!)

As a result the pounds came off.  I ate with thought.  I continued my exercising (I've always been a walker and never stopped doing my daily "dose").  As my first week came to a close 4 pounds were gone. Which is great, but...

Now the road gets rockier.  Those initial pounds, many of which were just water weight, aren't going to come flying off again this week...or the next or the next.  Here is where the real work begins.  Or perhaps where reality begins.  My body has now gotten over the initial "shock" of "Wow!  What is happening here?"  I'm not saying I won't lose weight, but it will be a slower and perhaps more frustrating process.  AND there may be weeks where no matter what I do, my weight will creep up a bit for no apparent reason.  (Other than to piss me off.)  I will go down one day only to bounce up the next.  (I am one of those people who can gain/loss a pound in a day.)   I will get frustrated.  I will stray.  I will get angry.  I will cry.  I will rage. 

Let me be honest here...I'm starting week 2 and I saw that my weight was up from where I was yesterday and despite my constant saying that it's just a number, that number really set me off!  I hopped on and off the scale three times.  The number stuck.  I am NOT happy.  But this is how things tend to go for me.  First week, a good drop...the second not so good and maybe even a gain.  Staring at the scale I want to scream and cry; a few hours later, I can put it into prospective.

It's all part of the process.  It's all part of the journey.  The first week is "easy."  The first week is the challenge; now it becomes more of a chore. It will be the weeks, months and yes, YEARS that follow that will bring struggles.  It is up to me to keep myself on this path.  A path that is not just about losing a few pounds and getting back into a smaller size.  (Although that definitely plays into it!)  It's about being healthier.  It's about feeling good.

And I have to say that for the most part over this past week I've been feeling good.  (Not taking Sunday morning into account because, well...lesson learned.)  I swear my face looks thinner.  Which, while nice, is not where I want the weight to come off.  (It's always the face and chest that "goes" first...that annoying fat pouch of a "tummy" just likes to hang around.  I'll just keep planking as I continue on the journey.  I'll never have abs of steel, but hopefully the flab won't be quite so flabby and annoying.)

So onward!  When the scales don't say what I want, I'll remind myself to re-read this post. I'll remember, that this, like life, is a journey.  It's not about the speed; it's about the lessons.