It's Time

Jason reminded me tonight that, while I have been complaining about my slow weight-loss the past 6 months, he has noticed some very tangible and practical differences in my body, my behavior, etc. (No, I'm not about to tell you TMI about our sex life or anything... I'm talking practical stuff!!) Like he no longer lies awake at night - his words here - hearing me snore "like my great grandpa". Now, this made me laugh, but even I have noticed I sleep better these days and feel more rested when I get up in the mornings.

I had a GREAT run Wednesday night with my Ride the Wave group.  We ran 5 miles and the only little break we had was a short (maybe 1 minute or so) walk at the half-way point.  How long did it take, you ask?  Well, I'll happily tell you we finished in exactly one hour.  (Okay, not exactly one hour.  It was 1:00:24.)  Great pace for a relaxed run with the girls.

Jason wasn't feeling very well Thursday, so I skipped my planned gym workout and stayed home to make dinner and pamper him a little.  It's our anniversary this weekend, so I worked a half-day and spent the afternoon doing some housekeeping so we could relax over the weekend in a clean house.  The weather was absolutely beautiful so I took my Little Running Buddy out for a run around 4pm.  We did an easy, relaxed 3 miles or so.  I didn't time it or anything, and I let Coty determine our pace, so we spent a lot of time walking and sniffing things, ran maybe half of the distance... I was just really enjoying being out there without a coat, wearing ONLY ONE SHIRT, and capri running pants!

On the run I got to thinking about:

1. how I'm really not crazy about the phrase "my weight loss journey" - it's so cliche and reminds me of all those "self-help" books that I hate - but there's no other appropriate term.
2. when did all this start?  I mean, I've been working to lose weight since October 2011 - about 18 months ago - but that's just this time around.  Before that, I lost about 30 lbs with WWonline in... I think 2008, and before that, I lost a bunch of weight (can't remember what my starting weight was) in the two years running up to my wedding in 2004.
3. what did I get right in each of those attempts?  What did I get wrong?  why did those attempts ultimately fail, in that I gained all of the weight back (and probably a bit more)?

I think it's time I spent some energy reflecting on these questions and writing about that history.  I suppose I knew when I started blogging that I'd get to this eventually, but I avoided it.  I didn't want to write some sad-sack BS whiny cliche about how "I've struggled with my weight my whole life... it all started when... " Blah-blah-blah.  That is SO not me.  HOWEVER, I am a big believer in understanding where I came from to help direct where I'm going, and I know there are great lessons to learn from the successes I had, and even bigger lessons to learn from why I ultimately failed to achieve a lifetime weight loss that I could maintain.

So over the next few days or so, I'm going to do just that.  I'm hoping I can find some clues in the process to help me break out of the stubborn plateau I've been on for the past 6 months.