Healthy Tomorrow Starts Today! My Weight Loss Journey
These past few months have been going really well up to this point. When I first started a healthy tomorrow today I began with the foremost goal of clean healthy eating . Exercise was to be an addition at a later date. What was surprising […]
Three months is closing in from when I started this lifestyle change. The change is dramatic and so far most impactful in my mobility and energy. There is some difference in my appearance and a few people have noticed but this is not as important […]
Today was a fun day! I decided right before my walk that instead of going to my normal area I would try something new. I decided to call a friend and see if they wanted to go for a little hike. What was so fun about this for me was that when they said yes, I was excited. What is so different about that feeling is that going on a walk like this has often brought me apprehension and anxiety. I have referred many times to my weight loss so far as being very freeing. Like lifting chains off my shoulders that weigh me down. I can’t think of a better example of that metaphor than this walk.
Elk Falls is a beautiful park trail just 10 minutes out of town. I used to love going here when I was a kid. As the name suggests the trail ends at a spectacular waterfall. The trail was recently updated in the past few years. It now winds down a slope ending in a set of stairs and a bridge giving you an above view of the amazing falls.
I have done this walk a few times in recent years. Normally it is when someone is visiting and I want to show them the location. These other times have always been when I have had made previous efforts to lose weight. I have successfully completed this walk, but it always left me out of breath, needing many breaks and with back pain. In the recent year I would not have even attempted this walk. The hike back out involves many stairs and a slow climb up and out of about 1km. It is not something I would have been capable to complete.
Today was night and day from those experiences and was a lot of fun. walking up the stairs was no problem. I had to take no rests walking up the hill on the way back. The whole thing felt like I was now and finally totally mobile. It feels amazing to look forward to walks like this than to worry about if I will be able to complete them. Or if I will be so slow as to hold up people I go with. This lifestyle change has literally turned fear and anxiety into fun and relaxation.
While this is not a new place for me, it is one I have not been to often or recently. There are in fact many local areas I have not been to or not been to in a very long time. I was never an overly outgoing person but I did have a spark of adventure in me at one point. It has been weighed down by my size and back pain for an awful long time. It makes me very optimistic about what could be in my future and what I may be able to achieve. I think maybe underneath all this mess I created for myself I am an optimist. I just needed to let that optimism breath a little.
Weight loss to date -30.2lbs Trying to quantify how much better I feel on week seven is hard to do. Not because it is hard to find what is improving, but so many things are improving at once. I am now noticing a difference and […]
Weight loss to date 21.4lbs I first talked about walking at the Spit in my Week 3 update. It is a great place to walk due to its many benches and wonderful scenery. Today was definitely a new millstone in my walking and mobility as […]
Total weight loss to date 21lbs
Tonight’s walk saw even more results than expected. This evening I added and extra block to my walk yet again. I have begun to notice not just a small but dramatic difference in how I feel and how I can move. I am walking faster and most importantly my back pain is at an all time low.
The extra block I added to my walk tonight takes me down a street past the initial two alleys I start on. This street goes up a gentle incline that was not remotely an issue to walk up. But to connect up to the street above to loop back would now require going up another hill of significant incline. Normally a hill like this would cause me considerable back pain and I would be completely out of breath. I figured I would give it a try as I could always cut my walk short on the way back if my back was in too much pain. To my surprise and relief I managed the hill with relative ease. I was also was able to continue on to finish my full walk without any problems. In fact my back has never felt so good walking. I cannot emphasize how encouraged I am at this point just being able to move so much more freely.
Total weight loss to date 18.4lbs Today it has been exactly 1 month since I started a new lifestyle of healthy eating and more activity. I am just shy of 20lbs and the difference is really remarkable. Sometimes the idea of 20lbs of weight seems […]
Total weight loss to date 17.8lbs Everyday seem like there are positive changes now. While it can certainly seem like a daunting process to lose the weight I have set for myself as a goal, little victories seem to be coming more often which is […]
