May 3, 2016

I am not blogging as often as I did when I began this journey towards BMI health.  However, I am really happy to say that I am still as motivated and focused on maintaining permanent change in my dietary choices as ever.  I am down to 144 pounds now, which is 22 pounds lost, which seems crazy because most of the time throughout these last five months my recollection tells me I was plateau-ing most the time.  It has been slow, but apparently steady!  Only ten more to go to be in my healthy zone; I am so excited!

I am still averaging about a thousand calories per day and even went on a light run for about a mile or more this morning.  I am doing better at avoiding seconds or larger portions at dinner time lately.  That is what I attribute that last five-seven pounds lost to and what I think the key to my ultimate success is.  It makes sense because overall, that has always been my biggest problem.  I make good dinners…and I will eat until I am stuffed unless I make an intentional effort not to. 

I really feel like everyone who does not eat perfectly and does not have a model BMI has a similar knowledge of their bad decisions.  It is funny because we have a tenancy to list several reasons which incriminate why we are overweight or not accomplishing our goals with physical health.  Sometimes we take credit, sometimes we seem baffled, and sometimes we pretend not to care. 

The truth is, it takes long-term intentional behavior, that is aimed towards not just reaching a destination, but changing ourselves along the way.  Otherwise, the experience will be another failed attempt with some short term success that does not make you any closer to ending up where you want to be.  Trust me…I know these cycles all too well. 

I had two different friends tell me they would join me during my half-marathon run in the fall of ’15.  Neither friends had been running or training for this goal.  When they said it, they really wanted that to happen for themselves.  Neither of them ended up joining me or running much or at all.  I do not judge them- that was me most of my life.  I’m not exaggerating.

 I can remember being in the fourth grade, laying in my bed at night and picturing myself in the fifth grade…this was the first image I created in  my mind of an alternative me that I pined after.  I was always taller, thinner, and had extreme happiness radiating from my beautiful face which strangely looked a little different than me.  This continued on for me.  I can remember visualizing a stunning Krista in middle school…high school…adulthood…wedding day…mommy hood…being vegan…even me running through the finish line of a half-marathon.  My visual has never matched what I actually looked like during these very happy blessed days of my life- which is so sad!  It never ended until I realized that this thinking was the source of my problems.  The visual of a thinner, more beautiful version of me was destructive.  I starved myself trying to be that woman, mentally punished myself, and ultimately did not honor or care for myself with the love and care I deserved.  Insanity! 

The answer is to change our perspectives!  I thoroughly believe in the power to change!  Stop comparing yourself to others!  Let’s make an effort to look at ourselves and love what we see enough to make the best decisions for ourselves for our health and happiness.  What could be more important?  The result will hopefully be that we can be our best selves. 

There are many quotes that I love from Martin Luther King Jr.  This is one of them:

 “In a real sense all life is inter-related. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be...

This is the inter-related structure of reality.”

Since (according to MLK’s theory) I cannot be my best, until you are too, this is what my blog is about.  I am sharing my journey.  I am normalizing the fact that I carry a cooler with veggies and hummus and other quality foods with me when I travel in order to not put my health in the back seat during trips.  I do not eat food from fast food, convenience stores, etc.  I plan ahead and have the foods that I love, are affordable, and love me back.  This should be our future!  Some people laugh when they see my cooler.  That is fine- it really is.  I just find it a little sad they would not think anything of it if they saw me ordering a cheeseburger and French fries in a drive thru for myself and my family while on the road.  They would say we were traveling with kids, in a hurry, hungry, busy yada yada and this is currently the expected behavior from parents. Don’t get me wrong- we have homemade patty veggie burgers and homemade potato fries frequently in my house.  I have always loved burgers and fries, but now I have a version I can proudly serve my body, versus the buyers regret and self-loathing process that follows other versions.  Let’s stand up for ourselves and take the time and effort to be healthy.  Who is with me?