First Comes Health

My whole life my weight loss battle has been just that - a weight loss battle.  Everything about my quest to get healthy has never had anything to do with health, but everything to do with my dress size, the pounds on the scale, and eliminating cellulite.

This week, however, all that changed.  Last week, I told you about my new goal to run a half-marathon.  This was my first week of training and it was not easy.  I ran a total of 5 1/2 (and some change in my pathetic attempt to run 3 miles).  Plus, I had 30 minutes of weight-lifting and another hour of cross-training. 

My obsessions with the scale and calories made a 180.  Instead, my thoughts were full of tips to finish my runs, plans for cross training, and stretching.

When I constantly think about the foods I should and shouldn't eat I find myself munching everything, standing in the middle of the kitchen grabbing anything from any shelf that looks half-way appetizing.  This week that didn't happen.

It was probably a mix of things keeping me out of the kitchen including that I just didn't have time!  Training takes a lot of time, so I didn't even have a moment to consider the binge walk around my kitchen.  Second - crap food doesn't sound good when you have a workout regimen to stick to.

Here's the perfect example - on date night my husband and I went to Chili's.  My go-to meal choice is the Chicken Crispers at a whopping 1290 calories.  When I sat down I thought about ordering the fried-deliciousness, but that deliciousness didn't sound delicious at all.  When I thought about it... I pictured how it would feel in my stomach - heavy, stale, sticky and ugh (yes, ugh is a verb).  Instead, I chose the Caribbean Salad with Grilled Chicken at 620 calories (that's with dressing, and I did not have the dressing).  I can honestly say, I felt like salad.  I wanted to fill myself up with fresh pineapple and romaine lettuce.  Yum.

What else can being healthy first conquer?  The scale.  As many of you know, I'm obsessed with it - weighing myself before bed, when I wake up, before and after going to the bathroom, with clothes on, without clothes on, even after blowing my nose (yeah, I know - pathetic).  This week I weighed myself once - one time people.  By the time the weekend rolled around, I was thrilled to step on the scale to 2.3 weight loss.

Everything was easier this week when I put health first.  I didn't get lost in the calorie-counting and pound obsessing and look at that - 2.3 pounds gone.  Even before the scale patted me on the back for a week well done, I felt great.. and dare I say, looked great.