#20byTakeoff
In a mere 7 weeks I leave for Jamaica where I will be for exactly 20 days. Curb your jealous, I know. I know. But I have issued a challenge for myself. In the days between right now and June 8th I want to lose 20lbs. First, a story. So a while back I mentioned talking to an old friend about her amazingly spectacular 100+ pound weight loss and I set the same goal for myself. Since that time I never stopped wanting it, but I was never truly committed to the goal. I would start something then quit, start then quit, start then...you get the picture. I do not really diet but I do try to eat well, but if I ate as well as I often allude to eat then I highly doubt I'd have some of these issues. But I digress. I can woman up and speak to it, I love sweets. I do. I have a thing for ice creams and gelatos, cakes and cookies...sweet stuff is my thing. I also snack at night. These two things I stared at sternly in the corners of my conscious and said to them, You have to go.
Next, I recognized this irrational discomfort surrounding food preparation. Namely because my roommate is a SUPER healthy eater and sometimes I order pizza...so I would eat down in my room and only when she wasn't in the kitchen would I venture into the kitchen. I realized one day when I let myself get so hungry that my stomach was beating me up as I waited for her to leave the kitchen that I had an issue. I was ashamed of what I knew I was going to do. It sounds like a drug addict. I remember this one episode of Private Practice when Shepard had gotten hooked back on pills and in an intervention they made her use in front of everyone. The addictions counselor said, "Oh no you don't, you do it out here for everyone to see." It felt kind of like that. Only, I don't want to shame myself, but I do want to be proud of what I'm putting into my body. I want to openly engage in public displays of affection with my own body.
I knew what needed to be done. I mean who doesn't? Exercise, eat well, drink water...it's the things you hear all the time only now I want to do them. I watched my birthday cake disappear piece by piece until I finally threw it out because I knew I would finish it if it stayed. I bought veggies, quinoa, lean meats like salmon and talapia. I said "No" to salt and said "Hell yes" to a gallon of water a day.
And I ran.
I made up excuse after excuse at 6:00am, 7:00am, 8:00am about why I couldn't go...it was cold...it was foggy...it was WORK was the true reason. I didn't want to do it. I went to work and had the kind of day where everyone is annoying you just because they are there. I couldn't pinpoint where my sour mood was coming from. On top of that, I kept being interrupted by bathroom breaks from this darn gallon of water challenge. So I got home, turned on the TV flopped down on the couch and went to my google reader where I saw this (Mama Laughlin). She wrote:
I was SO TIRED and PISSED that I had to get up so early.That I had to make those kind of sacrifices to get in my workouts.I was resentful that I didn't have enough time in the day.But you know what I did?I sucked it up, got up, and got my ass to the gym at 5am.And the craziest thing happened.... within 10 minutes of sweating I started to feel better.I wasn't pissed off anymore and my day instantly turned around.