Let your love open the door

Hope everyone had an excellent day/weekend of loving and living! I was blessed to spend Valentine's Day celebrating my grandmother's 75th birthday with my whole family. (not much time to think about being single:)

I feel so blessed (there is that word again) to have my family. They support me, make me laugh, and know how to throw a darn good open house! We had family portraits taken, and I felt good about myself. If we had taken these pictures a year ago, I would have pretended to feel good about the body/face/double chin on everyone's mantel, but now I actually do feel good about my current body being immortalized.

Losing weight has helped me appreciate my body. I will never have a flat stomach. I have veins and moles and scars and acne(dammit!)....but I can move. I can stand for hours I can run for 30 minutes straight. AND I can fit into a size 16 bridesmaid dress at David's Bridal. It feels like I am finally inhabiting my body. Blemishes and all, this is me. Worrying or stressing will not improve my life. Freaking out about a scar in the middle of my forehead or the cellulite on my ass is only interesting for about 2 minutes. Then it's time to move onto actual living, doing, and moving.

I write this now, knowing that there will be days when I forget. Moments when I want to eat and sit and criticize. I will have this to look back on.

Weigh-in

I weigh 188lbs!! I have officially lost 56lbs. That is how much a bushel of shelled corn weighs...random?

So what am I doing that is working? There are two things that I think have been contributing to my recent success:

1. Planned Exercise. In training for my 5k, I have committed to running 3 times a week. This is non-negotiable. In addition to those runs, I am doing 2 resistance/weights workouts a week. I'm not going to pay for a membership to 24hour fitness unless I am using it. My life was missing resistance training, but it's back, and I am excited about getting stronger! And I get to choose a random activity 1 day a week! This could be dancing, or going on a hike, or....well...I don't know. But I am going to try a hip-hop class soon, and at some point I will try pilates:) So to recap: 3 days of running, 2 days of weights/resistance, 1 whatever, and 1 day of rest. The routine really helps me focus, and I can see the results!
2. Using the 80% rule of eating. To me, this means I eat really healthy and moderately at least 80% of the time. I shoot for all the time, but I just can't deny myself all the tastey pleasures this world has to offer. Like the Twix I had tonight at the movies. I had one stick during the previews, and one when I started writing this post. Sure it's not great for me, but I like it, and I'm not having another one for probably another 4 months. This idea of 80% also helps me get back on track after slip-ups. Instead of being discouraged after eating something not-so-great, I move onto making better choices for the rest of the day. Less guilt, more fun...and pounds lost!

TMI

My body doesn't like "crap" food. Example: This past Sunday I had a piece of birthday cake, lots of cheese on a white bread pastrami sandwich, pop, punch, and about 5 pieces of frosted cardamon bread (Grandma's birthday, remember?)

Monday morning I was gassy and kept having to go to the bathroom. That might be too much information for y'all, but it was interesting to have my body react to food so noticeably. Good for you body, for loving good food and fussing over the bad! Who thought I would ever celebrate gas? (not me, that's fo' sho)

Love

Let's talk about the title of my post(remember it? it's way up there at the top, you troopers!) Love opens doors. We often focus on others. but think of all the doors that open when you love yourself. When you respect and honor yourself, you live a better life. Let your love for others and yourself lead you to healthy choices and playing big!

Love,

Losergirl Jess