One Hundred Fifty Starts with One

The Disney Channel (which I'm fairly certain my kids think the world revolves around) has been running a campaign to encourage interest in kids to care for their communities and make changes to go green and clean up and such. One of the commercials that they are now running in conjunction with this campaign centers around the idea that one million starts with one. I saw the commercial recently, and immediately thought, "Gee...so does 150. What a concept."

I am a self-admitted instant gratification kind of person.  So many times I have become discouraged because my weight loss has been so painfully slow. I put so much effort into counting calories and exercising, so when I see two pounds lost in a week, I feel like it's fruitless. Two pounds can be so easily gained back. One day of too much salt. One day of not enough water and too many calories. I can gain two pounds in one day. But it takes me a week to lose it.

Now, this so isn't my first rodeo, so I know the comments that are coming before they ever get here. Slow and steady wins the race. Water gain is temporary, so it doesn't count against your actual weight loss progress. A loss is progress and you should be proud. I can assure everyone, I know all of these things....at least on some level.

Every time that I have bailed on my program in the past, I have become so caught up in the idea of slow progress. I have wanted someone to say, "Wow! You've lost weight!" or my clothes to get loose.....in a week or two. Unfortunately, with as much weight as I have to lose, I will have to lose quite a bit (20 or 30+ pounds) before people will just notice.

I'm going to have to find it within myself to realize that I'm not doing this for the instant gratifications, but for myself. I'm not sure how long I'll have to go before people notice, but I haven't told people, so hopefully that will help keep the pressure of trying to impress everyone with how 'thin you're getting' and how 'great you're doing' and I'm just kinda doing my own little thing in my own little world.

Along those same lines, after some online encouragement through SparkPeople.com (the site that I'm using to track my calories, fitness, and hold myself accountable), I will be taking my before photos today. I won't be posting them yet. There's a level of insecurity with just hanging it all out like that. However, I will be taking new photos every 10 pounds. I will be posting them side-by-side when a difference appears. :)

Oh yeah! Here's yesterday's overview:

The Good:
I tracked my food, in spite of some serious temptation not to.

The Proud:
I stayed within all of my ranges, with the following totals:
Calories: 1352  Carbs: 121   Fat: 58   Protein: 89

The Ugly: I had ZERO glasses of water yesterday. ZERO.				Boo.