Week 3 of my 6 week challenge has been the toughest so far. As I write this I think every muscle in my body is sore and achy and I’m fighting the urge to go to bed at 8:30 pm on a SATURDAY. This week I (stationary) biked on Tuesday, Wednesday was swimming, yesterday (Friday) was the Jillian workout video and today I ran 2.75 miles plus walked an extra 1.5. To reward myself for finishing week 3, I bought this Red and Grey Sweaty Band. Go Bucks!
Besides wanting to complete a triathlon in 2012, one of my other motivations when I started on this 6-week self-challenge was a recent article I read in Self magazine. The article was on Alison Sweeney who has been one of my favorite stars for a very, very long time. Alison Sweeney plays Sammy Brady on Days of Our Lives and she’s on the Biggest Loser. I’ll admit that I’m an in-the-closet Days of Our Lives Fan. I really get a kick out of watching when I’m sick or need some entertaining and slightly mindless TV. I started watching Days way back in high school when I would go to Jenny E’s house after school and we would watch while she gave me everyone’s back story. I was hooked. The nice part about Days is that I can skip for 3 months and STILL know what’s going on.
Anyway, back to the Self article on Alison Sweeney. In the article there were two quotes that jumped out at me. The first, was from Alison’s husband, Dave, when he said to her, “Why do you complain? You’re beautiful already, but if you want to do something about it [her weight], do it. You pursue your career, but you don’t attack your weight.” That really resonated with me. I spend all this time working, talking about work, thinking about work but how much time to I really spend doing anything about losing my extra pounds or planning healthy meals? So I gave my workouts an extra high priority and I schedule them on my calendar a week ahead of time and rarely move them. I might decide to bike instead of swim, but I still do a workout AND I make sure to leave work at a decent time to get to the gym before I get too hungry for dinner.
The second quote from the article was from Alison herself:
As soon as I made it about being healthy and shifted my focus away from the scale, the weight started to come off,” says Sweeney, who still doesn’t use a scale. “I keep track of my body by how my jeans fit—and how I feel.”
Ding, ding, ding! My scale was becoming my enemy. I can’t believe how much contempt I had for an inanimate object and how much power it had over me. (Ironic side note: Could this be due to the fact that I work for a weights and measures company?). I also realized I didn’t own a scale until Nick and I registered and received one for our wedding. I never had one. So three weeks ago I stopped weighing myself and concentrating instead on how I feel. That number in the morning no longer has control over me or my entire day and it’s pretty awesome.
The best part about all of it is that I noticed this week that I’m yanking up my jeans because they are falling down. I could get very used to this! It’s easy to get past the sore muscles if there’s a visible payoff. I’m half-way to the finish and I can’t wait to see how I feel at the end of only 6 weeks. At the rate I’m going, I suppose I’ll need to buy a smoking new pair of jeans; probably another pair of (smaller) IT Jeans from My True Fit.
