Healthy Living for Mom: GOAL

Erin has finally reached her weight loss goal. Here are the lessons she learned in the last seven months.

Author:
Erin Caserio
Updated:
Nov 16, 2018
Original:
Mar 21, 2012

Almost seven months ago, when I kicked off my Healthy Living for Mom series, my goal was to whittle away my chub until the scale read “165”.

This morning the scale told me that I now weigh 164 pounds.

WOO!

That amounts to a 31.5 pound loss since the end of August when I began writing these posts AND a 73 pound loss since I had my baby boy, just over a year ago.

When I wrote that first post, I had two ideas in my head.

That I would hit my goal weight by Christmas. (I had visions of Santa bringing me a new wardrobe.)
That when I reached my goal weight, I would dust off my hands and be able to cross “get healthy” off my to do list.

Turns out, it took longer than I thought to lose the weight. That’s okay...there was cake along the way. But what strikes me as really foolish is the idea that I would finish this “project” and move onto something else, like planting a garden or reorganizing my laundry room.

That I could take the time and energy I was focusing on getting healthy and then turn that time over to some other task when I hit my goal weight is perhaps the biggest lie I’ve told myself in all my years of being overweight and out of shape.

I understand now, that if I want to be healthy...wait for it...I have to BE healthy.

Health is something you think about and put time into every day. Sounds simple now but that’s what the last seven months have given me—the opportunity to learn a lot of little lessons that, as a whole, amount to one big one.

Here are the little lessons I’ve learned:

Keep track of what you’re doing.

You don’t have to take a lot of time to do this. Weigh yourself everyday and jot down the number. Keep track of the food you eat.

I had the opportunity to write here every week as I tripped down the weight loss path, but if blogging isn’t your thing, simply take a moment once a week to reflect on how you did. This is a great way to see your own personal patterns emerge. Once you figure out the patterns, you can address them. For example, I may or may not be prone to eat a whole chocolate cake...oh...around the same time each month. Good to know!

Set mini goals.

In the beginning, each pound lost is a victory. But somewhere around the midpoint to your goal, the excitement wears off and you’re left feeling a mix of pride that you’ve lost some weight and the overwhelming desire to eat five pints of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Setting a mini goal like “I will get a massage with every 10 pounds lost” is a GREAT incentive to keep going.

Figure out your food issues.

Keep that food journal, find a way to treat yourself every week, and figure out your relationship with sugar. I learned that I can still be friends with sugar and sweets, we just can’t be best friends.

That’s two M&M cookies, with chocolate buttercream sandwiched between them.

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Eat often, keep the portions small, and prepare to assess food based on need, rather than want.

Workout!

Of the weight I’ve lost, 5 pounds can be credited to spending time in an actual gym. The rest was working out at home, taking walks with the kids, giving piggy back rides, and playing Wii Boxing.

Get a buddy.

My husband jumped on the healthy living bandwagon after the holidays. It makes it MUCH easier to ditch him and go to the gym if he did it first.

As you lose weight, get rid of your “back up” clothes.

Clean out your closet and get rid of anything that is ill-fitting and unflattering. Do not keep those roomy jeans just in case.

Cut yourself some slack.

You can’t hide at home with your salad forever. Eventually you’ll go on vacation, find yourself in the middle of the holiday season, or even get sick. It’s great to have a plan, but it’s natural to have cravings and want to enjoy your favorite unhealthy foods. If you indulge too much, forgive yourself and get back on track...DON’T SPIRAL.

Only one of them was for me. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip.

While hitting my weight loss goal means that I won’t be writing my Healthy Living for Mom posts on a weekly basis any longer, I’ll still be checking back in once a month.

I’ve got a few more pounds I’d like to shed, I’ve just started weight training in earnest (FINALLY got brave enough to go to the gym) and I’m getting ready to shift from losing to maintaining my weight.

In some ways, I think that may be more challenging...as I’ve never managed to keep any lost pounds from finding their way back.

I’ve also got a few people that I’m going to invite to guest post. I’m really interested in hearing how other women who enjoy food manage to stay healthy.

Thank you for reading my posts and sharing your encouragement in the comments or on Facebook or in real life (I’m looking at YOU, people related to me). Sometimes it can be risky to toss these kind of details out into the internet and I have been humbled to receive such compliments and kindness.

MY WEEKLY STATS