a bit on weight loss

The body changes, the numbers stay the same. I've been overweight for most of my life. Even in my late-teens, early-20s, when I was walking several times a week, doing yoga twice a week, and not eating any red meat or sugar, the smallest that number ever shrunk to was 180, and I was still wearing a size 18.  I remember discussing with my grandmother the fact that I had set a "realistic goal" of "getting down to a size 14."  Well, that didn't happen.  I was, at the time, the healthiest I had ever been, but there was no way in hell I was going to get down to a size 14.  After that, I became kind of angry and jaded about it for awhile, and decided that the only way to achieve drastic weight loss naturally was to work-out-until-you-throw-up and starve yourself. I wasn't going to do either of those things, and so I had to learn to love myself as a fat girl.

Ultimately, I think that's why I've worked so hard on stressing that what I'm doing now is not about weight loss.  Weight loss may not happen! At all! But improved health is inevitable.  That's what I love so much about small changes.  The tiniest change can make a huge impact on one's health, and the way a person feels in his or her body. That's really exciting to me!

So, here it is.  I don't own a scale, in part, because my number almost never changes.  But, after three weeks of minimal starch, regular exercise and gallons of green smoothie, I decided to give it a shot.  I would weigh myself.  I made the decision because I could tell that things had been changing. My pants are baggier, my shirts feel bigger, and heck, even my underpants fit differently these days.  That means I lost weight, right? RIGHT?

Wrong.

210.  I have to admit, I was a little deflated.  I was convinced that I'd lost a pound or two. It seemed only logical that the number would read differently. At least a little. And so, I was reminded of why I never weigh myself.  The body changes. The numbers stay the same.

However, sports fans, not to fear.  Casey is still at bat.  This morning, something kind of groovy happened. I decided to measure my waist.  I did it three weeks ago, so that I would have some sort of way to keep track, since I certainly wasn't going to buy a scale. Well, three weeks ago, my waist measurement was just about 37 inches.  Today, it's just barely 34.  So, there you have it. I've lost nearly 3 inches off my waist.  Not too bad, for a fat kid.