Today was my weekly weigh-in day and I was down 3.5 pounds from last week – making it 24.7 total :) Soooooo exciting! I love that my commitment to this new healthy lifestyle is paying off and I think I’ve become addicted to pushing myself and seeing results. What’s even better is this really feels like a healthy addiction. Last time I lost weight, I went crazy. I was at the gym 3+ hours a day and I refused to eat anything that wasn’t on my daily meal plan. This time around I’m taking a much more balanced approach. I’m okay if it takes me a little longer to reach my goals if I’m really learning healthy and sustainable habits that I can continue for the rest of my life.
The definite highlight for today was my favourite belt. It’s finally cooling down a bit here in Southern China so I pulled out my denim capris. When I purchased them they were a bit snug but today they fit perfectly. To top things off, I put on my favourite belt only to realize that it was wayyyy too big! I’m still nowhere near Asian sized so I can’t buy another belt here but punching another hole in that belt (not an easy task I might add) was definitely suuuuch a good feeling!
The last thing I want to mention is “splurging”. Today was my best friend’s 25th birthday so she wanted to go downtown for a nice dinner and a couple of drinks. I admit that at first I was quite reluctant – not knowing exactly how my meal is prepared freaks me out but I know it’s something that I just have to get used to. At the restaurant I ordered a glass of wine (I used to be a beer drinker but have switched to wine because it makes me drink sooo much slower) and a healthy choice of a Greek salad. The restaurant we went to has the world’s best taco salad in this deep-fried tortilla loaded with guacamole and sour cream (not the low-fat kind). I was so proud of my healthier choice, especially because my friend ordered that amazing, life-changing salad. Tragically, my Greek salad was quite a disappointment. It was basically a bowl of lettuce with a few tomatoes, some dressing and laughing cow cheese cut-up to look like feta. Obviously I didn’t eat the cheese so I’m sure my entire dinner was only about 150 calories and as a result I decided to have a couple more glasses of wine. I felt a bit guilty but it was my friend’s birthday – that’s a good reason to splurge, right?
As I was walking back to my apartment just now, I typed these updates into my app and learned that I was still more than 400 calories under my MyFitnessPal goal. Granted, I try not to eat the total recommended calories in the app each day but even if I did, I should theoretically still lose two pounds a week. So really my night of “splurging” wasn’t a splurge at all. Sure I had some wine, which isn’t great for the metabolism but if anything, tonight helped me to realize once again that it’s okay to be human once a while. If this is going to be a sustainable change I have to be able to have that drink once in a while or to not be afraid to go out for dinner. A healthy lifestyle is a balance and I’m so glad that I’m learning this, even if it’s taking me a while.