The Mirror Lies

First of all, I'm excited to announce that I've been awarded top prize in the contest for World's Worst Blogger.  Okay, so it's not official, but I do realize I've been absent for a very long time.

The truth is that I had a really difficult year and gained back a lot of my weight, got depressed about it, came out of my funk and got back on track, then got back off track, blah-blah-blah.  So here I am again, after a weigh-in today that reinforced my need to get back on track.

I do have happy news though.  My friend Mandy (I've mentioned her before) reached her LIFETIME goal at Weight Watchers today!  Yay, Mandy!  I wish I had known it would  be today, because I had planned to make her a sash and crown for the occasion.  Since I missed it, she'll just have to settle for this sad little substitute. Here you go, Mandy, a crown for your achievement!

Ta-Daaaa!!

I've been thinking about how we let our thinking mess us up so often.  Mandy just returned from the beach, and she mentioned that even though she was at goal weight and thinner and healthier than she has been in a very long time, she still looked in the mirror and saw a fat girl in a bathing suit looking back at her.  (I might add that when I saw her at the meeting today, I immediately noticed how thin she looked.)  We discussed this quite a bit in our meeting, and as expected, most of us confessed to feeling this way even when, in reality, we're looking our best.

I thought of that discussion when I saw this:

Source: http://themetapicture.com/page/42/

How true is that!?  I wonder why it's sometimes so hard for us to see the reality of our achievements rather than the  tiny so-called flaws that make us human.  My hope is that I will be able to look at myself in the mirror and see someone who can do this, once and for all, realizing that goal weight is not the end by any means.  I think that accepting my looks - good and bad - is a large part of loving and accepting myself as a whole, even if I'm nowhere near my healthy weight.  And my hope is the same for all of us, that we can see our own beauty without comparing ourselves to the images of perfection that are impossible to attain, whether we're at our best size or not.

Weekly Weigh-In and Hot 100 Update

Today was a good weigh-in day.

First off, my WW buddy got her second 5-pound sticker PLUS her super-duper 5%!  Way to go!  I'm realizing how much better it is attending with somebody who is also really committed to this.  Celebrating each of these pounds and fractions of pounds that comes off just makes me want to keep going and not give up.

Then after she got her sticker prizes, I scored this little beauty...

Another 5-pound star!

As well as this!

10% Keychain!

I'm now down a total of 22.4 pounds.  Just 47.6 more to go before I hit my Weight Watchers goal!  I realize that sounds like a lot (and it is), but I'm almost a third of the way there.  Not too shabby!

How about a Hot 100 update?  You got it!

1.  Lose 15-plus pounds by the end of the year / end of the challenge.  I'm down 7.4 pounds from the start of the Hot 100.  This means I'm about halfway to my goal of losing an extra 15 during this challenge.

2.  Get more sleep.  It's always a struggle, but I'm still doing better.  Not perfect by any means.  Last night I actually turned off the light and went to bed right when I felt a little sleepy.  My husband wasn't even in bed yet, and I rarely do that.  I'm like a big heat-seeking lizard or something.  Need my warm fella to curl up next to.

3.  Start taking vitamins.  I was just about to go off on how amazing I am at #3 on my list, when I realized that for the first time I forgot to take my supplements today!  Well, other than today, I've got this one in the bag!

4.  Make a plan for eating and exercising over the holidays and stick to it.  Still have not purchased Halloween candy for the trick-or-treaters.  After this week's binge on candy corn, I realize I cannot be trusted with any kind of candy products of any form.  In fact, I'm a little concerned I might start wolfing down those spider rings I bought for trick-or-treaters if I'm not careful.  No, they're not SUPPOSED to be edible, but you should have seen me going after that candy corn!

Be good, and do good, my friends!

Ouch!

Well, the P90X workouts have begun.  My friend Denise and I started Friday.  I'm still sore from that day, but in a good way.  Not pain like I'm injured, but that reminder that I've actually tapped into some muscles that have gone unused for far too long.  Tomorrow is my least favorite workout - Yoga.  Yes, I know, lots of people adore yoga.  Me, not so much.  But I'm going to do it anyway and try to find that inner peace I keep hearing you can get from yoga.

Yesterday I attended a fundraiser for Young Life.  The event was at an open-air pavilion at one of the many camps located here in the Texas Hill Country.  The weather was perfect, and the pavilion was between a pond and the river.  It was catered by Acapulco Mexican Restaurant, but I still managed to stay within my food range - fajita meat, one tortilla, beans, guacamole, lots and lots of salsa and pico.  No chips,  no rice, no cheese, just one tortilla, no dessert.  No regrets.  It was good, and I enjoyed what I had.

Also, I got my first blogger award!  Thanks to Becky at My Walk From Flab to Fab for the "A Blog With Substance" award.  I'm so excited and so honored!  Becky puts it all out there and is very open with sharing her struggles and successes.  Check her out, and let her know I sent you to visit.

According to Becky, upon receiving the award, I must:

1. Explain my blogging philosophy, motivation and experience in five words.

2. Give the award to ten other bloggers.

Part I - Explaining My Blogging Philosophy, Motivation and Experience in Five Words

Like others, I wondered how in the world I could do this in just give words.  Ask me again in a month, and I'll probably have a different answer. But for now, five words that explain my blogging philosophy, motivation and experience would be this:  Being open grows my soul.  

Part II - Awarding 10 Other Bloggers

I'm still quite new to the blogging community, so I had a really hard time with this.  I don't really know all the etiquette of the blog awards, so I'm going to offer the award privately and will post the recipients after they reply.  

And since Becky said it so beautifully, I'm going to quote her:  "Thank you to all of you bloggers who don't settle for what yesteryear had to offer. Thank you for creating tomorrow anew and inspiring me and so many others to do the same."