Today, in History

Today, in History

What happened on this date in history?

Barack Obama was inaugurated as 44th US President (2009)
Australia beats India 2-0 to win the Wold Cup (1992)
First federal holiday honoring Marting Luther King, Jr (1986)
Pittsburgh Steelers beat Los Angeles Rams, 31-19 in Pasadena and Terry Bradshaw was the MVP (1980)
“Meet the Beatles” album is released in the US (1964) (I have an original copy!)
FDR is sworn in 4th consecutive term as US President (1945)
Hostilities cease in US Revolutionary War (1783)
First English Parliament was sworn in by Earl of Leicester (1285)

And in 2012, I reached my weight loss goal!

And they all lived happily ever after, never regaining an ounce.

Yeah. Right.

Oh, please don’t misunderstand me. I am still wearing my new size in clothing. (Specifically, my shirts went from 3XL w/18″ neck to Medium w/15 1/2″ neck, my waist 48″ to 34″, and my suit from 54 Portly to 42 Regular.) They are not even tight (except for that one shirt–there is NO WAY that neck is actually 15 1/2 inches as labeled!) Over the past 2 years, I lived in my “success range” which is about my goal plus or minus 3 pounds. Actually, for about the first year, I actually slid down another 6 pounds from my goal, and was living at “G minus 6 pounds”. That was fine. But towards the end of 2013, my weight started to climb. To G minus 3…then G…then G plus 3. Still…I was within my success range, so it was all good, right?

Wrong!

I was getting complacent. Not lazy, but relaxed. I haven’t regained too much, but I am at the top of what I consider to be successful. I don’t have any more room to wander up. So, what am I going to do differently?

Nothing. And everything.

I never really stopped measuring and logging my foods…but I also starting overlooking those extra couple hazelnuts or walnuts at the holidays. I love nuts, and seeing a bowl of them was an “attractive nuisance”. And since I only ate one or two nuts (at a time), well, maybe I didn’t bother logging them. Of course, the problem was that I would walk past them several times a day, and the “one or two” became “10-15”.

And I know that having two HUGE bags of candy in the garage was a mistake. We had a bag of “Christmas Crack” was simultaneously terrible and delicious, and I know I didn’t honestly log everything I ate from it. After all, how could a small handful hurt? I mean, it is only Chex mix, with butter, brown sugar, corn syrup and cashews? (Oh, I can almost taste it yet.) I also found it difficult to walk past the Caramel Puffcorn without doing “quality control”. Every day.

Here’s how bad it was: I remember Tammy coming home from work one day, and she asked me about my day. I told her that I felt it was successful, because I spent the whole day at home, and I didn’t eat any of those treats.  Guess what I did that night immediately before brushing my teeth prior to going to sleep? (But it was only small double handful!)

Fortunately at least this year we didn’t make our Hot Buttered Rum mix! (Ice cream, butter, powdered sugar and brown sugar.)

I am back to carefully logging everything. I put the nuts away. (The Christmas munchies are thankfully long gone!) I am staying on budget. Not under budget. Not over budget. But at budget.

It’s deja vu all over again. Measure. Log. Move.

Success is possible. Success is an eternal quest, and it can be fleeting. If you forget, even for a little while, old habits can come crashing back. I’m not telling you this to scare you, or to make you feel as though this challenge is impossible. I am telling you so that I remind myself that this challenge is just that: a challenge. It only becomes impossible when you surrender to it.

Today, I am still within my official success range. And I am going to stay there.

8 thoughts on “Today, in History

  1. Thank you SO MUCH for posting this, Trevor! Real Life. This is how it goes. You bobbled, you admitted it to yourself, you fessed up here. You corrected course. One foot in front of the other. It’s a new day! LOG4LIFE — I’m convinced it works. And your success continues — rock on!

    • Cathy, thanks for those words. I will be honest. I hated writing this post. I was trying to avoid it. And I couldn’t. If I expect self-honesty of others, I need to demonstrate it.

      We WILL succeed!

  2. Amazing entry Trevor. I will read and reread it! I have gone down that very same path myself too many times–from thinking that I could get away with squeezing into my new clothes to not admitting all the tasting and snacking I was doing. Being honest with oneself is the only way to win this thing. Thanks so much for sharing and shining a light on what can be a dark journey at times.
    Lynne

  3. Love your blog posts, Trevor. My hubby and I were just talking about maintenance last night. Both of us are close to our goals and he was pretty vehement that he would need to log the rest of his life. Being the optimist that I am, I countered with a naive, “I don’t think I will need to.” After reading your post, I am convinced I will need to LOG4LIFE too. Thanks for sharing your story, and thank you for all the work you do for our LoseIt community. You are making a difference!

    • Lara, I hope that you are able to maintain without logging! That would be so great! But I have been reminded that I am not that strong. So, LOG4LIFE is MY life! And I am okay! I will win because if it!

  4. Perfectly said. It does no good to fuss over what’s done or undone if we don’t just move ahead more wisely, and clearly that’s what you’re doing. It certainly *is* easy to gloss over the details of how we spend our time, health, energy—no matter *what* part of life we’re trying to improve (weight, work habits, relationships, etc)—when we get habituated to things. What’s right in front of us is often hardest to see! So I commend you not only for accomplishing such dramatic change for the better in your health quest but for being smart and brave enough to reevaluate on occasion and adjust for what’s your current reality. Your Someday IS today, Trevor, and it’s inspiring to see how you live it out. Congratulations!
    Kathryn

    • Kathryn, I truly appreciate your comments and words of support. We all can succeed, but we need to be honest with ourselves at all times! (And help from each other doesn’t hurt!) Thanks!

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