Healthy Lifestyle

Hello again!  Yesterday I was starting to plan a new workout/eating routine for myself, as I don't feel as healthy as I did when I was training for the Big Climb.  I thought about losing 10 pounds by eating healthier and exercising more.  The trouble is, I think I do a pretty good job of eating healthy and I am very active already.  My focus, then, will be to "tone up."

Often, I still feel like the old 218 lb. Millie from 3.5 years ago.  Yes, Collin and I did the math yesterday and now I've kept off my weight for 3.5 years. I AM PROUD OF IT!  Just as a note, for those of you who have only known me since I've lost my weight, it took me about 1 year to lose 68 pounds.  I did it through LOTS of exercise and healthy eating (I gradually eliminated unhealthy choices--I didn't just quit cold turkey).  To date, I have lost a total of 72 pounds= 1/3 of my original weight.  Despite losing that much weight, it still takes looking at pictures to realize I'm really not as big as I feel.  I have a few pictures of myself that I absolutely HATE with a passion.  I look at them and realize why I felt so sluggish, unattractive, lazy.  Here is the worst one.  I cringe when I look at it and I am terribly embarrassed to post it:

worst. picture. ever.

I have been "dieting" since I was in the 6th grade.  So why did it take me so long to shed the pounds and make a permanent change? A few summers ago, my gram had a heart attack.  She was a healthy weight; the heart attack was brought on my stress (from being over-worked at Wal-Mart... I could post another whole blog about that one).  As she was laying in her hospital bed, she said, "Girl, you better get healthy."  That was all that it took for me to begin my healthy lifestyle.  The consequences of unhealthy eating were finally real.  I wasn't just trying to diet to look good anymore; I was making lifestyle changes to LIVE.  That's why I think most diets are unsuccessful; they are temporary plans that are used to improve your appearance, but don't have a lasting positive impact on your overall health.  I made changes that I always knew I could live with.  I would never cut out chocolate- that would just be a depressed life for me.  But I can live with only a few pieces per week.

I will never be that 218 pound Millie again.  My constant goal for the last 3.5 years has been "feel the best that you ever have."  Up to this point, the best that I've ever felt was when I was running stairs 4-5 times per week in preparation to climb 1,311 steps.  I felt good about myself because I was able to train with elite stair climbers of Seattle's XGym.  I was meeting up with and getting tips from PJ Glassey, one of the top stair climbers in the world.  I felt something I never had before--I felt like an athlete.  The "people-pleaser" part of me loved giving it my all and getting recognition from PJ, "Wow, that's a great time Millie,"  or "this is really only your first stair climb?"  I always felt like he couldn't possibly be talking to ME, after all, I was still that 218 pound girl.

Now that the Big Climb has been over for a few months, I've slid back into the routine of just walking several times per week--but that isn't making me feel as good as intense workouts were.  I do have another stairclimb coming up in October--the Fight for Air Climb in Bellevue--the longest stairclimb in the world: 180 floors (over 3,000 steps)... I plan to get back in the routine of stair training with XGym in Seattle when I go to school at the UW through July.  Until then, I plan to tone up and continue to eat healthy.

I am going to celebrate my accomplishment by taking a look and reflecting on some pictures of me at my new, healthy weight (it'll take 3 good ones to counteract the bad one above :)

about to race up 1,311 steps!

This is one of the first pictures that convinced me, yeah, you have lost a lot of weight Millie! (only 3 years later)

At last, I don't have to take 9823754892735 pictures before I get a "good" one.