The thing that really got me to start doing the hard work to lose weight was the desire to be fit enough to go on all the outdoor adventures that I wanted. Of course I wanted to be slender and “hot,” but after a long time on the edge between overweight and obese BMI it became easy to become complacent about the way I looked. What really got to me was having to say “no” when my friends wanted to go for a long hike or a kayaking trip because I was afraid that I couldn’t keep up or that I would be sore for days afterward. It was embarrassing to be huffing and puffing to climb a mountain that my friends could climb with ease, or to have to take more breaks than everyone else when doing manual labor at the garden where I volunteered.
Yesterday I just got back from a 10-mile backpacking trip and I feel FANTASTIC. I was worried that I was going to be slow and make everyone take breaks while I catch my breath, but to my surprise I managed to keep up with everyone just fine. On the first day we hiked about 7 miles in about 4 hours (including a few snack and selfie breaks) to our campsite, and I was pleasantly tired rather than completely exhausted the way I might have been before beginning my weight loss journey. It occurred to me that my 30-ish pound pack weighed about as much as the total amount of weight that I have lost so far. No wonder I was doing so well—I used to carry that much weight around all the time!
The icing on the cake was that when I weighed myself this morning, I was down to 144 pounds, so I’m officially at a healthy BMI! I was expecting a slight increase due to water weight from sore muscles and high-sodium food, but I guess the hiking triggered a whoosh from the mini-plateau I had last week. I’m definitely going for a long hike next time it looks like I’m starting to plateau.
It’s just really encouraging to see concrete results. Not only do I see improvement on the scale and in the mirror, but I can see improvement in the way my body is able to do more stuff.
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