Yesterday was a milestone for me. I went to a friend's birthday party in a town I had lived in for about 10-15 years. I brought an abundance of veggies to share and my own cooked chicken breast for dinner. I brought some flavored water also.
Here's a first for me: during my time there, I did not have any alcohol, no food other than what I brought myself, and...just....I DID NOT CHEAT ONCE!!! This is a big deal! I DO have amazing willpower I guess!! I often don't think of it as willpower, I think of it as sticking to my plan and not letting myself down. I think that if you can be true to yourself and what you want, you have more to give to other people and that positivity & strength spreads to others. It also gives you more power to stay the course. Good choices prompt more good choices just as bad choices prompt more bad choices. It's all a choice and the struggle is finding/having the strength to stay in the positive. You've got to put money into your own emotional bank account - keep that account in the positive and watch the withdrawls. It's like getting points while you play a video game to keep your power up...the more you give to yourself the more you have to give and the more power you have to achieve challenges that come your way. This is the same thought process a person can follow with ANY challenge: training for a marathon, getting done with college, picking up pieces after a life altering event, surviving tragedy.
There were a lot of questions on how I lost this weight. I say that I don't eat sugar much nor eat a lot of carbohydrates - I eat mostly veggies & lean protein which is absolutely true. I explained that I'm on an 8 week "clean eating" challenge with myself and I don't plan to eat this way forever. I don't mention Ideal Protein because I firmly believe it IS NOT A DIET. It's a collection of phases for eating healthy and healing your body's response to food. It's also a meal plan for sustained health AND lessons in both willpower and treating yourself well. It's based in science and far more intelligent than weight watchers. Yes, I could have had a vodka drink and been fine - probably not even gotten kicked out of ketosis, but my body metabolizes alcohol right now like a HUGE influx of sugar and poison and knocks me out. That's not worth it for me. Essentially, when a person is in ketosis, your brain is NOT burning carbohydrates for energy besides the small amount you get naturally from veggies, whey protein, and soy protein (usually, animal protein does not have any carbs). That means it's relying on the energy releasing from your fat cells to operate. When you drink alcohol, that is halted because your liver first will process the alcohol and your body will work to flush it out first, leaving your body NOT burning fat which means YOUR BRAIN IS NOT GETTING FUEL. You get MUCH more drunk MUCH more swiftly because your brain is starving for energy/fuel & wants to shut down - or in other words, you get really tired really fast and there is the danger of suffering something like a diabetic coma. Not fun, in my book!!
It was nice to hear from everyone that I'm looking good and they are impressed at my choice to eat and not drink the way most people do - and they way I used to. I didn't feel too judgmental about others eating a lot or drinking a lot last night either, like I have done in the past. They know why they have not been able to lose their weight- they don't need me to tell them. What some people don't understand is that losing weight and keeping it off is NOT about a diet, a magic pill, or a body altering surgery: it is about making the choices that pay off in the end and investing in your health. Forever. It's not fun and in the moment it is sad, frustrating, annoying, lonely, and well, just plain sad. But after a while, you see the results and OTHER people see the results and notice how happy you are, how good you feel, even how sociable and funnier you are and they start to think. You don't have to say a word; the proof is in the pudding. It's also not forever - the phase of losing the weight you've been carrying around should NOT last forever. Maintenance should last forever and frankly, that's just about living a good life, being healthy, feeling energetic, being joyful, enjoying the people and moments in your life --without reservation or censure. I definitely am having more fun and thinking less about how I appear to others. I just go for it and enjoy life in the moment.
That's better than losing 65lbs in the span of a year (and more still to come!) than anything.
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