It's been two years!

There she goes... there she goes again...

OK, so it's now been TWO years since I adopted a new way of life in terms of food and fitness.

This year hasn't been easy in terms of visual success. My weight has frustratingly seesawed, gaining and losing the same 8 pounds the last year. I'm frustrated to say I've GAINED in the last year, and my overall total is -31, instead of last year's 34 lost.

BUT I went shopping this week and bought two pairs of size 8 dress pants. The saddlebags that have hung off my hips are now just hips. Most of my pants are 8s, 10s, and medium. And I had to buy new bras too.

Most of the change seems to be happening internally. Blood pressure down. Cholesterol down. Blood sugar back to normal. I shouted and cried and waved the test papers around. My doctor sat down and simply asked, "how'd you do it?"

I'm trying to figure out how it got off track though. I did more races than ever before and continued to train. I've tried switching things up, and in the middle of a very cold, very snowy winter, getting bored being indoors and doing the same old thing.

Food logging became a strain on myfitnesspal, to the point I was sweating out eating a gumdrop if I didn't log it, and waiting to eat if I was hungry until after midnight, so I could log the calories for the next day. I got too many warnings about being in "starvation mode," so I freed myself from thinking about it. I wonder if consumption also crept up.

I'm willing to cut myself some slack too. I lost my father in law in May, and the prolonged stress from May to his service in July certainly drew things out. And then in July, I started my root canal battle, resulting in two surgeries and repair to a cracked filling. It's hard to feel 100% when you are far from it.

Fast food as a staple of my diet is almost completely a thing of the past. It's back to what it was when we were kids, a treat, something to be done only on occasion. I've drank sugared pop maybe once on accident. The house is filled with vegetables, and we are steadily becoming a "whole foods" family, with fewer and fewer processed/packaged meals in the house.

That's not to say I don't have my weaknesses. Candy is delicious. Snacks are yummy. I can sleep on a full belly. And sometimes I just don't want to get out of bed.

So what to do, moving forward? Well, Christmas  is over and it's time to step away from the sweets. I like that I'm getting more sleep now that Will is in afternoon preschool, but I need to make the most of my mornings with him instead of lounging in bed, a hard task when it's -30 outside. It's time to set my training sights on the RBR in May, not forgetting ANs in April.

I told the doc I wanted to be 149, and I don't see him again until August. I've got time to do this.