Waffle House - Lessons For The New Year!

This is a Christmas picture taken three years ago with my husband and our two beautiful grandchildren, CJ and Leah.  The next photo is from this Christmas, after two years on my journey  to a new me and dropping 136 pounds!

They say a picture is worth a 1,000 words.  Well I don't know about that but I do know that a picture usually doesn't tell a lie and this picture speaks volumes.  Not only are my grandchildren growing up rapidly before my eyes, but I am only a portion of the woman that I was in that first Christmas picture that was taken three years before.

When I began my journey to a new me one of the goals that I had set was not only to lose weight but to regain my health.  When you become a grandparent you begin to see the future and your grandchildrens role in that future.  I want to be around to enjoy many more years of their lives and the best way that I know to do that is to take the best care of their "Nana" that I can (yes, they call me Nana)   I got to pick what I wanted to be called and my mom is Grammie, and my grandmother is Granny and I have always wanted to be a Nana, so now I am one.

This weekend we got to spend some great quality time with our grandchildren and if you listen to them you can learn alot.  They love for us to take them to breakfast at our favorite breakfast place, yes you guessed it, Waffle House.  Or as they love to say "Waffles House!"   Then we checked out the menu and I placed an order for them to share of the All Star Breakfast Platter.  If you are
not familiar with the Waffle House All Star Breakfast Platter let me tell you what you get.  Two eggs cooked to your choosing, a waffle, a bowl of grits or a serving of hash browns, two pieces of toast either white, wheat or raisin, and finally your choice of three slices of bacon, two sausage patties
or ham.

They listened to the choices and asked for the two eggs scrambled, hashbrowns, three slices of crispy
 bacon, white toast, and don't forget that delicious waffle!  When the food came to the table I asked for a separate plate and divided the feast between both of my grandchildren.  About half way through the meal the "Aha" moment came for me.  My grandaughter pushed away the waffle when her "half" was only half eaten.   She said "Nana me full and I don't want any more."  I asked her to give me a happy plate and she said "I'm done Nana", and then it struck me that what had just happened.  I was trying to have her clean her plate like I had been taught to do as a young child and in the process it came to me that she had said some powerful words, "I'm done Nana".  At four years old she knew what it felt like to feel "full" and she did two important things, she pushed away the plate, and she stated that she was done.

This was a great lesson for me to begin the new year.  This year I will slow down and enjoy my meals more.  I will anticipate that "I'm full feeling" even if it means that I leave food unfinished on my plate, and once I make the decision to stop eating, I will push away my plate and state (even if it is to myself) that I am finished.  I have come to realize that I have come a long way over the past two years but I  still have a ways to go.  So let me see just how far this lesson will take me.  I'm looking forward to my next few weeks and months and the progress that this little plan will bring me on my journey to a new me!

Celebrating Two Years On My Journey To A New Me!

It was only two short years ago that I began a journey  to a healthier and leaner version of myself!  If you had told me way back then that I would still be moving towards my goal I would probably have had a little problem believing you.  You see this is the first and only time in my life that I have successfully lost weight and kept it off in my entire lifetime.

On December 11, 2012 I marked my two years traveling down this road.  I have seen my fair share of detours along the way but my destination has never changed.  My goals from the beginning were never about a certain number on the scale, but a healthier way of life.  I no longer wanted to live with the attitude, "Live To Eat", but instead "Eat to Live".   My first year goal was a simple 100 pounds weight loss goal.  Now I am not saying that to lose 100 pounds is simple, it was just my nice "round" number that I wanted and that I acheived.  By the end of year one I was down 101 pounds.

Then we begin '2012.  This was my second year on my journey and again I set a big goal for myself.  I wanted to lose 50 pounds.  My method would be the same course that I had used in '2011 and that was to use www.myfitnesspal.com to record all my food intake, increase my exercise and record it all on this app.  The plan could not have been any easier, but after 7 months of gaining and losing the same 7 pounds I realized that something was wrong!

I needed to mix things up a bit.  I needed to change something that I was doing.  I needed to get off of the plateau that I had been sitting on for most of the year but how and what were questions that I had no way of figuring out.  Enter my "Mystery Nutritionist" (See blog post 8/18/2012). It was on that first visit that I had to reprogram my thinking and completely put my trust in someone else to offer me guidance and direction on my journey to a new me.

I am happy to report that I did have a successful year with my weight loss, but not only my weight loss but my overall body shape and appearance.  On my first meeting with the nutritionist she asked me how much weight did I want to lose and I told her about my initial 50 pound goal and she said that she could not guarantee that I could do that in just over four months but she wanted to know what "Size" that I wanted to be.  Well this was something that I had never really given much thought to.  I always looked at it in the complete opposite direction.  Meaning, I always thought that when I got down to a certain "weight" then the smaller clothes sizes would come, but she asked me to pick a "size" that I wanted to be by the end of the year and to set my focus on that number instead of the 50 pound weight loss number.

Okay, I like games, and I knew that there was no way for either of us to know the answer to this question so I said, "Well the shorts that I have on today are a women's size 24 and this is the smallest size that I have been in over 25 years!"  She said, "OK, so what size would you want to be by the end of the year?"  and without giving it much thought I said, "I'd like to be in a size 18!"  She just smiled and said, "OK, then a size 18 you will be!"

Wait a minute, why did she just say that?  How could she state that like it was a fact?  How did she know that I would reduce my clothes size from a 24 to a 18 in less than 6 months?  The answer?  Because she knows her stuff!  By the first week of December I went shopping and purchased my first pair of 18 jeans, and I have been purchasing size 18 everything, ever since!

Wow!  She really knows how to motivate someone.  I am happy to report that during those four months and two weeks I dropped 35 pounds!  So I am now down 136 pounds since beginning my journey to a new me.  Am I disappointed that I did not hit my 50 pounds for '2012?  Maybe a little, but those size 18 jeans sure did make me forget about that disappointment.  You see my concentration is not only on pounds on the scale but the inches on the measuring tape and the Body Fat Index that is recorded on her magical scale every week.  There has been much progress in '2012 and I know that with hard work '2013 can be even greater!

So what are you  waiting on?  Where are you on your journey?  Have you lost your way?  Have you been at a rest stop for way too long?  Did you take a wrong road somewhere along the way?  Did the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years holidays push you over the food edge?   It is not too late.  '2013 can be your year to regain your health and there is really no time like the present to get up and get started.  So here's to another fantastic year of healthy living!  Who knows, maybe I will be down 50 pounds this year, or maybe a size or two?