Just when you thought I disappeared, I am back!  I needed some time to take a step back and clear my head.  For the past few weeks, I have been missing from the blogging world, but I needed the time to refocus my energies and invest in my mental health.  I’ve focused on sharing essential oils with my friends and family, working, going to gym, playing video games with my XBOX One friends, and scrambling to find Garth Brooks tickets at cost!  I didn’t fall off the wagon, I’ve been cleaning the wagon and pressing ever forward.

My focus for both my weight loss and building my team with Young Living essential oils has been to enjoy the journey rather than running myself to death towards a destination.  For weight loss, this means that I have been steadily cruising through my new norm.  For essential oils, I worked more than I ever have to invest in sharing Young Living and helping to invest in the people that have already started on this journey with me.  The results have been the same for both my weight loss and Young Living journeys:  steady progress.  Sometimes, we got so focused on a specific goal that it can be easy to become frustrated and give up, but we must remind ourselves that the slow steps forward are so much more important than a failed lunge forward.  Also, if we take time to enjoy the journey, we can reach the destination having enjoyed the steps that got us there.

What has changed?

Rather than focusing my energies on walking between 3-5 miles a day, I have been investing my time in heading to the gym.  I joined a gym because my body had a desire to move faster than I could walk.  Fearing potential damage to my joints, I elected to utilize the elliptical machine so that I could move faster, but avoid any long-term damage.  Thus far, I have struggled with the elliptical due to the speed increase.  I started by doing 20 minutes on the elliptical, but now I have worked my way up to about 45 minutes.

I have also added the use of several weight machines.  Planet Fitness has a 30 minute workout cycle.  I do those machines for 60 seconds each using very low weights and doing as many reps as possible.  I also, occasionally, use a step box to do a variety of cardio exercises in between each machine, but I also allow myself to do fewer of these than other days based on how hard I push myself with the elliptical.

Another change is that I am not tracking my calories as diligently.  Until recently, I focused my efforts on calculating each and every calorie I put into my mouth.  It seems more common now for me to focus my attentions on eating the right foods and not putting as much stress on myself at staying on a certain number.  The results?  Well, the last few weeks I have been losing an average of 4 pounds per week whereas I was losing 3.4 per week.  It seems the body has an incredible ability to communicate with us our TRUE NEEDS if we learn to LISTEN TO IT.  However, along with learning to listen to my body, I have also had to learn how to push myself just enough to achieve growth, but not so much that I go too far.

To be honest with you, I’m thrilled about where I am in this life at this moment!  I’ve been reminded lately just how many friends I have in this world and I’m truly seeing the changes in myself that I have been waiting for.  When I started this journey, I was in 5x-6x clothing and desperately needed to stop squeezing into size 58 pants and just accept that I was breaking into the 60s.  Today, I am easily wearing 3x clothing and able to get myself into size 48 jeans.

One of the most discouraging thoughts that kept me at my weight was my perception of the amount of time it would take to be the weight I wanted to reach.  When I would think of how the process would take years to finally reach my goal, the whole task looked a lot like trying to scale a mountain with no climbing gear (not that the gear would have held much at 450 pounds).  Looking back on these thoughts today, I could easily regret choosing to remain in that state for so long given how many daily increases I experience to my quality of life with each new pound I lose.  I fit in chairs again, I have no fear of the waitress sitting me at a booth rather than a table, showering is easier, using the toilet is easier, I can see my underwear in the mirror, I can tie my shoes anywhere, I can go enjoy my life without losing my breath at parks or even the grocery store, I can go to a concert without fear of fitting into the seats and crowding my friends with my body, and I have even seen a few more personal changes with my body 😉 !

If you tell yourself that you can’t do something, you won’t.  If you don’t start a journey because it feels impossible, you’ll never get to where you want to be.  If you jump onto a hype-filled train and try achieving the impossible, you’ll eventually get dizzy and end up confused on the side of a train wreck.  However, I’ve proven over the past 6 or so months that you can achieve BIG things by taking one step at a time.