Six Weeks Ago

A few minutes ago, I made two trips down my driveway and back. My driveway is a little under a tenth of a mile long. No big deal right?

I have this deal with our puppy. If he goes to potty when it's time to go get the mail, he gets to go. By go, I mean I carry him. He likes it and I don't trust him off a leash. Today, there was no mail, but I had two trash cans to walk back to the house. So, him in one arm, I made two trips to get the trash cans. He was in heaven.

Six weeks ago, I would be out of breath by the time I got to the end of the drive and nearly hyperventilating by the time I got back to the house.

I was seriously out of shape. I still am. But not that bad.

On my last trip to the house, I thought about all that has changed for me in the last six weeks.

Six weeks ago, I sat and longed for a time when we could be back in KC. I hated life here. I was miserable with my life in general and I felt terrible about myself.

I did that walk today without breaking a sweat or even raising my heart rate. I was breathing easy. Such a huge change.

Even though I'm in disbelief because my clothes don't feel that much looser, I've lost a whopping 24 lbs. I don't think I look any different. My belly isn't shrinking fast and neither are my cheeks. Those are two things that happen when I do crash fad diets or get sick.

Thankfully I started measuring myself or I would have never believed the scale. Here are my totals so far:
Hips -2.5"
Waist -5"
Chest -5"
Shoulder -7"
Thigh -2.5"
Arm -2.5"

That makes the number on the scale make so much more sense to me. I am losing weight in healthy ways and it's coming off all parts of my body. I know I've said that before, but I can't help but remind myself. I'm doing it the right way. My pants aren't going to fall off me at 24 lbs cause I'm not just losing weight in one place.

Size is such a small prt of it for me though. I am amazed at how
Much more I do and want to do.

Six weeks ago, I was doing good to get 1200 steps per day. Maybe a busy, grocery shopping day might get me 2300 or just over a mile.

For a month, I have walked at least five days a week. I get in 3/4 to 1.5 miles before 6:30 most mornings with my husband. I've started walking or getting some exercise in the evenings too. I hit 10,000 steps or more at least 3 days a week and am working on getting more. I've even had a couple two mile walks this past week.

I did try some exercising inside one day. I ended up throwing my back out and might rethink what I'm doing there. However, I did sit-ups and push-ups. I'm still beside myself that I can do any of that. Not since freshman year of high school have I done any of that.

The absolute best part of all of this is I'm not miserable. I'm enjoying life here. I've had some deep conversation. I'm making relationships. Friendships that will hopefully last for years to come.

The best side benefit is that my husband is on board now. He's walking five days a week and losing weight. He started walking for his back and it's helping. But now he pops up out of bed and goes without me if I'm sleeping. He has shirts that he hasn't worn in a couple years that he's digging out of the dresser to wear. I love that and love him. He even says his attitude is better at work. Yay!

I hope the next month is as productive as this one. It would be awesome to write a post at the end of September and have similar results.