Crash, Burn, Get Up, Keep Going

I fell off the treadmill at my gym yesterday.  Not in a cute, adorable way either.  It was more a 45-car-pile-up-on-a-foggy-freeway kinda fall off the treadmill.  I was running and trying to apply chapstick – something I guess I’m not coordinated enough to do on a moving belt.  So I bit it – HARD – in the middle of my PACKED gym.  I have NEVER gotten up so fast from falling down.  I remember hitting my knees on the belt, getting thrown back into a row of stair machines and then EVERYONE in the gym running toward me.  My trainer was talking to another one of his clients and he SPRINTED across the gym.  That’s saying something for a guy who hates to run.  By the time anyone reached me I was back on my feet telling everyone I was fine and trying really hard not to cry like a baby out of sheer embarrassment.  And then I just climbed right back on that treadmill and finished my 5 mile run with an extra half mile thrown in just to show how totally okay I was.  I texted Best Friend Jill and let her know I had been thrown from a treadmill like it was a bucking bronco.  Her response after “OMG are you okay?” was “You’re such a badass!”  See… she always knows just what to say.  Because let’s be real – being launched from a moving treadmill and then popping back up and getting right back on that bitch IS badass.  And honestly, it’s been something I’ve had to do again and again on my weight loss journey… only this was the first time on an actual treadmill… the other times it was more metaphorical.

 

This week starts a Biggest Loser competition at my gym. (Hence why the tiny gym I go to was PACKED when I fell.)  We weighed in yesterday to get our starting weight.  As I’m doing the Whole30 right now, I was SO hesitant about seeing my weight.  I am REALLY sticking to the plan and want to make this way of eating work for me and hopefully, someday, my family.  Part of the plan is not weighing yourself.  As I’ve said before, I have a slight obsession with the numbers game of weight loss so this has been a HUGE challenge for me.  But with the start of the competition I needed to know where I stand so I can reach one of my Q1 2013 goals and WIN my gym’s Biggest Loser Competition.   My gym uses an InBody machine to weigh you as well as calculate your body mass makeup and all that goodness.  Since I’ve been participating in gym challenges for a little over a year I have 4 InBody reports since the start of my weight loss almost a year ago.  WHAT a difference a year makes!  I’ve lost 84 pounds total weight (76 pounds of which was fat, I did lose a little lean mass during the first 6 months, but am steadily rebuilding that and am within a pound of what my original lean mass was.) My limbs are lighter and leaner, I’ve built an astonishing amount of muscle in my trunk and legs especially (thank you running!) and am working hard with my trainer to get my upper body stronger as well.  Here’s the REALLY cool thing.  I’ve lost 15 pounds over the course of the last 6 months – 5.8 of those pounds have been since I started the Whole30 on January 1^st.  ONE THRID of the weight I’ve lost in 6 months has been over the past 12 days!  That is AMAZING to me!  I am feeling better eating this way – my workouts are better, my runs are getting better and I just feel good.  I didn’t realize how my food choices has thrown me off the proverbial treadmill the last few months.  I was so deeply focused on the NUMBERS that I completely ignored the quality of the food, and how it was making me feel.  Since I stopped logging my food like a religious zealot and have started paying attention to how I FEEL when I eat things have gotten so much better.  I KNOW when I’m really hungry now and when I’m head hungry.  Even better, I’m much more adept at talking myself out of unneeded snacking because I can say, “Sarah, you are NOT hungry… what else is going on?”  That is a HUGE step for me.  I am just really pleased with the direction things are going and even though I’m back up on my feet right this second, I know there will come a time when I’m lying on the floor a little bruised and worse for wear.  The amazing thing is, despite that, I KNOW I can get back up and I can keep going – bruised knees, ego and all.