Bittersweet second week

So, two weeks in, and still not thin.  (Cool rhyme.) 

BUT... I am making progress.  If you read my last post, you know I had a challenging weekend.  And I while I would love to say I've been a rock star since, not so much. Both Monday and Tuesday I had to be to work early and had to stay late.  And both days I failed to prepare meals the night before and then had to rush out the door without lunch or snacks.

Dragsville.  At least knowing I had my weigh-in coming up kept me from eating a lot of junk.

So today was scale day.  I did lose 2.4 pounds, bittersweet because it was great to see more progress, but I knew it could have been better without all the revelrie and feasting --- and that cake!!!!!!

(By the way, the cake was made by Kristen's friend Tracy Zenobia who is, no lie, the best baker I have ever known in my life in terms of both beautiful craftmanship and taste.  I wish she would open her own shop.)

Kristen's wedding cake, made by Tracy.

But.  But.

I think I have finally gotten to the age or stage (another rhyme) where I know that health is so much more than what the scale says.  And while part of me still has that perverse happiness at watching the needle go down (and the added thrill of feeling like I got away with something), the more mature, more knowledgeable me knows that the scale is not the story.  Not by a long shot.

So before I get further, here is a picture of my newly-updated weight loss graph.  The blue column was the weight I lost the first week, and then the (much smaller) green column was this week.  I created this little log fairly simply, using our graph paper and a ruler and some colorful markers.  (If this were Jody's, she'd likely have some super cute washi tape on it as well!)

So after reflecting on this a bit -- what true "health" is... I took some time to do a Brain Dump, writing down what I would like to be in mind, body and spirit.  It took a few minutes to think about what I aspire to in each area.  But once it was written down, it was amazing to see how "holistic"my list is.  My own concept of being healthy is really about so much more than the number on the scale.  

The energy piece, by the way, is HUGE... because oh. my. word. -- am I ever busy these days.  I find myself yawning a lot more and day-dreaming about night-dreaming.  There may or may not have been times recently where I closed my office door and laid down on the carpeted floor for 10-15 minutes.  Just maybe.  (Is that wrong?)

I took a break in writing this after I did the Brain Dump because we had to go to parent-teacher conferences tonight, and just thinking it through on paper inspired me so that dinner tonight was a delicious grilled chicken, apple, pecan and sesame seed salad with pomegranate vinaigrette --- felt great.

One final thing -- I've had several people ask me about the colorful markers I use on my inserts and calendars -- I love them.  I use Staedtlers or Stabilos, fine point.  They glide on the paper so smoothly, and the colors are beautiful.  

OK... thanks for stopping by the blog, and have a productive week!!

-Jennifer