Hitting The Big Five-Oh

I hit a major milestone over the weekend, Modern Philosophers.

The big Five-Oh.

No, I did not turn 50!  How could you even think that?  I’m not that old and my birthday is in January.  You should all have the date marked on your calendars, in fact…

What I did was finally lose 50 lbs!

Can you believe it?  While it took a little longer than I’d expected, I sweated off about one-sixth of myself.

Hopefully, none of the good parts of me were lost in the great fat purge of 2017.

I am now two-thirds of the way to my goal.  When I started this fitness program on April 1, losing 75 lbs seemed like a daunting, impossible to reach target.

And now I know I will get there.

Over the weekend, someone asked me if I follow a special diet.

The answer to that would be an emphatic “No!”.

In fact, Friday night, I had chicken wings and a whoopie pie for dinner.  Well, technically, the whoopie pie was my dessert, but you get the point.

Of course, that’s the first whoopie pie I’ve had in ages.  And that’s the key to my diet.

I’m eating smarter.  No more trips to the grocery store after work for comfort food or a quick, easy meal.  I prepare my meals for the week on Sunday and that’s what I have for dinner Monday through Thursday.

Friday night, I pick up something simple when I’m grocery shopping, but it’s usually a meal not totally horrible for me like chicken tenders.  The wings this week were a total splurge.

I don’t have a half gallon of ice cream in the freezer.  There’s rarely any sweets in the house.  I haven’t had Chinese food since the Ming Dynasty was in power.  Takeout has been taken out of the rotation.

Combine that with running five days a week, going for multiple walks every day, and trying to collect 20,000 steps on a daily basis, and you get Austin minus fifty lbs!

I just make sure to keep active.

Even today, which is my rest day (meaning it’s my day off from running and I don’t get up early to go for a walk before work), I have managed to collect over 16,000 steps.

Yes, it has been a challenge at times.  I ran 6 miles on Saturday and 5 more on Sunday.  I practically had to crawl the last mile back to The House on the Hill on Sunday because I was completely wiped.

But I still did it.  I’m running at least 20 miles a week, a feat which seemed impossible and a notion that I would have written off as insane back on April 1 when I struggled to complete the first 3 mile run of this adventure.

I had to stop to catch my breath (and say a quick prayer) many times that day, but I didn’t quit.  That run has set the tone for the last five months.  I set my mind to something, and I just go for it.

I am extremely proud of myself and can’t wait to see how much more I can achieve.

I feel so confident right now, and tonight, I posted this photo on Facebook with the caption: I no longer feel like Grimace when I where purple!

If any of you have wanted to start a fitness program, but haven’t because you don’t think you can reach your goals, just look at me.  If I can do it, anyone can.

The hardest part of any fitness journey is taking that first step.  My advice, Modern Philosophers, is to just close your eyes and imagine your inner Grimace chasing you.  Once you do that, you’ll have no problem setting out on that first run!