How would you celebrate a small victory? A banana split?
Today, August 6, 2013, is a momentous occasion. After 7+ months of trying to lose weight and more than a month of trying to fight high cholesterol, I weighed in at 30.0 lbs less than Jan. 1, 2013. Thirty pounds! Can you believe that? I owe a lot of credit to my coach and her online accountability groups as well as constant support by the virtual running communities that claim me as a member. It’s taken a lot of running, a lot of discipline, a lot of work, changing habits, making permanent lifestyle changes, giving up soda pop, fighting weird food temptations, and lots and lots of KALE. Oh, and there’s the newly-discovered magical power of McCann’s Irish oatmeal. (Have you tried it yet? It was my pre-race dinner before my 5K I medalled in last month so I think it’s lucky plus I’m losing weight eating a lot of it.) Recently, My Fitness Pal has been very helpful too, just in providing members with common interests (e.g., running marathons, kale, asthmatics like me, people who are in their 40s like me, people with high cholesterol like me, etc.). I was surprised how much My Fitness Pal has helped, I thought it was just a tracking system for diet and nutrition but it is much, much more.
So my daughter suggested that I put this picture up on my blog to show you what NOT to eat. It was one of those evenings when she was starving for a dessert/treat and my first question was: would you like a banana split? She surprised me by saying yes. Then she made the whole thing herself! So don’t eat this banana split way at the top ^^^^^^^^, eat KALE, spinach, have a slice (or seven) of watermelon and okay, yes, you can eat the whole banana.
How did I celebrate? Canceled one cross-training workout tonight (I ran already) plus had an amazing kale smoothie with SunWarrior vegan (and soy-free) chocolate protein mix, almond milk, coconut milk, chia, flaxseed, coconut oil, blueberries, raspberries, spinach, and ice. Wow! Dessert will be one watermelon, an amazing healthy dessert loaded with water. As a former watermelon lumper, the irony is not lost on me. My life has come full circle from teenage watermelon lumper to middle-aged watermelon celebrator.
Lesson learned: Not all victories in life are large, so celebrate even the small victories in life because life is short!
Happily stuffed with watermelon, Jeremy (R.G.S.)
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