The Baack Paack

Over the past two weeks I have been traveling for work. For most of us, traveling introduces excuses to your normal dietary needs and exercise plan, due to the change in location and schedule.

“Oh, I can’t workout, I don’t have this.. that.. or the other thing..”
Or,
“I need to leave super early to get to XYZ, I don’t have time for ABC..”

These excuses are common and are a huge reason folks get derailed.  They let the obstacle of “change” block their progress and derail them from their goal.  This has happened to me in the past, and knowing this, I decided that this trip that I was going to be very aware of all my decisions, from what I ate, to when I ate it, to when I was working out, in order to achieve the result that I wanted.

Knowing that I have a race coming up in a few weeks, I needed to really dial in the focus and not let a change in scenery as well temperature, climate (day time in the 80s to day time in the 30s), and time zone- derail me from my goals this year. For two weeks, with the support of various family members ranging from preparing meals, working out together, and hiding my “trigger foods” from my sight (thank you all!) I was able to stay very focused on my eating plan, and workout regiment. My focus for the past 8 weeks, even before this trip,  has been on cardio conditioning for the races. More miles under foot now, means better performance at the race.  Get used to the distance now, so you don’t feel wiped in the race, and still have “gas in the tank” to finish strong – not just drag my ass over the finish line.
High intensity sprints, longer distance runs, heart rate workouts, I did them all.  Over the past few weeks I could see changes in my body. Clothes fitting differently, body fat reducing in certain area, more definition in others. All positive signs of improvement. When I was out running I noticed that there was less “jiggling” going on in several areas that have been problematic in the past.. and yeah, to anyone who looses a lot of weight in a short amount of time, loose skin is a constant issue that we have to deal with, especially as you get older.  Unless you plan on having surgery to remove it, you need to find a solution that supports your physically and mentally. (More on that in a later post!)
Training during this trip was hard.  I needed to really schedule my life to make sure I got it done.  I worked out when I didn’t want to.  I ate super clean when I wanted to consume massive amount of “other” foods.   I sucked down my 150 – 200 oz of water each day.  I took my supplements each morning and each night.   I knew I was going to crush this weigh in.
I get home the other day and jump on the scale, fully expecting to see a massive drop from when I left. All of the hours, the sweat equity, the hard nutrition decisions, they were all going to pay off as I stared down between my feet looking for that magical number to pop up.

That wasn’t the case.
In fact, the numbers were VERY close to where they were when I left 14 days ago!
Frustrated and grumpy I left the room.

Taking a few moments (actually about an hour) I had to remind myself that “change” isn’t only in the measurement of mass on the scale. The scale is not measuring body fat percentage, just mass.  It isn’t measuring athletic progress, just mass.  It isn’t measuring improved resting heart rate, just mass.   Too many of us only use the scale as the only measurement tool in our journey.   In that instant, I was guilty as well.  A number popped up and I went into RAGE mode.  Self doubt, self destructive thoughts “I might as well go ahead and eat XYZ..a lot of good last week did me.. freakin scale!” as well as “Yeah, all that running did great things.. no change here!”  All old destructive thoughts from a previous mindset that got me to a weight of over 400 pounds came flooding back in a sea of negativity, filling my mind with self doubt.  I let three digits generated from a computer that I was standing on, dictate how my mental outlook would be for the day as well as set off a  possible nutrition disaster by “allowing” my brain to make very poor nutritional choices.

All because of three numbers

I didn’t think about how I could tighten my belt to a new notch last week,  or how my “go to” travel shirt, was starting to look WAY to big on me, or that my jeans were a lot looser than when I put them on 3 weeks ago.  Or that I felt stronger and faster on my running workouts. Or how some people were noticing that my face, arms, chest were starting to look thinner.

I was only focused on three numbers on a scale  

As we travel on a weight loss journey, we need to remember that the scale is only ONE of several tools that we can use to measure our progress.  It is not the end all be all measurement tool that many of us allow to dictate our mood for the day based upon the result.  The scale doesn’t show that my average running pace has become faster by almost a minute a mile.  The scale does not show how much faster my heart rate is recovering now post workout.  The scale doesn’t show my ability to keep “jogging” up hills, and not have to break down to a walk.  The scale doesn’t show how the clothes are fitting differently and some new found confidence in my athletic abilities… All the scale shows is a number, total mass standing on the platform.

Mass measurement is only one small piece of the overall assessment.  Remembering this is critical to forward progress on the journey.