Signs of Progress

Playing catch with my 11 year old between games of my 9 year old's tournament

On long journeys, signs of progress carry meaning and provide energy. Trying to come back from many years of weight gain and inactivity definitely counts as a long journey. The scale provides some signs of progress. I'm now at 33.4 pounds off, within a half pound of my low point on the P.O.P. But there are other signs.

When I saw the above picture, it was a sign of progress. We were at a baseball tournament that my 9 year old was in and I was intent on not having my 11 year old feel like second priority. So every time he asked to play catch, I jumped up and threw with him. My arm is feeling good right now, which I attribute in part to my legs being strong.

I was reasonably disciplined in my eating during the tournament, which was the mother of all unstructured eating challenges. We had games during mealtimes and taco, sandwich, and pizza buffets when the kids were done with baseball. Somehow, I stayed within my maintenance calorie amount. Junk food was constantly available, and I ate a reasonable amount. Alcohol and sugary sodas were plentiful and I had one per day of the former and none of the latter. Twice we had a breakfast buffet near the tournament site and both times I limited myself to one plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, and potatoes. I know that may still sound like a lot, but any other time I would have had seconds of those, as well as pancakes, a bagel, cereal, and juice. There was a historic burger joint nearby that I could have gone to at 10 P.M., after the pizza buffet, but I went the next day for lunch, and shared fries and a milkshake rather than getting my own. My wife helped a little on the burger joint decisions, but the rest was on my own.

Fast forward to last night. Something was on my mind and I couldn't sleep. I went downstairs and went on-line for a half hour. Then I went back to bed. I still couldn't sleep, so I went downstairs again and watched a recorded TV show. But I never had a bite to eat. Honestly, it really didn't occur to me, since I was just about out of calories. There was a time where I would have eaten salty snacks and sweets, straight out of their containers.

These are signs of momentum to me. It's not just that I decided that it'd be a good idea to keep my calories to my maintenance level or less. It's that gradually, I am changing habits and creating a new normal. I have a long way to go, but I'm embracing signs of progress along the way.

(Programming note: My sons finished up Little League this weekend and I'm in the last month of my crazy one year position. Things will calm down for me soon and I may post more. I'll definitely be more plentiful and timely with my comments on your blogs. Keep up the good work everybody.)