#NOEXCUSES Lifestyle Challenge

It has been one year since I joined Living Lean. I joined last year when my friend convinced me to do their fat loss challenge with her.

When I walked into Living Lean a year ago I was nervous about what I was starting and excited for what was to come. I would love to be telling you that in the year I've been at LL I lost all my weight, but you already know that's not true. You also already know that I had come to the realization that I was totally OK with that.

This is and isn't true. I've said time and time again that I'm a work in progress. I'm trying super hard to be proud of my accomplishments in the last year and leave it at that. But I can't ignore the amount that I've struggled in the year as well. I certainly don't want to ignore my struggles, but I want to learn to see them as just that - struggles - not failures.

The LL challenge this year is called the #NOEXCUSES Lifestyle Challenge. It is quite different from last year and I am beyond excited about it. This year it is a 16 week long challenge and it is meant to focus more on developing a lifestyle as opposed to crash dieting. What's funny is that I've been on this journey for years to try to find my right balance. Last year I talked about how I actually feel like calling it a "lifestyle change" was impeding my weight loss. I still believe that. But, I also believe that perhaps this IS becoming my lifestyle and I might be totally OK with that.

My current lifestyle is to focus on weight loss for a finite period of time, then loosen the reigns a little until I see the scale going in a direction I don't like so I tighten the reigns again. I'm perfectly fine with this lifestyle. I actually think  that this is probably the way most people live. What I need to continue to work on, however, is tightening those reigns a little earlier (especially when I still have 50 pounds to lose). That's going to be my goal during 2019.

I am not thrilled with myself regarding how much weight I once again re-gained from my lowest last year; but I am over it. Clearly I didn't care enough to have stopped eating/drinking so I made the choice; it's time to own it and move on.

Last year I had my final weigh in for the #NOEXCUSES Spring Break Challenge on March 9, 2018.

My stats were:
Weight = 207
Body Fat % = 39
Chest = 35"
Bust = 40"
Waist = 35.5"
Belly = 41"
Hips = 44.5"
Rt. Leg = 25"
Rt. Arm = 13"

When I weighed in for this year's challenge today my stats were:
Weight = 203.8
Body Fat % = 38.6
Chest = 34.5" (-.5 inch)
Bust = 39" (-1 inch)
Waist = 34" (-1.5 inches)
Belly = 38" (-3 inches)
Hips = 43.5" (-1 inch)
Rt. Leg = 24" (-1 inch)
Rt. Arm = 13" (+/- 0)

Aside from the obvious annoyance of being back over 200 pounds, I am proud of these numbers. I may be back above 200 pounds but I weigh 3.2 pounds less than I did at the end of the last challenge, my body fat is lower (barely) and all of my measurements are lower (well, except my arm which is the same). I am also confident that the scale will be back below that 200 mark very soon.

I could beat myself up about that one number not being where I want it to be or I can embrace the fact that I am making positive changes in my life regardless of how long it is taking for these changes to stick! I mean, even though the number on the scale isn't what I want, I am another 8 inches smaller than March of last year. That means that since January 2018 I have lost a total of 22.25 inches. And that's why I can still see a physical difference in the comparison pics above even though the scale is only showing a 3.2 pound difference.

The challenge officially starts Monday and runs through May 6th. There will be prizes at the 8, 12, and 16 week marks. Next post I'll talk about my plan and goals for these next 16 weeks.