Positivity Pathway

It seems like a platitude. Complaining is contagious. Negative draws negative. Fortunately enough, sharing positivity breeds positivity. The whole “your vibe attracts your tribe,” is mostly true. Although, I like to think that most people are drawn to positive people regardless of their own mindset. I want to be known and then remembered for positivity. I’m ensuring I reinforce my positive thoughts so those are the thoughts that grow and flourish within me.

I’ve been using Noom for 60 days. I lost weight and inches. I have yet to compare my most recent body composition numbers for fat versus muscle comparisons. I’ve taken photos of my progress and I didn’t see the difference in my body. My midsection has changed over the year. My clothes fit loose and I’ve started getting rid of things that are a couple sizes too big. I have a way to go, but my hard work has shown through my progress.

All three of those are me. I don’t see much change.

Natural Waist, Belly Button, Largest part of my hips, weight in pounds.

There’s proof I’ve changed over the last 60 days. I’m making positive changes toward my health and wellness in addition to losing fat. I’ve slipped up a few times. Technically the numbers could be better if I hadn’t backtracked. A lot of things could be different, though. Things don’t change based on “shoulda, coulda, woulda”. They change with taking steps toward my goal and staying the course. I am better equipped to deal with my setbacks than I was at the start. I’m also more aware of where to look for support and insight.

My lessons with Noom have given me tools to deal with thought distortions in this process. The thoughts that hit me and tell me I won’t be able to sustain changing permanently. My thoughts say “I deserve to eat this thing I want.” Sometimes, I think that I’ll just gain it all back anyway. I worry that I won’t make my goal and that my effort is all for nothing. None of that is true right now and likely ever. There is no way for me to know what my results will be, but the only way to know is to stay with it and see it through.

I feel that writing things helps me put them into action.

Not every day is going to be one where I do everything I should. That doesn’t mean that the bad days are the undoing of the whole journey. I just have to treat it like an opportunity to review what went wrong and what needs to happen to minimize the chances of it happening again.

Thanks for reading! I hope this helps you somehow along your own journey through life, fitness, or whatever. I’ve started the running streak and I have a nutrition “challenge” approaching, so I’ll probably talk about that next time.

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Constant [Work In] Progress

The blog is called “Jenn’s Journey,” guys. I’ve been making progress since the start, I’ve had some digressions along the way. I’ve had some clear misses, but a lot more to celebrate.

Today, I hit 40 pounds lost on the scale. I actually lost 40 pounds of fat already, but due to muscle gain, it didn’t clearly say so on my bathroom scale. I can’t wait to have another “In Body” this week to tell me how my progress is on that.

I’m still using Noom. I enjoy it for help with eating well and managing the psychological aspect of weight loss. I study the daily lessons and I’m getting useful information from it. I’ve dealt with my cravings better and found ways to eat better while still eating whatever I want. Drawbacks within the app exist. The food tracking feature isn’t friendly to multi serving recipes and some foods are listed incorrectly. It also isn’t built around someone who is already athletic, so some lessons aren’t helpful because they revolve around adding physical activity to a sedentary lifestyle. I’ve utilized My Fitness Pal’s recipe feature to figure out calories for meals like chilli from scratch.

I haven’t been running as much since the half marathon. That’s not unusual in November of each year. I start back up at Thanksgiving for the holiday streak. I run a mile a day from Thanksgiving to New Years Day and end up stretching it to my January 5th birthday. Last year, that stretch was 39 days and I was turning 39, so I did it for that. This year, the stretch is 40 days. Obviously, I need to do it again. I ran a 5k last week that was a PR on my Garmin. I am really happy to see that my speed is improving even if my distance will be pulled back for a while. The streak keeps me running and getting fresh air; albeit very cold air.

I’ve been working out at the gym [Be Strong] nearly every day. I finally sat down with a coach and discussed how to address the things I want to improve upon. With a few key points and some direction, I have put more time into it each day and have improved in a couple areas. Some of it is simply spending a little extra time on warming up. Then, there are pull ups. I swear it’s a bad word. That hasn’t stopped me from working on being able to hang from the bar longer than before and working on the strength I need to do the movement.

I’m quite nervous about the competition that I signed up for. It happens in less than two weeks. I know I can do the workouts, but I’ve never had to do these things competitively. How do I know I won’t spaz out and mess everything up? Ugh. Mortified in front of people I know and some that I respect. That’s meant to be funny, so don’t read into it.

Anyway, pray for me. Wish me luck. Advise me with experience. Thanks for reading! I go back to work tomorrow for the first time since March. So many new things!!!