March Health Journey 2021: Set Points and Set Backs

Main goal this month... be real with myself.

Be honest.

What are my weaknesses? 

What keeps tripping me up?

This last month didn't quite go as planned.  A couple things fell into place for this to happen.  First of all was all that walking I did last December.  To achieve the 153 mile goal in December, to guarantee 500 miles in 2020, I was walking/Biking/Ellipticaling 3-4 hours a day.  It was too much.  I crashed in the beginning of January.  Picked myself up and started working out again, and then got off track again after getting back from St. George at the end of January.  What followed was a couple weeks of depression and an anxiety attack.

During this whole time I didn't weigh myself, trying to distance myself from the value of numbers.  It also meant that I wasn't keeping myself in check.  Also during this time, which started in December when my Grandma passed, I started eating chocolate mindlessly.  There was a lot of chocolate in the house, and I was eating it here and there just not thinking about it.  It wasn't until a week ago that I realized chocolate was affecting me.  I'm not an over eater.  I don't snack.  I don't eat late.  But... I mindlessly eat chocolate.  

A week ago I grabbed the scale to get a reality check and... I've topped my highest weight ever.  My feelings are mixed: Anger, frustration, and numbness.

I'm not treating chocolate like the enemy.  Chocolate is okay, but what I'm not going to allow is mindless eating.  Chocolate will be saved for special treats.

Also, having the reaction to carrots a couple months ago really set me back.  After going through what I went through while overcoming Interstitial Cystitis, which created food fears and caused me to gain 40 pounds in a year because I couldn't exercise without causing pain, I was suddenly fearing food again.  Oh, that pain the carrot caused was the worst in years.  I don't want to fear food.  (I'm not quite in the clear with IC, but it is so, so, sooooooooooooo much better.  I have a life again.)

I've been researching set points, and I'm just confused about it.  It feels like this theory is legit, because it explains what I've been through for the last several years.  Literally every single international trip I took from 2015-2019 I weighed the exact weight nearly to the ounce, every single trip, and that's with exercising, watching what I eat, etc.  I'm terrified my set point has shifted upwards.  I don't want to think about it.  But I have watched a couple videos that say it is a theory and that some people don't quite believe it.  I want to believe there's hope.

So pretty much this month is working in getting back on track with exercising, and not overdoing it!!!!  No more burnouts.  The Route 66 goal for the end of the year has been pushed back to June of 2022, an extra 6 months.  Just do the work, no stress.  

Weight loss is a marathon, not a sprint.

Sarah