Weight Loss Journey: Week 1 Update

Welcome to my weight loss journey! I’m excited to share my progress with you as I embark on this transformative adventure. This blog post marks the end of Week 1, and I can’t wait to update you on the small but significant steps I’ve taken towards achieving my goals. So, let’s dive right into it!

Setting the Stage

Coming into Week 1 of my journey, I took some time to reflect on what my vision is for this journey, identify things that I think might give me issues and set 2 S.M.A.R.T. goals for the week. Those 2 goals were:

• Park the furthest away from my office building. This will naturally add movement to my day.
• Use my allotted 30 minutes during my workday to go for a walk.

You can see the full recap in My Journey: Beginning post.

Progress Highlights

I feel like I did a great job of reaching for my Week 1 goals.

Parking further away was a great way to add in extra movement in your day. I didn’t have the effects of the day to persuade me to park closer and at the end of the day, it didn’t matter…I had to do it if I wanted to get home.

Using my allotted 30 minutes was not as easy, but I managed to use my time 4 out of the 5 days. I chose to take my allotted time for the last 30 minutes of the day. I have a strong habit of going home after work, so I told myself “First, go to the gym, then you can go home”. Associating it with a well-established habit made it less likely to forget and say “Eh, I’ll go tomorrow…”.

The last highlight I have for this week is that I lost about 1% of my body weight. At this point in my journey, I’m trying to focus on Non-Scale Victories (NSV)/goals but it’s always nice to see those translate on the scale.

Challenges Faced

One of the biggest challenges I had for this week was not feeling disappointed if I made choices that didn’t align with my journey. Snacks were especially troublesome. I have to remind myself that I won’t be perfect. I can’t reset 10 years of bad habit building in a week and Rome wasn’t built in a day!

Another challenge I noticed is trying to rationalize some bad habits using the good changes I’ve made as justification. For example, on Wednesday, I had made an extra trip to my vehicle to eat lunch out. At the end of the day, I caught myself thinking “I walked more than I usually would at lunch. It’s ok to skip the gym”. Another one is eating a healthy mean justifying eating unhealthy snacks later. This is the struggle of my old self hanging on while I step into the new me. I have to keep my vision in mind every day. Remind myself why the old me has to go. It will get easier as the “New Me” becomes just “Me”.

The last challenge I want to mention is my legs did end up sore by the end of each day that I did have walking sessions. Any time one of your goals causes physical pain, it can be tempting to say I can’t do this. Where’s my “Old self”. The thing to remember is that this pain is temporary! Our bodies are amazing at adapting to what you ask of it. Just listen to it and keep nudging your comfort zone. One thing I would definitely recommend is that you consult your health care provider and make a plan for any changes you make.

Lessons Learned

Having a support and accountability system in place is paramount. My wife encouraged me along and looking for like-minded people through this blog and my Facebook page has done wonders in keeping me motivated.

Well-defined long-term vision and short-term goals really helped move through the hard parts of the week. Knowing what I was trying to accomplish, and why, was extremely helpful. Also knowing that I would be reflecting on the week and would be updating my Goals each week as a result allowed me to think “Just make it through this week and we can see if it’s worth continuing”.

Looking Ahead

For Week 2 of my journey, I want to continue working on moving more. I also want to start to look at dietary changes. Goals:

• Move more than I did this past week. My walking sessions started at lasting 11 minutes, and I’ve worked up to 16 minutes. I’d like to see it in the 25–30-minute range by the end of the week.
• Drink at least 64oz of water. I currently don’t think I drink enough water. Increasing how much water I drink a day has a host of benefits, such as curbing appetite.

Final Thoughts

Week 1 was a massive success! Great strides in meeting the S.M.A.R.T. goals I set out for the week were made. I’m taking small steps to start this journey and I appreciate each and every one of yall for joining me! Hope you’ve had a great week as well! Let’s keep moving forward! See you at the next update!