Life is Healthy

Over on my other blog, Refuse to Regain, my web partner Barbara asked readers what kinds of things they could do with their reduced bodies that they couldn’t do before. I’ve thought about it a lot since she posed the question and it seems every day I add things to my list – some very small and some quite significant.

I’m calling my list “Lynn’s Body Victories.” Entries include the obvious ones like fitting in the bathtub and sitting on my husband’s lap without suffocating him. However, I’ve also added a few less obvious ones, things I’d forgotten I couldn’t do or hadn’t paid close attention to until Barbara asked the question. I wanted to share a few of them with you in hopes that you’ll collate your own list of Body Victories and add to it at every step of your weight loss and maintenance journey.

The last few days have been a steam bath here in western PA. Temps in the upper 80s and low 90s with high humidity. I used to hate summer at any weight over 200 pounds. Absolutely dreaded it. Nothing put me in a bad mood faster than the heat. Anything above 85 degrees was a challenge to my respiratory system and sweat glands. It took a lot to cool me off. When most people went on vacation, I planned my activities around places with air conditioning. I avoided, as best I could, amusement parks, zoos, or any place where I had to walk in the sun. I was miserable and sad when it was hot and humid.

This latest heat wave, though, reminded me that the last few summers haven’t been so bad. In fact, I like being warm. I don’t mind sweating. I enjoy sitting on the porch in the afternoon and the deck in the evenings. I don’t want to be inside in the air conditioning. I prefer to sleep when it’s cool and so I sleep with the air on when it’s warm and muggy at night, but my days are better now a million fold.

One of the little things I added to my list was painting my toenails. I remember very well the days when that wasn’t comfortable or even possible. Bending over when my stomach was so large cut off my breath. Hardly worth pretty toenails. It was a pleasure to give myself a pedicure last night on the deck.

Lastly, I wore spandex bike shorts on our bike ride this morning without covering up with a loose pair of shorts. Even last year I wouldn’t have worn spandex in public because I thought, “What would people think if they saw my loose inner thigh skin? They’d react in shock and horror, no doubt!” So silly. This year, I don’t give a crap what people think about me in spandex. In fact, I’m only concerned how I feel in spandex and I think I look pretty darn good. Body Victory!

At the 8-mile mark of the particular ride my husband and I did today, the point at which we turn around and head back, there’s a significant hill. We downshift to a low gear and peddle our legs off. At the top, we’re breathing hard, reaching for our water bottles and feeling pretty damn good because we know we saved the best for last: coasting down the hill we just climbed. As I soared down that hill this morning, the wind in my face and my tires whirring under me, I celebrated the hill I climbed to lose 168 pounds because it’s been worth every fun downhill glide since then.

What’s on your Body Victory list? What do you hope to add to your Body Victory list?