Day 300

Amazing. Mind boggling! Unbelievable but true! I have been on my journey to better health for 300 days as of today.  And what a journey it has been!

1. Experimenting with foods personally suited to my body.The first steps along this crazy path were determined, bold, but running in many directions.  Grain or no grain; sugar or no sugar - what was best?  Raouf got into the habit of asking how I would be eating this week every Friday night before he went grocery shopping just so he could cook the meal-of-the-moment. I survived an elimination diet before the January 1, 2012 start date and dropped 24 lb in 6 weeks.  Rapid weight loss by most measurments but I ate lots of healthy food and felt fantastic.  With the elimination diet over and my observations indicating that grain and/or sugar were not sitting well with my body, I transitoned into various eating patterns, never totally eliminating either grains or sugar but including them to some small degree each week. I gained 4 lb back and felt the panic start to grow.

Researching wisdom.  I read all kinds of articles and tried to absorb all kinds of eating style advice - Dr. Oz, online web sites, friends - all had their opinions and yes, all had something to sell even if it was just their own beliefs. I navigated this mine field of trends and suspect science with one goal - to come up with a healthy eating plan for me that could last a lifetime.

Accepting that exercise was essential to health. I also recognized for the first time that if I was going to be able to move this body at 70 I had better get with some exercise plan soon, too.  Early in my journey I was knocked flat with a torn meniscus that hampered my movement for months but slowly, and, in some ways, directly because of this injury, I have recovered and even superceded my own expectations of what I can accomplish. I finally started walking for my mind, body and spirit and fell in love with this time I could spend outside with my best friend, Raouf. We started small with 20 minutes but at Day 300 I can walk briskly for over an hour and have generally clocked 5 K per day over the last 60 days. With winter looming, I started researching other exercise regimes and now, this couch potatio granny has tried yoga, spin classes and zumba.  I am loving how my body is learning to move again, how strong I walk and, of course the 27 lb I have lost since July.  That brings my total weight loss over the past 11 months to 47 lb!!

Adopting a liveable eating plan.  I joined weight watchers and relaxed into a very liveable eating plan. The points are enough - really! And the online community of WW buddies is phenomenol! I have accepted this as my eating style for the next 60 years!

Follow through.  I have applied my original premise of the importance of follow-through.  No matter what, quitting was not an option.  No matter what food I tried, what exercise plan I adopted, I would not quit. And I haven't. Three Hundred Days of not quitting, of following through with the plan, of pushing through the frustration, of reaching out and accepting wisdom and support from family and friends, of being true to myself and living openly - being my authentic self. Three hundred days into my journey and I am finally beginning to feel like my life style is changing.  It is not hard work to eat healthy, it is fun to walk and hike and explore, and I actually get excited trying new things like yoga, spinning and zumba.

I still have a long way to go to drop the rest of the weight and I have calculated the days and pounds and have concluded I may miss the goal of not being obese on December 31 this year, but, baby, I have won the greatest prize - a healthier, happier me.  Sixty five days to go before this leg of the  journey is done but I feel like my life is just getting revved up for even greater adventures in 2013.